Believing "that" Jesus saves us is the most important thing, but what we believe about "how" Jesus saves us is important, too. The following is a contrast between two different understandings of "how" Jesus saves us. In the the first view, most commonly called penal substitution, God punishes Jesus instead of punishing us. In other words, Jesus saves us from God.

 

In the second view, called developmental substitution, God becomes a human being to heal the brokenness in human nature. By uniting his divine nature with human nature, Jesus was able to pioneer and perfect a new humanity within himself, transforming it into what God always intended for us to become. Jesus is the doctor who becomes the patient, acquires our disease, and develops the cure within himself. Now, by the Spirit, he invites us to participate in his new humanity, carrying us through the same transformative process that he himself has already completed within himself.