“Merciful Substitution”: A Comparative-Theological Appraisal of George Hunsinger’s Philippians from an Evangelical Reformed Perspective

This article consists of a comparative-theological appraisal of George Hunsinger’s Philippians in the Brazos Theological Commentary series. My aim is to bring the author’s constructive proposal of the doctrine of “merciful substitution” into dialogue with the evangelical notion of penal substitution. I will show that Hunsinger is largely in agreement with at least the wing of evangelicalism represented by followers of Geerhardus Vos like Richard Gaffin and G. K. Beale. I will present the case of John Owen and resort to the Canons of Dort to show that in this strain of evangelical theology, penal substitution describes only one aspect of the exchange of righteousness and guilt through participation. What evangelicals can learn from Hunsinger’s commentary, I will argue, is his relentless effort to formulate the doctrine of substitutionary atonement within an explicitly Nicene-Chalcedonian framework.