Saving the Story

Part 1, Covenantal Substitutionary Atonement

Over the years I’ve written about what I have called covenantal substitutionary atonement as an alternative to penal substitutionary atonement.

The problems with penal substitutionary atonement have been well documented, often to the point of grotesque caricature. I, myself, in the early years of this blog/newsletter contributed to the pile on.

There are two problems I want to highlight with penal substitutionary atonement.

The first problem is that it focuses upon individual sin and guilt. This isn’t to deny personal complicity. As 1 John says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” But an overly individualistic focus can putrefy into the conviction that God hates you. Your soteriological predicament becomes God, leading the the odd notion that Jesus is saving you from God.

A less commented upon problem is related to the first. Specifically, penal substitutionary atonement dismisses Israel and the Old Testament. In the standard telling of penal substitutionary atonement no reference is made to the promises God made to Abraham. Penal substitutionary atonement is ahistorical. By situating salvation within an abstract forensic context the narrative framework of Scripture is stripped way. All you have is a sinner in the dock. You’re a sinner/criminal. Those sins/crimes have penal consequences. But Jesus paid/satisfied those consequences. No appeal to the Old Testament is needed.

And yet, there is a substitutionary logic at work in Scripture, a substitution that allows us, in the words of Paul, to escape “the wrath to come.” But if not a penal substitution, what are we to do with this substitutionary imagery?

This is where I’ve suggested a view I’ve called covenantal substitutionary atonement. The soteriological predicament in the Old Testament concerns the Deuteronomic curses. At the Sinai covenant sealed in Deuteronomy 28–30 Israel would suffer curses, culminating in her exile, if she was unfaithful to her vocation to be a light to the nations. These curses do transpire. And at this point, the story becomes stuck.

Sitting in this narrative quagmire, the prophets of Israel begin to imagine a future restoration. But how to get around the Deuteronomic curses? The prophet Isaiah envisions a mysterious figure, the “suffering servant,” who will take the curse of Israel upon himself:

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Jesus, in becoming the Suffering Servant, takes the Deuteronomic curses upon himself and cracks the covenantal impasse. What Israel could not do for herself, Jesus, in becoming the representative of Israel, brings to completion. Jesus fulfills the requirements of the Law and takes the curses of Israel’s sin upon himself. Simply put, Jesus saves Israel’s story and allows the narrative to carry forward. The vocation of Israel, to bring the nations to the worship of God, is rescued. The promises made to Israel becomes available to the nations. As preached by Paul, Gentiles become grafted into Israel’s story through faith and baptism.

Covenantal substitutionary atonement, therefore, recognizes the substitutionary logic of atonement but shifts it in critical ways. First, we pivot away from individual guilt to see how Jesus is substituting himself for Israel (as the Suffering Servant). Relatedly, the wrath of God is shifted away from a “sinners in the hands of an angry God” vision toward the Deuteronomic curses. The soteriological predicament solved by atonement isn’t forensic but covenantal. What is being saved is Israel’s vocation. The story is rescued.

And most importantly, covenantal substitutionary atonement re-embeds the atonement within the Biblical narrative. Israel is placed back at the dramatic center. Where penal substitutionary atonement is ahistorical, covenantal substitutionary atonement bring the story of salvation back into view.