Atonement

Leon Morris once suggested that "the atonement is the crucial doctrine of the faith" and that "unless we are right here it matters little . . . what we are like elsewhere" ( The Cross in the New Testament , p. 5). He is surely right. But the saving work Christ accomplished on the cross has been...

Preaching "Christ and him crucified" is core to the job description of any minister of the Christian gospel (1 Corinthians 2:2). Good Friday drives this home more than any other day in the church calendar. On that day, the preacher's task is to proclaim and explain why the bloody spectacle of the...

Inter Varsity Press (UK) have made this announcement in the last couple of weeks regarding a merger with SPCK. It's pretty depressing news, which appears, in many ways, to be driven by market forces and the need to survive. The official announcement states ' SPCK will ensure IVP is fully resourced...

Historical theology is an important discipline for the church. There are views that have been held by Reformed theologians in the past that I don't necessarily agree with, but must nevertheless do my best to understand so that I know precisely what I'm disagreeing with. Regarding the atonement, I...

An important biblical theological idea emerges out of Paul's use of Deuteronomy 21:23 in Galatians 3:13. In the middle of the most polemical book in the New Testament, Paul made the astounding declaration: "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is...

An important biblical theological idea emerges out of Paul's use of Deuteronomy 21:23 in Galatians 3:13. In the middle of the most polemical book in the New Testament, Paul made the astounding declaration: "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is...

For this my inaugural post as a Ref21 blogger, I want first of all to thank Derek Thomas and Jeremy Smith for their gracious invitation to join this august group. Although I'm sure I won't be able to match either the verve or the volume of our friend Carl Trueman and his various alter egos, I hope...

As we come to the third and final segment in this series on the atonement, it would be good to remind ourselves where we have been. In this way we will have some idea of where we are going and of how to assess the way that the church has understood the cross of Christ. We saw how the atonement made...

Recap Previously we examined the place of the atonement in the covenant theology that unfolds for us in the pages of the Scriptures. We discovered that there were three theological covenants [1]: the covenant of redemption that occurred between the three members of the Trinity in eternity, the...