Readability : 3
Length: 206 pp
Author: Leon Morris
How does the Bible speak of the atonement? What words and images does it use? Leon Morris does an excellent service to us in this work. Although primarily a word study Morris is always sure that his theology is Biblical as well, that is, he always lets the context and Biblical storyline determine the ultimate meaning of the word. Many word studies are attempts to violate the clear meaning of the storyline, this is not one. Although The Atonement is the laymen’s version of his previous work, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, it is still a very scholarly work. While it is readable, understand what it is, it is not simply reflections, sermons, or exhortations concerning the cross, but a deep study of the meaning of the cross. Morris deals with images such as covenant, sacrifice, redemption, and reconciliation among others. If ever we need push ourselves to read deep hard books, it is concerning books of this ilk, books on God’s masterpiece of atonement.
When God gave them commandments in the wilderness, the writer says, the Israelites complained. But God replied that they were his slaves: ‘For this reason have I redeemed you, that you might give decrees and you should keep them.’ Here the thought is plainly expressed that Israel was not redeemed for the people’s own personal convenience but in order that they might be the servants of God. The redemption from Egypt was the redemption of a community which was to be in a unique sense bound to God as the people of God.
That peace has a very different content in the Bible from that which we normally give the term is clear from some words towards the end of Romans. The writer assured his readers that ‘The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet’ (Rom. 16:20). God is characterized as ‘the God of peace’ by the very fact that he performs a warlike action! This is strange language to us, but the overthrow of Satan was a necessary ingredient in peace as the men of the New Testament understood it. So it is quite natural for one of them to speak in this way of God as the God of peace as he crushes the evil one. What could more vividly show what ‘peace’ means?
Peace means the defeat of evil. Peace means the breaking down the barrier between man and God. Peace means the presence of God’s rich and abundant blessing. Peace means positiveness; it is not the absence of anything – the barrier that separated us from God or anything else. Peace is presence, the presence of God. Christ ‘is our peace’.
No Other Boast 