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A Pilgrim's Search
Fresh thoughts on the Bible and the Christian life.
Why Was Jesus Murdered?
2 responses to “Why Was Jesus Murdered?”
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Doug, much of what you’ve written here resonates deeply with me. The sacrificial atonement model — particularly in its penal substitution form — has done enormous damage to Western Christianity, precisely because it shifts the focus from transformation to transaction. Your point about Luke-Acts is well taken, and the covenant ratification framework is, I think, the far more honest reading of what Jesus was actually doing at the Last Supper.
Where I’d push the conversation a bit further: you treat the New Covenant as essentially inaugurated at Pentecost — the Spirit poured out, the transformation underway. My late husband Homer Kizer spent decades in the prophetic texts arguing that Pentecost was the firstfruits deposit, not the harvest. Jeremiah 16:14-15 says a day is coming when Israel will no longer swear by ‘the Lord who brought us out of Egypt’ — because a second, greater exodus will have made the first one forgettable. That is not a small claim. It suggests the full circumcision of hearts promised in Deuteronomy 30:6 and Ezekiel 36 is still ahead — a nation born in a day, Spirit poured out at a scale that makes Pentecost the type rather than the fulfillment.
If that’s right, it adds an urgency to your closing point that I don’t think can be overstated: people who believe they are already ‘covered’ have every reason not to repent, and every reason not to expect anything more from God than what they already have. The stakes of getting the atonement question wrong are not merely theological. They are existential.
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Carolyn, I couldn’t agree more with your, and your husband’s, perspectives. Yes, Pentecost was the inauguration, not the consummation, of the New Covenant. I’ve written quite a bit about the inauthenticity of the modern church and its corrupted, bumper sticker evangelism. But its effects are devastating. Whole generations now have lived and died lulled by the comfort of its deception. And the truly incredible thing to me remains that I see so few calling them out on it and calling the Church to repentance. Where are the Christ-followers? The modern church has rejected God’s righteousness and replaced it with his implicit approval. The depressing thing is that I don’t see that false teaching changing short of some cosmic cataclysm that jolts people out of their comfort zones.
Thanks for your kind and thoughtful words of encouragement.
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