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The Atonement and Christian Life, Adam Johnson (Baker: 2024)

This book is part of a series that aims to look at the Christian life through the lens of several doctrines related to the Christian experience of salvation, with an impetus towards praise and worship. Hence the Series title Soteriology and Doxology.

Does this book achieve those aims? Yes, but with reservations. First the significant positives:

The Introduction explains several of the key concepts required to understand the need for, and the nature of atonement. Johnson makes a case for thinking of atonement as an event of healing that reaches from the human heart to the whole creation. In Jesus, God heals what has been broken and diseased by sin and its persistent and pervasive evil consequences. The person and work of Jesus in bearing the deathly consequences of sin on the cross (sickness unto death), and overcoming death by his resurrection (healing), is God’s great act of atonement.

The format of all the books in the series is quite prescriptive. Each volume explores the respective doctrine by its location in the creedal tradition (Apostle’s Creed in this case), by establishing its foundations in scripture, then showing how the doctrine develops in the tradition history of the church, before offering a contemporary and constructive account, and finishing by demonstrating the leverage the doctrine has on the lived experience of Christian faith. All of this Johnson achieves, at times with verve and a freshness of approach that genuinely engages the reader in reflective praise.

The chapter on the Apostle’s Creed is an exposition of atonement refracted through each clause – it is a mini education in crucicentric dogmatics. Scriptural warrant for a theology of atonement is woven through such concepts as covenant, law, Sabbath, sacrifice, temple, land and exodus. The chapter on the history of the doctrine is an overview of fruitful developments and wrong turnings, including a more sympathetic account of Abelard. The constructive chapter majors on the Trinitarian implications of atonement, and especially clarifying the often understated role of the Holy Spirit in the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus. This was a key chapter for me, an argument that rebalances the inseparable operations of the Triune God.

It is the final chapter over which I hesitated most. The intention was to argue that the atonement in the Christian life is a living into the forgiveness, reconciliation and impetus towards unity in Christ made possible by believers ‘being in Christ’. Much of what is said in this chapter presupposes a Christian community, forgiveness and reconciliation as imperatives for all who constitute the Body of Christ. That case is both obvious and in need of constant repeating, and it is well stated here.

But in this chapter, despite making the carefully argued case for repentance, accountability, and restored relationships through frank acknowledgement of wrong, I am left with a quandary. What is forgiveness, what does it achieve, why is it imperative, when we encounter the person who is intransigent, unrepentant, or even convinced they have done nothing wrong? In other words, when Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”, does that mean that forgiveness from the forgiver’s side is not conditioned by the attitude of the person who has wronged us? I think it does mean that.

But that in turn raises, for me at least, the possibility that Johnson’s account lacks the possibility of radical cost, leaving unconsidered the scandal of forgiveness as unconditioned goodwill, as costly perseverance in love when there is no reciprocal response. Do we go on loving our enemies when they still hate us, and does that love really, and truly, require persistent forgiveness, to seventy times seven? I think Jesus meant exactly that.

There is a Doxological Interlude at the end of each chapter, a short quotation from various sources that leads the mind from intellectual engagement to praise and worship. There are useful indices of subject, author and Scripture, and a fine Bibliography – these are important as further research tools. Adam Johnson is an accomplished theologian whose other work on the atonement includes a very fine book, The Atonement: A Guide for the Perplexed; he also edited the massive T&T Clark Companion to the Atonement. This more accessible book is an excellent starting place and a rewarding companion to these two more substantial volumes.       

Monday

Matthew 4.3-4 ”The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’ Jesus answered, ‘It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Words matter. With words we tell truth or lie, we heal or wound, we lift up or humiliate, we inform or mislead. The life we lead can be indexed to the words we say, and the words we say reflect back on the God we serve. Jesus’ answer to the temptation to bend the world to his own interests was not to abuse the power of words, but to listen to what God says. Obedience to God starts with careful listening to God’s words and finding in God’s Word the way, the truth and the life.

