Each of these theories tells us something true about the cross—how it works and what it accomplishes. Each of these theories, however, lacks elements that the others include, and hence choosing one minimizes the expansiveness of atonement. I don’t believe we should ask, “Which of these is my favorite?” or answer, “I’ll choose this one.” Rather, what we most need is an encompassing theory that includes them all! That encompassing theory is the King and His Kingdom Story that brings all of the benefits mentioned at the end of each theory (and surely even more than those benefits).
The singular problem with atonement theories is this: each starts with a problem (our human condition, our enslavement to sin and Satan, our guilt and incapacity to honor God, our sin and guilt, and death and divine wrath) but only resolves that problem. Each theory is tied exclusively to the redemptive-benefits theory and not connected enough to the King and His Kingdom Story. Humans are in a complex problem, and so the solution requires a complex atonement. Forcing everything into one of these metaphors of atonement, or atonement theories, forces words to say things they can’t say or do. So we need a more encompassing theory, and that theory is the King and His Kingdom Story. Before we show how the Story is sufficient for the complexity of the problem, I want to put on the table a few New Testament texts.
Vital Texts for Understanding Atonement in the Story
First, Passover-Exodus-Covenant texts. Three texts that speak of the atonement in terms of the Story of the Passover and the exodus appear in Mark 10:45, Matthew 26:26–29, and 1 Corinthians 5:7. These verses need to be quoted here and read carefully:
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45, emphasis added)
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” (Matthew 26:26–29, emphasis added)
Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. (1 Corinthians 5:7, emphasis added)
These texts do not begin where any theory of atonement begins because atonement theories abstract the problem from the human condition and from the divine nature rather than from the specific story from which these verses come. The Story out of which these passages come is the story of a community: that is, from Israel’s enslavement in Egypt, God’s merciful liberation of Israel through Passover, and the exodus and the covenant ceremony in the wilderness at Mount Sinai. Summaries of atonement theories don’t emphasize these terms enough and sometimes ignore them altogether: Israel as community, enslavement, Passover, exodus, wandering, covenant.
Second, Victory texts. One of the great themes about the redemptive benefits of Jesus, which means his incarnation, his life, teachings, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and second coming, is victory for the people of God. I cite Colossians 2:13–15 first.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Colossians 2:13–15)
In his death and resurrection, both of which are emphasized in Colossians 2 and 3, Jesus ended our death by dying instead of us and for us, and he was raised from the dead. His resurrection “made you alive,” and through the death and resurrection God “forgave us all our sins” and “canceled the charge” against us that derived from the law. Not only that, in his death and resurrection, Jesus conquered “the powers and authorities,” which are evil spiritual beings and their social-political grip in the world. At the cross he “triumphed” over them. We need to observe that an atonement theory that does not directly speak to the story of human enslavement, systemic evil and injustice, spiritual powers at work in this world, and conquering them and gaining victory over them is not a biblical atonement theory.
Now we turn to the book of Revelation. Fifteen times the word “conquer” appears—and that means victory over the principalities and powers was very important to John, and he knows that the atonement of Christ was a colossal triumph.
Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” (Revelation 5:5)
They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death. (12:11)
They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers. (17:14)
Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. (21:7)
Jesus is in a battle with Satan and his cohorts; Jesus finally wins. In addition, the book of Revelation describes the people of God sharing in that victory by remaining faithful and by suffering and by obedience to the conquering Lamb. Again, one of the achievements of the cross is victory over the evil prince, Satan, and those who swear allegiance to Satan.
Third, Forgiveness-Reconciliation texts. At the heart of atonement is forgiveness, a term in the Bible that is wide-ranging enough to speak of God’s forgiving a nation as well as a repentant sinner. Jesus rolls the first ball onto the court in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our debts [transgressions, sins], as we also have forgiven our debtors [those who transgress or sin against us]” (Matthew 6:12). And then there’s this famous comment that shows divine forgiveness of us and our forgiving of others are tied into a single knot: “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14–15). When Peter summarized the redemptive benefits of Jesus, here are his words: “All the prophets testify about [Jesus] that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins” (Acts 10:43). Paul in Colossians summarizes Jesus’s achievement at the cross with these words: “in whom we have redemption,” which is “the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14). Any atonement theory that neglects sin and forgiveness fails to tell the Bible’s King and His Kingdom Story.
