Atonement

Salvation is reconciliation,¹ an interpersonal process accomplished by interpersonal means² in the interpersonal realm. God’s response to human sin has been remedial, not just just punitive.

            Since the Reformation, a common understanding of Christ’s atonement work considers his righteousness as a substitute for ours and his death as a substitute for our death as punishment for our sin. The comments below shoulder a negative burden of proof to show that the penal substitution understanding is foreign to atonement theory unless we adopt the rest of Calvin’s legal theological method, where penal substitution would make sense. The thesis here is that substitutionary atonement theory does not belong in non-non-legal theology.

I. Common Ground

We all believe that (1) salvation means being brought back into personal relationship with God (reconciliation). In this respect, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 stands out by using reconciliation repeatedly to describe the nature and purpose of Christian mission: “ . . . in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself . . . having given us the ministry of reconciliation” (5:19).1 

   Introduction

Introduction

I. Identification as the Whole Basis

            In identification atonement theory, “identification” means more than identifying with Christ from our own side so God will count Christ’s atoning death as a substitute for our own death. That leaves substitution—or whatever—as the operative mechanism. Identification likewise is not just God’s viewing us from his side as connected with Christ. Identification in these senses fits with any theory of the atonement. Identification would merely connect the sinner with Christ—in the sinner’s mind and God’s mind—in anticipation of whatever mechanism then removed the penalty: ransom, substitute, or conquest. Identification would not replace or obviate some additional operation after the subjective and objective connection.

Introduction

            “Identification with Christ” refers to a complex of factors within the reality of personal relationship, which we are calling interpersonalism. Interpersonalism is a worldview that considers persons in relationship as the highest frame of reference. That reality includes aspects like the following.

Introduction