Tuesday

Matthew 12. 33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognised by its fruit.”

Matthew 12.33-37 contains some of Jesus’ most uncompromising words about human speech. Christians are called to live into a Christ-like ethic of speech, to be the kind of people who speak the language of the Kingdom of God. “Speak unto others as you would have others speak unto you” should be a post-it on the keyboard or phone screen. Would we change our ways with words if the fruit of the Spirit were introduced as quality control? If a mind is truthful, and a heart compassionate, then words display the fruit of integrity, kindness, trustworthiness and relation building.

Wednesday

Matthew 12.34 “You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil, say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.”

Jesus is addressing religious leaders who are out to get him any way they can. They distort his words, twist the truth, present ‘alternative facts’, and use their power to try to silence the truth. In our time, when someone is criticised for saying something truly offensive they apologise and say “That’s not who I am.” That is not repentance. That is denial – “out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” What we speak is an index of who we are inside, how we think and feel, how we view other people. The words we speak are the audible fruit of our inner life. Our words matter!

Thursday

Matthew 12.35 “The good person brings good things out of the good stored up in them, and the evil person brings evil out of the evil stored in them.”

What do you sound like when you speak? Do you ever play back in your head what you shouldn’t have said? I do, and sometimes it involves an apology. At the very least, repentance for words we have spoken, that have hurt or diminished others, should involve our honest recognition that we did indeed speak those words. To say “I didn’t mean it!” may be true, with hindsight. But at the time the person on the receiving end heard it as meant. Perhaps we could use this prayer: “May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord.”

Friday

Matthew 12.36-37 “But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

This is one of the most serious and searching sayings of Jesus. It is first spoken to powerful people. ‘Empty’ words are those that add nothing to the wellbeing of those who hear them. That includes, but is not limited to, inciting hatred, outspoken ridicule, articulated racism, truth-twisting to deceive, sarcasm that wounds, gossip that damages reputations – every word that makes life harder or less safe, that aims to diminish rather than affirm, that is intentionally offensive or abusive, every one of them will have to be accounted for. I genuinely tremble for much of the speech that has become characteristic and normalised within our society. “Lord have mercy.”  

Saturday

Colossians 3. 17 “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Words and deeds go together. Actions speak louder than words, sometimes. Words are themselves speech acts, they do things and get things done. Both words and deeds spring from the heart, and a Christian heart is already given. Words and deeds are done in the name of the Lord Jesus. Speech and behaviour are the outflow of the love of God poured into our hearts, and so our words and actions are to be formed in minds and hearts responsive to the grace that has forgiven, renewed and enabled our whole being. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly”. So speak, and so act.

Sunday

May the mind of Christ my Saviour, live in me from day to day,

By his power and love controlling, all I do or say.  (Kate Barclay Wilkinson)

This hymn was a favourite consecration hymn at Keswick holiness conventions in the early 20^th Century. This first verse is a good concluding prayer for a week reflecting on the power of words to do things, and make things happen. To be in Christ, and to know Christ in us, is to experience the guidance and enabling of Christ by his Spirit. In a world where words are regularly weaponised to injure and harm, Christian speech must bear witness to the truth-telling, peace-building language of Christ’s Kingdom.

The painting ‘Stilling the Tempest’ is a powerful visual exegesis of Mark 4.39 and Jesus’ command, “Peace! Be still!” I first came across it in the wonderful volume by Jaroslav Pelikan, Jesus Through the Centuries, a book I used as a text book teaching a module with the same title. This was one of the images a number of students found moving, and it always provoked discussion.

Jesus with a Chinese face, is standing in the place of command at the prow of the boat. Mountainous seas with real mountains on the horizon, the whole scene a cauldron of threat and danger. The desperation of the oarsmen, the loss of control signalled by their lost rhythm, the faces set in expressions of fear or determined resignation, all conveyed with power. In the foreground a massive billow, reminiscent of a tsunami and originating under the boat, heads towards the viewer of the painting.

