Another argument against penal substitution and similar atonement theories

Consider for the moment the fact that Jesus is the exact representation of God's nature (Hebrews 1:4). We may pull from that the fact that Jesus acts in every way the Father would, within the limitations of humanity of course. So, however Jesus acts we would conclude that God would act in the same manner.

Notice then Jesus on the cross. He was put up there unjustly. While up on the cross, Jesus asks the Father to forgive those who were crucifying them because they did not understand what they were doing. Implicit in this, of course, is the fact that Jesus had forgiven them. And yet, this forgiveness was given to those who had rejected Him as the Messiah.

If God's forgiveness is procured by satisfying His wrath, then we have a problem with the forgiveness of God the Father and the forgiveness of Jesus. Lets look at some solutions some might propose.

1) That God forgives on the basis of the satisfaction of His wrath, but Jesus can forgive without that - However, Jesus asks for forgiveness for those whom had rejected Him as Messiah, and thus one can not say that they are atoned by Jesus' sacrifice. The problem with this is that it paints a separate picture of the Father and Jesus. They are not of the exact same nature. Furthermore, one might say that Jesus is even more righteous than God the Father.

2) Jesus did not forgive them - First off, the idea that Jesus would as God to forgive someone He would not seems contradictory. Furthermore, this also paints Jesus as not knowing the nature of God because He would ask forgiveness of those when He Himself had not forgive them.

3) Jesus is predicting their future forgiveness -This denies the nature of the plea. It is a request to God, not a prediction.

4) The type of forgiveness asked for is a different type of forgiveness than the forgiveness of eternal salvation - This makes an artificial distinction between types of forgiveness no where mentioned in the Bible, and supposes that one type of forgiveness is drastically different from another form.

5) All people are forgiven - This presupposed a universal redemption, which I will not argue against here other than to say that it isn't Biblical.

The easiest understanding of the event and its implications is that Jesus had forgiven them who were not currently atoned for, and that God having the same nature does not forgive by having His wrath satisfied.