I think too of Colossians 1:15–20, which many think is an early Christian hymn used in worship in early house churches. Here are some of its words about the redemptive benefits of the King and His Kingdom Story: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:19–20). God’s reconciling work concerns “all things” and that means “things on earth or things in heaven” and what the cross achieves is “making peace.” This is why Paul earlier said “that God was reconciling the world to himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19, emphasis added), and he chased that one down with: “And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation” (5:19). At the heart of the cross is reconciliation of all things in all creation with God, who reveals himself fully in Christ, the King who summons you and me to be agents of reconciliation in the world.
We could pull out hundreds of verses, but all we need here is to illustrate the diversity of themes present when it comes to the cross: we have slavery and Passover with covenant and law, as well as evil and systemic evil connected to supernatural evil beings
and victory, but also law and condemnation with erasure of debts or sin and forgiveness along with enmity and reconciliation and our need to become agents of reconciliation. There are others, like the Levitical sacrificial system and the Day of Atonement, and we could go on. Atonement theories, I am saying, are way too short for the tall order of comprehending the glory of the atonement in the Bible. Atonement needs to be removed from atonement theories and located in the King and His Kingdom Story if we want to locate the redemptive benefits of the cross properly.
The Atonement in the King and His Kingdom Story
The General Plot of the Bible, as explained earlier, is Theocracy, Monarchy, and then Christocracy. The central concern of the Bible is God’s gracious and good rule over all creation and especially over God’s people, Israel, and then the church. The Bible’s Story under Theocracy reveals very quickly—Genesis 3—that Adam and Eve, who represent Israel and also all humans, slide over to live outside God’s rule by choosing to listen to the words of the Evil One, the serpent (Satan), instead of to the words of God. They turn against one another; they are banned from Eden; they are in search of Eden from that moment on. Soon, to lead them back to Eden or toward the kingdom, God makes a covenant with Abraham to establish a community of the covenant who are to live obediently under God’s rule and find forgiveness from God for their disobedience. In a sad imitation of Adam and Eve, however, Samuel tells God that Israel would rather have a human king instead of “just” a divine king, and God lets them have their way. Under a Monarchy, life is no better and at times it’s worse: their kings can be corrupt, their institutions polluted, their morals defective, and their borders porous. Israel needs redemption; Israel needs the kingdom; Israelites need redemption; the world too needs redemption. Monarchy does not bring what is most needed. So the prophets announce God’s will and predict the coming of a great king, the Messiah, who will forgive the people and teach them the full will of God and establish the kingdom and lead the community to that kingdom. When Jesus comes—and here we must say this means his incarnation, his life and teachings and ministry, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension—Christocracy is formed. This means that God is once again ruling—Jesus speaks constantly of the Kingdom of God because it is no longer a Monarchy but a Theocracy in incarnate form. This also means that both national and personal redemption have come for God’s people. This people is to live under a Christocracy as it worships God, as it obeys the King, as it witnesses to the world of the world’s one true King Jesus, and as it waits for the fullness of the Kingdom of God (the new heaven and the new earth).
A biblical atonement theory has to fit into this Story of Theocracy, Monarchy, and Christocracy. Instead of arguing that one atonement theory is the best, it is better to show how the various themes at work in the various atonement theories appear and find their resolution in the King and His Kingdom Story. So, to this we must now proceed.
First, we need to know that the goal of God’s plan for all creation is the kingdom, the new heaven and the new earth. That kingdom, as already stated, is made of a king (Father, Son, Spirit) who redeems a community (Israel, church) so they can enjoy God’s gracious, peaceful, and just rule in God’s special place for them (land, New Jerusalem) as that redeemed people know God, worship God, love God, and do God’s good will through the gracious empowerment of the Spirit. In other words, the solution is the King and His Kingdom. The redemptive benefits of God’s work in King Jesus are all designed to usher cracked Eikons, sinners, into this new people of God and participate in knowing, worshiping, loving, and obeying God. The King and His Kingdom Story is the Bible’s one and only General Plot.