But the dominating figure of Jesus stands with arms outstretched and hands raised, upright and balanced in a boat tossed by elemental powers doing their utmost to overwhelm. Of course he stands in a cruciform gesture, redemptive and powerful at the same time. His authority over the waves and the wind is emphasised by the disciple clinging to his legs, while another has his arms raised imploring Jesus, and yet another clings to the mast but strains round to fix his eyes on Jesus.

It is an astonishing achievement which captures the full force of the storm just before Jesus speaks. The sea is in full tempest mode, the boat is riding a tsunami, the land is miles behind them, and left on their own, experienced sailors as they are, they are doomed. Except for that dominant cruciform Jesus, about to command stillness. 

Yet Mark says clearly that Jesus was at the back, in the stern of the boat, asleep. In the picture Jesus is shown to be high and lifted up, at the front. This is of course artistic licence, but making its own theological point; the artist’s interpretation is supported by the verb Mark uses which is an intensified form of rising, describing Jesus’ action as standing up to his full height. And the place of authority and the highest point is the uplifted prow

Perhaps the reason the picture is called ‘Stilling the Tempest’, a title which uses the present participle, is precisely to convey the urgent authority of Jesus, striding from stern to prow. The picture then becomes a portrait of that moment just as Jesus is about to speak two commands; to the wind, “be quiet!, and to the sea, “be calm!”

The Chinese artist, Monika Liu Ho-Peh, has captured that dramatic split second, when with oars all over the place, sails ripped, bodies exhausted, impending doom is forestalled and frustrated by impending deliverance. And that is exactly how Mark portrays Jesus.

Psalm 42.1 “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.”

Desire is one of the most powerful drives in human life. That inner feeling of wanting is felt as lack, and it is only satisfied when fulfilled. That’s true of ice cream on a hot day, buying something we have saved up for, celebrating the birth of a child, or a reunion of close friends after years of being separated by geography. Then there’s the deer desperate for water in a dry land, because water is life. And it’s that image of desperation that best describes the longing for God, the desire to know God more intimately, and for us to be known more deeply by the One whose goodness and mercy have followed us all the days of our lives. Longing is desire to know more of our Lord Jesus: “More of his saving fullness see, more of his love who died for me.”

Friday

Psalm 9.1 “I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart. I will tell of all your wonders.”

This is more, much more, than the power of positive thinking. These are the words of someone who has nurtured a sense of wonder, who knows that gratitude is a source of energy, who has learned to see and pay attention to what’s going on around them, and has come to see God at work in the ordinary and everyday routines. Yes there are tough experiences, times we need a secure foothold. But most of the time life is as it is, we are part of it, we love and are loved, we are blessed and we bless.

Years ago someone regularly phoned our house and often began the conversation with “What a day I’ve had!” followed by a long litany of complaints. That opening line could have a different tone: “What a day I’ve had! Let me tell you of all God’s wonders!”

Thursday

Psalm 10.1 “Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”

Some of our most desperate prayers end in a question mark. ‘Why’ always has the sound of urgency when it is a prayer. Each of us have times when God seems so far off, and silent. The Psalm poet is blunt and up front about this, and shows us how human it is to complain. To ask God why, is not a lack of faith or a failure of trust. On the contrary, our faith is made evident and audible exactly as we ask our urgent questions of the One whom we call Lord. In our hardest experiences of loss, confusion, depression, anxiety, guilt or whatever, there is a recurring sense that God is absent and silent. But remember, however abandoned we may feel, that ringing promise still holds: “Nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That truth depends on God’s faithfulness, not our faith.

In 1971 I went to Glasgow University as an Arts undergraduate. I was three years a Christian, a Baptist an avowed Evangelical and then some. My major subjects were Moral Philosophy and Principles of Religion. This was to be an education in learning to think for myself with critical appreciation, developing intellectual humility and willingness to question my certainties.

