Jeremy R. Treat - The Crucified King: Atonement and Kingdom in Biblical and Systematic Theology

THE CRUCIFIED KING ENDORSEMENTS

Jeremy Treat brings together what many have rented asunder: the cross of Christ and the kingdom of God. For too long many theological tribes have either preached a message about the cross addressed to individuals and opted out of kingdom business or embarked on a campaign of kingdom work springing from Jesus kingdom vision and then struggled to treat the cross meaningfully. Treat shows that such a division is foreign to the biblical texts and to the testimony of the historical church. In a venerable banquet of biblical exegesis, biblical theology, and systematic reflections, Treat shows that Gods reign and Gods redemption are both outworkings of the cross of our crucified Lord. Treat brings sanity and sensibility to a controversial topic that should not even be controversial. Judicious, balanced, informative, and compelling!

Michael F. Bird, Lecturer in Theology at Ridley Melbourne Mission and Ministry College, Australia

In The Crucified King, Jeremy Treat makes a helpful start toward reintegrating what should never have been torn asunder: not only Gods kingdom and Christs atoning work, but also biblical theology and theological reflection.

Daniel J. Treier is Blanchard Professor of Theology at Wheaton College (Illinois).

The Crucified King contributes to the current revivification of the doctrine of the atonement, exploring how the cross and kingdom are necessary and mutually interpretative realities. The cross, he argues, is the inbreaking of Gods eschatological kingdom into the present, while it sums up the nature of divine and human servant-kingship. This is a delightful work of biblical and systematic theology, ripe with implications for the churchs understanding of the cross of Christ as its basis and goal.

Adam Johnson, Assistant Professor of Theology, Torrey Honors Institute, Biola University

Jesus came proclaiming the kingdom of God but then died on the cross. The first great virtue of The Crucified King is that it tackles head-on this great riddle at the heart of the New Testament, clarifying how what happened to Jesus, far from contradicting his message, served rather to confirm and explain it. The books second strength is that it reconciles two views of Jesus death on the cross that have for too long been rivals rather than partners: the penal substitution and Christus Victor theories of atonement. The third strength is that it reconciles the story of redemption (biblical theology) and its logic (systematic theology). Three tensions; three proposed resolutions: blessed are the peacemakers!

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Research Professor of Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

I feel like Ive witnessed a beautiful wedding where the atmosphere is just right, the visuals are perfect, and the bride and groom are perfect for one another. Pastors and theologians often manage to give the impression that the kingdom of God and the cross of the Messiah are divorced or separated. Treats study of kingdom and cross unveils the exciting marriage between two of Scriptures central concepts.

With good writing and clear thinking of the big picture variety, Treat produces a dessert-quality dissertation that leaves readers enriched and satisfied. On the evidence of this work, the author will have an important voice in the theological conversations of the next generation of Christian scholars.

Jason Hood, St. Margarets Anglican Church, Moshi, Tanzania

ZONDERVAN

The Crucified King

Copyright 2014 by Jeremy R. Treat

ePub Edition April 2014: ISBN 978-0-310-51666-8

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Treat, Jeremy R., 1980

The crucified king : atonement and kingdom in biblical and systematic theology / Jeremy R. Treat.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-310-51674-3 (softcover)

1. Jesus Christ--Crucifixion--Biblical teaching. 2. Jesus Christ--Crucifixion. 3. Atonement--Biblical teaching. 4. Atonement. I. Title.

BT453.T74 2014

232'.3--dc23 2013046045

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the ESV, The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Cover design: Michelle Lenger

Cover photography: Shutterstock.com/Mila Petkova/Hein Nouwens; iStock.com

Interior design: Matthew Van Zomeren

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 /DCI/ 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my wife, Tiffany

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1 Corinthians 1:18

CONTENTS

by Michael Horton

DETAILED TABLE OF CONTENTS

by Michael Horton

WHAT IS THE meaning of Christs death for us?

It is difficult to imagine a question more relevant to our personal destiny, our ecclesial identity and mission, and the hopes we hold for the future of the entire cosmos. As this book points out with care and thoroughness, kingdom and atonement were nuclear to our Lords identity. From the beginning of his ministry, Jesus saw himself as the bringer of the end-time kingdom, with the cross as his destiny. His main message was the kingdom and his main mission was to go to Golgotha. Surely this twofold fact, defended meticulously here, should provoke us to think of kingdom and atonement together. When we do so, we discover that many of the false choices that plague this and other topics fade away.

Of course, answers to my opening question have varied widely. In the ancient church, variety was less a reflection of opposing theologies orbiting around a central dogma than a recognition of the far-reaching implications of our Lords announcement, It is finished. Many emphasized the atonement as Christs victory over the powers of death, hell, and Satan. Others are known for underscoring its close connection with the incarnation : recapitulating (literally, re-headshipping) Adams race, in Christ. Still others contemplated Christs wounds for us as a death of substitution in which our guilt is transferred to Christ and his righteousness becomes ours. Yet only after centuries of refinement, categorization, and (especially in the modern era) doctoral dissertations and scholarly monographs have these been pressed neatly into mutually exclusive atonement theories . Exaggerated contrasts are drawn between Antiochene and Alexandrian, not to mention Eastern and Western, theologies that are far less obvious in the ancient writings. In fact, those writers mixed metaphors and emphases on nearly every page.

Nor is there any basis for the repeated generalization that the sixteenth-century Reformers simply adopted Anselms satisfaction theory and pushed to the periphery other classic emphases. Luther and Calvin, for example, moved effortlessly between what we today call