A glorious blossom intended all along

Herein lies the key to Jesus' view of atonement in the Synoptic Gospels. He claims to be the eschatalogical fulfillment of OT images and prophecy and announces at the beginning of his ministry that the OT time, the kairos, has come to fulfillment, that the saving reign of God has come upon his hearers, and that his hearers need to repent and believe his gospel (Mk 1:15). This unifying view of Scripture and of the doctrine of atonement is therefore couched in Jesus' sense of eschatalogical completion, like the flower of simple and humble beginnings that contains in seed form the whole genomic pattern of redemption and courses its way upward in stages of growth through the growing stem until finally it breaks forth into the glorious blossom intended all along by divine design. Jesus' view of atonement needs to be seen through such an image of organic unfolding in redemptive history.

(Nicole, Roger R., Charles E. Hill, and Frank A. James. The Glory of the Atonement: Biblical, Historical & Practical Perspectives : Essays in Honor of Roger Nicole. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2004. Print. 95)