Second, humans resist God’s will, refuse allegiance to King Jesus, and jeopardize their location in God’s Kingdom. To discipline the resisters of God’s will/law, God sometimes exiles them, and that is why enslavement is such an important theme in the Bible. The children of Israel were exiled into slavery three different times in the Bible: in Egypt, in Assyria, and in Babylon. New Testament sinners are also enslaved to the powers and principalities, structures and beings that turn God’s good ways into evil’s bad ways. These exiles are dramatic embodiments of the condition established for those who sin, for those who refuse to live under God’s rule in the Theocracy, under God’s or the king’s rule in Monarchy, and King Jesus’s rule in the Christocracy. Hence, the Bible explores a variety of words for “sin,” words like rebellion, infidelity, disloyalty, ingratitude, pollution, wandering, trespass, transgress, and failure.2 A capsule summary word in the New Testament is “sin,” but this term folds into the mix all the above terms and more. Our problem then is not simply failure to obey God but a complex set of ways we find to evade God’s will and resist God’s Spirit and rebel against King Jesus. From this sin condition we need redemption.
Third, the atonement itself is a death on the cross that was anticipated by millions of sacrifices in Israel’s history. If we explore the mechanics of atonement—how it happens—we do it through the central consequence of sin: death. Time and time again Israel’s sacrificial system put animals to death as acts of atonement. The punishment for sin is death, so the enemy is death and the need is for death to be undone. To do this, Jesus must enter into death—this is what Romans 6 is all about—to look it in the face, absorb death itself by dying, but turning death inside out into eternal life by the resurrection. The death of an animal, the Passover blood smeared on a door, the Day of Atonement, the wrath and disciplinary exile of God against the rebellion of the people of God, the many sacrifices of blood in the Old Testament system of sacrifice and atonement . . . these and other indicators, like the suffering of the Son of Man and the suffering of the Servant of Isaiah, are the indicators and anticipators of the atonement of how God will deal death to death and turn death into life by the power of God’s Spirit resurrecting Jesus and giving to us life in his resurrection.
Fourth, the atonement of God in Christ, which brings to completion the atoning acts of God throughout the entire Old Testament, aims to erase the above problems and create new people for the new heaven and the new earth. Once the problem (sin) is defined in a complex way, the atonement’s solution—the redemptive benefits of the King and His Kingdom—becomes just as complex. I quote John Goldingay for getting this right and saying it better than I can (I reformat his words into an outline and put in bold the consequences of the sin).
God’s act of atonement in Christ was designed to deal with the deep and incurable sinfulness of humanity which expresses itself in:
1. rebellion against God’s authority,
2. infidelity which issues in breakdown of the relationship,
3. disloyalty which has interrupted a friendship,
4. ingratitude which has imperiled love,
5. stain which has rendered humanity repulsive,
6. perversity which has landed us in exile,
7. offensiveness which has put us in debt,
8. lawlessness which has made us guilty,
9. and failure which leaves us far short of our destiny.3
King Jesus addresses all this and more in his incarnation, his life, his death, his burial, his resurrection, and his ascension. As the one true King, he heals us of all these conditions, and through the Spirit—another element of the gospel ignored in many atonement theories—he re-creates us to be “new creations” who can live under his gracious, loving, peaceful, and just rule with unflinching, joyous allegiance. Atonement then is not just about erasing these sins but creating the true virtues on the far side of forgiveness:
1. Obedience
2. Faithfulness
3. Allegiance
4. Gratitude
5. Purity
6. Following Jesus into the Kingdom
7. Containment by the will of God
8. Law-abiding from the heart
9. Achieving our purpose
And if I summarize this, it means we are new creations who love God, love ourselves, love others, love the people
of God, and love all of God’s creation. Atonement is designed to create these kinds of new creations.
It will not do then to limit atonement theory to one problem—say “debt” or “guilt”—and then construct a mini-story that deals with that problem as if it is the whole problem. Nor will it do to stop with the elimination of the consequence of sin, be that God’s judgment in its various forms including the sentence of guilty, enmity, wrath, or falling short. No, we need to see sin and its consequences being erased through the whole Christ for the whole world and the whole person so the whole world and the whole person can be what God designed each to be.
Finally, the atonement is about rescuing humans from one condition (sin) and relocating them in a new condition (the kingdom of God). The King and His Kingdom Story, if it does anything for our Bible reading, presents before our eyes a people of God living under the rule of God (Father, Son, Spirit) in a given location (our local church in our local community as it connects to the whole church in the whole world). This people swears allegiance alone to King Jesus and lives under his rule by following his teachings by the power of the Spirit. The new creation then is both personal/individual and corporate. New creation is as much about the body of Christ, the church in the world, as it is about you and me experiencing personal conversion.
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