Principles of Religion included critical study of sacred texts from the Bhagavad Gita, Deuteronomy, the tractate Pirkei Avot from the Mishnah, the Hindu Scriptures, the Quran, and yes, Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Welcome to comparative religion and the phenomenological study of religious experience!

We had to do a critical exegesis of selected passages from each of those texts, explaining the cultural context, key religious concepts, analysing the religious experience that underlay the text, and which the text evoked and reinforced. I was back studying Galatians, but with very different aims.

At that time there were few recent critical commentaries dealing with the English text of Galatians – (Greek would come later in my Divinity studies). That’s when I bought Donald Guthrie’s 1969 commentary on Galatians in the New Century Bible. I made my way through Guthrie’s solid, careful and compact exegesis, and cherry picked two Greek commentaries (Lightfoot and De Witt Burton) as best I could. I passed the course and won the class prize!

I mention the prize only because the two lecturers insisted that class assignments were pieces of research and evidenced argument – not opportunities to push a conservative evangelical line! If I wanted to argue a position, I had to make that case, evaluate the evidence and construct a reasoned argument.

Here’s how that worked. One essay was on the authorship of Deuteronomy; I still have that essay! By the 1970s the mainstream position rejected the sole authorship of Moses. My first sentence was, “Much as I would prefer to establish the Mosaic authorship of Deuteronomy, the arguments for an editorial process would seem to be more persuasive.” Nick Wyatt was the marker and he wrote in the margin alongside that first sentence, “Tough!”  That comment was written with a grin and not an iota of hurtful intent. We got on very well, and he was a superb teacher.

So that was my first critical study of biblical texts, Deuteronomy and Galatians. It was in an Arts course, and I was being trained to read a text with critical questions and respectful care. Donald Guthrie’s commentary was seen as conservative then, and still is. But like all his work, Guthrie had done his homework. Of course Guthrie on Galatians is long eclipsed by newer approaches of far greater length and complexity, including rhetorical studies, social science, new perspectives on Paul, and rival theological interpretations.

It would take time, and much wider and deeper study, for me to be adequately equipped before I was able to explore Galatians, or any other biblical text, with the proper tools, skills and training. But Galatians, which had entered my spiritual bloodstream through John Stott’s pastoral and theological exposition, was now a text that was problematic. Not in a negative sense, but as a text that refuses to be tamed and neatly tied up as a parcel of fully understandable theology. Galatians was written to provoke, to confront, to persuade, to change minds and transform worldview and lifestyle. That much I had already grasped.            

TFTD: Wednesday

Psalm 16.1 “Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.”

This is an arrow prayer, a one liner that goes straight to the point. There’s no waiting patiently in this prayer, just the need of the moment, and that instinctive turning in faith to the One who is our refuge. By the way, when we pray this prayer, and turn to God for protection in the emergency of feeling threatened, that makes us refugees in the arms of God. The theme of refuge, and of care for the refugee, is dyed into the fabric of the Bible, from Abraham to the Exodus, to the Exiles, and the flight from Herod to Egypt. Before God we are all refugees, looking for a place to find safety.

This afternoon, preparing to cut the grass at the back of my neighbour’s house, I’m lowering my cable extension over the fence between us. On our side, as I leaned over, I had to negotiate my way around this rose, carefully feeding the cable behind it and up over the fence.

The last day of September, sunny but breezy, the tail end of a storm on its way in a day or two, and today, for a moment or two, this floral miracle was right in my face!

Yes, I’m easily pleased – maybe that’s a low-key form of gratitude, to hear an echo of the Creator’s grace when face to face with a rose. Or so it seemed to me

Psalm 27.1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear.”

That’s a good line to start the day; it might also be a fitting line to end a bad day! The truth is, every day of our lives we live through a host of moods and emotions, which make it either a good day or a bad day. The Psalm poet knows that in all the change he needs constancy, when things pile up and we are struggling to find a way forward, “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” The fixed point is not our own energy and capacity, but God’s promised presence. “If God be for us, who can be against us?”