Grafted Theology

Atonement and Union with Christ Rethinking Penal Substitution in Light of Scripture’s Priestly and Participatory Logic Intro Discussions of the atonement often generate more heat than light, not because Christians generally disagree about the gospel itself, but because the explanatory models used to describe Christ’s saving work are frequently treated as if they were identical with the gospel. Within Christian theology, the atonement has been explained through a variety of frameworks that seek to account for how Christ reconciles humanity to God. Over time, however, particular theories have come to be assumed as the default or even as the necessary expression of orthodoxy within certain traditions. When this occurs, disagreement over the mechanics of atonement is mistaken for disagreement over the good news itself, and faithful Christians are unnecessarily divided over matters that lie downstream from Scripture’s central proclamation of salvation. This article is written to examine tha...