Steve Jeffery, one of three authors of Pierced for Our Transgressions, was kind enough to allow a brief interview.
QUESTION: Steve, I also studied Materials Science and Physics, so I was wondering if you could tell us a bit about how it was that you sensed God calling you to serve Him in full-time Christian ministry.
JEFFERY: I’d been thinking about how best I could serve the Lord for a few years, and as I came to the end of my postgraduate studies I began to wonder about the possibility of full-time ministry. I was quite nervous about the idea, and felt very ill-equipped for the task, but I was excited about the prospect and a couple of friends were encouraging me in that direction. I decided to take a junior job at a church for a couple of years, both to get some training and experience and also to allow some time to assess with the help of others whether I had the right gifts for the task. The elders and congregation encouraged me to continue in full-time ministry, my wife Nicole was also 100% supportive, and I felt increasingly sure that this would be a good way for me to serve Christ’s church. So I went to Oak Hill Theological College to begin training in 2003.
QUESTION: What made you decide to go to Oak Hill for theological training?
JEFFERY: When I was looking for somewhere to train, Oak Hill stood out as by far the best theological college in the UK. After four years there my opinion hasn’t changed – it’s a fantastic place to study, the faculty are outstanding teachers and role models, the facilities are first class, and there is a wonderful unity among everyone there.
QUESTION: Walk us through your own journey on the issue of penal substitution. Was this doctrine clear in your mind throughout your Christian life, or is it something you came to believe over time?
JEFFERY: I was converted during my first couple of years as an undergraduate, and shortly afterwards read John Stott’s wonderful book The Cross of Christ. This helped me to see right from the start of my Christian life the central place of the doctrine of penal substitution in the biblical picture of the atonement. As time passed, of course, I encountered challenges to this view from a variety of sources. But in truth, the critics always seemed either to misunderstand the doctrine or to misinterpret the Bible. It’s been great to look again at this great truth in more detail during the last couple of years. Mike, Andrew and I have all found our confidence in penal substitution strengthened as we’ve looked again at the biblical witness.
QUESTION: Why did you decide to write Pierced For Our Transgressions?
JEFFERY: We decided to write Pierced For Our Transgressions because we saw the need to strengthen those who believe this vital doctrine, and to answer those who oppose it. Too often people have drifted from this vital truth without realizing the implications of doing so. Too often people have criticized this doctrine on the basis of a grotesque caricature of what it actually entails. Too often people have failed to see the breadth of biblical support for penal substitution, the richness of its historical pedigree, and the strength of its theological connections with other vital biblical truths. Too often faithful believers have been bludgeoned into submission by critics of penal substitution, many of whom are in positions of leadership in churches and theological colleges. We felt that the time had come to do something–to re-state the truth, to correct the caricatures, and to answer the objections head-on.
QUESTION: What effects is the lack of clarity on penal substitution having on the church in England?
JEFFERY: The rejection of penal substitutionary atonement by many English churches is part of a much wider set of issues.
The majority of churches in England don’t accept the authority of the Bible. It’s as simple as that. Once that error is in place, of course, a whole range of other issues are bound to follow. In recent decades we’ve witnessed denials of the uniqueness of Christ, skepticism about the bodily resurrection of Christ, the increasing acceptance and endorsement of sexual immorality, to name just a few examples. The denial of penal substitution is just another effect of this rejection of biblical authority, and has been commonplace in liberal theology for well over a century.
However, in the last twenty years or so, challenges to penal substitution have begun to be heard from church leaders and theologians who would call themselves evangelical. This is a new and very worrying development, and is part of an increasing ‘dilution’ of evangelical doctrinal distinctiveness in the UK and elsewhere.
Basically, much of the church – even some parts of the ‘evangelical’ church – are becoming increasingly conformed to the world. Churches that follow this course will, in the end, have nothing distinctive to say to the world at all. I think this means they’ll probably decline eventually, because their mission to the world will have no real content. In the meantime, however, many thousands of ordinary Christian believers find themselves confused and misled by the doctrinal slackness of their leaders.
QUESTION: I think many of us on the western side of the pond see England (and Europe in general) as fairly apostate. Is that accurate? Or do you perhaps see a resurgence in biblical orthodoxy?
JEFFERY: Yes, that’s accurate. Please pray for us.
However, at least in England (I know a lot less about the rest of Europe) there are an increasing number of encouraging signs. First, evangelical churches are growing very rapidly, both in size and in number. In particular, a number of churches are seeing the need and the opportunities for church planting, so our gospel witness is becoming more effective as we seek to reach out to new communities and in new ways.
Secondly, the resurgence of Oak Hill Theological College in the last decade, first under the leadership of David Peterson and now with Mike Ovey as the new Principal, has had an immeasurably positive effect on the church throughout the country. The training at Oak Hill is absolutely first-class in every way – it’s academically rigorous, pastorally relevant, and offers a range of courses in pastoral ministry, children’s and youth ministry, and mission. It’s hard to overestimate the positive effect of Oak Hill on the UK evangelical scene.
QUESTION: What type of ministry are you involved in now that you’ve left Oak Hill?
JEFFERY: I’m now the Assistant Pastor of Holy Trinity Church, Lyonsdown, in North London. It’s an exciting and rapidly-growing church, and the congregation includes people of all ages from every walk of life. At the moment my ministry includes everything you’d normally find in a growing church – a mixture of prayer, preaching, teaching, one-to-one Bible reading and pastoral ministry. I’m also responsible for writing the Bible study materials for our mid-week fellowship groups, and I teach an introductory course in Greek, biblical studies and doctrine to some of the other staff at the church.
The longer-term plan, God willing, is for me to lead a church plant in two years time. We’re only in the planning stages at the moment, but it’s an exciting prospect for the whole church as we seek to take the gospel of Christ to the city around us.