The Death of the Messiah and the Birth of the New Covenant<\/a> that there hasn\u2019t been a developed \u201ccovenant\u201d model of the atonement. We have substitutionary, sacrificial, Christus Victor, moral influence, and so on, but no model that uses the biblical category of \u201ccovenant\u201d to organize the whole.\u00a0<\/p>\nGorman overstates the historical point; in Reformed federal theology, the covenant plays a prominent role in atonement theology. Still, a covenant model has never gained quite the stature of the others. That is a bit odd. Gorman rightly argues that this is a \u201cnot so new\u201d model, since it\u2019s rooted in the New Testament.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By as \u201ccovenant\u201d model, he means a model that emphasizes that the \u201cultimate\u201d goal of Jesus\u2019 death is to realize the prophetic promise of the new covenant by gathering a transformed people, empowered by the Spirit to live in courageous, suffering faith, hospitable love, and peaceable hope. Christ\u2019s death is the source of this community of the new covenant, and, as the community participates in Christ by the Spirit, His death on the cross also provides the cruciform shape <\/em>of that community\u2019s life and mission. The new covenant model, he argues, integrates what is often separated \u2013 ethics, spirituality, ecclesiology, pneumatology, mission \u2013 and is able to incorporate the best insights of the more common atonement models into a larger whole. Rather than focusing on the mechanics of atonement, the \u201chow,\u201d the covenant model focuses on the \u201cwhat\u201d; instead of stopping with penultimate ends of the atonement (forgiveness of sins, for instance) the covenant model highlights the ultimate aim, the formation of a people.<\/p>\nGorman makes a compelling case for this model, first by identifying the elements of the prophetic promise and then by demonstrating that those elements are evident throughout the New Testament. Along the way, he offers a neat response to New Testament theologies that would posit a gap between Jesus and Paul, and, surprisingly, argues that one important but neglected element of continuity between the two is an emphasis on participation.<\/p>\n
This is a stimulating and helpful book, but I have a few criticisms. First, while Gorman is correct that \u201cpeace\u201d is a more prominent feature of New Testament teaching that is sometimes thought, I don\u2019t think this translates simply into \u201cnon-violence.\u201d Second, Gorman\u2019s emphasis on the distinction between the \u201chow\u201d and the \u201cwhat\u201d works against his best intentions. His denial that he\u2019s talking about \u201cmechanics\u201d of atonement assumes an idea of \u201cmechanics\u201d borrowed from other models, models that he thinks are limited in scope. He comes closer to what I think is his stronger argument toward the end of the book when he suggests that the \u201chow\u201d includes not only Jesus\u2019 \u201cobjective accomplishment\u201d but His disciples\u2019 \u201csubjective participation\u201d (210). In short, I don\u2019t see Gorman ignoring \u201chow\u201d; rather, he offers a perspective from which the \u201cmechanics\u201d can be reconsidered, perhaps more adequately. After all, the \u201chow\u201d questions cannot help but arise: If we claim that the death of a Jewish teacher 2000 years ago changed the world, we\u2019d better be prepared with some answer to the inevitable \u201chow\u201d questions.<\/p>\n
Finally, I think Gorman\u2019s argument would have been clearer and firmer if he had paid more attention to the features of the \u201cold\u201d covenant that Jesus fulfills. Gorman begins with the prophets, but spends most of his time in the New Testament. Discussing Hebrews inevitably takes him back to Leviticus, but not enough. If the atonement gives birth to the new covenant, then the atonement is understood in large measure by the difference <\/em>of old and new. The scholastics understood this; Thomas set his discussion of the Passion in the context of a discussion of the movement from the \u201cold law\u201d to the \u201cnew.\u201d We can\u2019t satisfactorily grasp what it is we\u2019re being redeemed from <\/em>unless we know more about the old world.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael J. Gorman expresses some surprise in his\u00a0The Death of the Messiah and the Birth of the New Covenant that there hasn\u2019t been a developed \u201ccovenant\u201d model of the atonement. We have substitutionary, sacrificial, Christus Victor, moral influence, and so on, but no model that uses the biblical category of \u201ccovenant\u201d to organize the whole.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[579,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atonement","category-theology-covenant"],"yoast_head":"\n
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