McKnight: The Achievement of the Cross
Here is a nice quote from Scot McKnight’s book A Community Called Atonement. This appears on page 69, at the end of Chapter 9 on the Crucifixion theme in the New Testament account of atonement. I changed the formatting so that the first part appears as a list.
I suggest that we see the achievement of the cross in three expressions:
- Jesus dies “with us” — entering into our evil and our sin and our suffering to subvert it and create a new way;
- Jesus dies “instead of us” — he enters into our sin, our wrath, our death; and
- Jesus dies “for us” — his death forgives our sin, “declares us right,” absorbs the wrath of God against us, and creates a new life where there once was only death.
Not only is this death saving, this same death becomes the paradigm for an entirely new existence that is shaped, as Luther said of theology and life, by the cross. A life shaped by the cross is a life bent on dying daily to self in order to love God, self, others, and the world. And a life shaped by the cross sees in the cross God becoming the victim, identifying with the victim, suffering injustice, and shaping a cruciform pattern of life for all who follow Jesus. The cross reshapes all of life.
More from this blog
Charles Wesley: “O Love Divine, What Hast Thou Done?”
Rob Bell: The Cross
A Prayer from the Darkness – Psalms 25:16-18
Pannenberg: The Cross & Resurrection
Standing Before the Cross
Morgan Guyton: Four Cringe-worthy Claims of Popular Penal Substitution Theology
Is The Evangelical Movement Crumbling?
A Savior- The Goodness of God’s Creation
- The Cross: the Means of Reconciliation – Colossians 1:21-23
Sexual Abuse and the Church
Quotes From Some Books I’ve Been Reading
I have just completed a free ebook entitled “Achieving Atonement” which presents a new model of atonement that aims to be biblical, ethical, reasonable, comprehensive, ecumenical, and to avoid the problems of traditional atonement theories while retaining their truths. The book explains how God is achieving atonement and the place of Christ’s violent death on the cross. It seems obvious to me that the ongoing presence of sin and evil in the world is a denial that atonement has been achieved. My book may be downloaded for various eReaders at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/838364. A PDF version with numbered pages may be downloaded from http://www.5icm.org.au/Resources/Achieving_Atonement_-_Derek_Thompson.pdf.