What Christ accomplished in his death—the words the apostles used for it, the last words he spoke from the cross, and the preaching that follows from both.
The center of this is the seven last words—three of them preached at Spring Creek and written out here at length—and the vocabulary the New Testament uses to say what the cross did: propitiation, ransom, substitution. The paper on the offices of Christ puts the priestly work in its place within the whole mediatorial office. The reviews are the books that shaped how I think about all of it, most of them read in one stretch in 2008.
What the Cross Accomplished 3
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The Offices of Christ: Prophet, Priest, and King
Paper · 2004
Mediation as the answer to Genesis 3—prophet, priest, and king—with the priestly office, where the sacrifice is offered, carrying most of the weight.
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Word Study on the Ἱλασ- Word Group
Word Study · 2002
ἱλάσκομαι, ἱλαστήριον, ἱλασμός—six occurrences in the New Testament and forty-four in the Greek Old Testament, and the question that rides on them: propitiation or expiation.
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Bahnsen on the Extent of the Atonement
Post · August 2007
Bahnsen at twenty-three on particular redemption, with Owen’s fervency: if the Father elects and the Spirit applies, an atonement intended for everyone divides the Trinity against itself.
The Seven Last Words 3
Three of the seven, preached at Spring Creek Bible Church over several years.
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Woman, Behold Your Son; Behold Your Mother: The Third Word from the Cross (John 19:25–27)
Message · 2018
The third word, the word of affection: in the middle of bearing sin, Jesus arranges his mother’s care—read in its temporal and textual context, darkness on either side.
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Why Have You Forsaken Me? (Matthew 27:46)
Message · 2016
The fourth word, the cry of dereliction. What it did not mean—he was not losing his faith—and what it did.
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Message · 2011
The sixth word, one word in Greek. What τετέλεσται means, and everything that was finished in it: the incarnational mission, the eternal plan, the prophecies, the old covenant.
Preaching the Cross 2
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The Good News of Our Good Shepherd: A Good Friday Meditation (John 10:1–30)
Message · 2021
A Good Friday meditation on John 10: the shepherd who lays his life down on his own initiative, with no one taking it from him.
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For the Glory and Praise of God (1 Corinthians 1:18–2:5)
Sermon · 2020
1 Corinthians 1:18–2:5—the word of the cross as folly and power, preached to Christians who know they are saved but have never taken in how much the gospel actually did.
Books on the Atonement 5
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The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross by Leon Morris
Review · 2008
Morris’s linguistic study of the cross vocabulary—redemption, propitiation, reconciliation—defending the historic doctrines from the words themselves rather than from tradition.
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The Doctrine of the Atonement According to the Apostles by George Smeaton
Review · 2008
The second volume of Smeaton’s two-part biblical theology of the atonement, working through nearly every passage outside the Gospels that touches Christ’s death.
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The Work of Christ by Robert Letham
Review · 2008
Letham on the work rather than the person, organized by the threefold office—with the nature, theories, and intent of the atonement under Christ as priest.
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The Cross and Salvation by Bruce Demarest
Review · 2008
Demarest’s volume in Feinberg’s systematic series: every soteriological doctrine given the same four-part treatment—questions, history, biblical data, practical implications.
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The Master Theme of the Bible by J. Sidlow Baxter
Review · 2008
Baxter on the Lamb as the theme that unites the canon—conference messages rather than a technical study, and warm in the way that implies.
And for the curious: a three-post argument about how to pronounce propitiation →