Gaffin on the efficacy of the cross

Richard Gaffin on the efficacy of the cross as elucidtaed by Paul:

Only now are we in a position, finally, to address more specifically how Paul unfolds the efficacy of Christ's death. He does so using a number of themes or motifs that reinforce each other, and at points overlap. Prominent among these are sacrifice, or expiation; propitiation; reconciliation; redemption; and justification. As we have already seen, Christ's death, together with his resurrection,  is God's eschatalogical answer to sin as rebellion against God, specifically his revealed will. In the cross and resurrection, God addresses sin in its essential and irreducible twofold aspect. He removes the sinner's sin both as recurring guilt and as corrupting and enslaving power, and in so doing, he effects the removal of his just wrath, terminating in eternal destruction, which that guilt and corruption deserve. (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. 156-7)

This is monumentous! God, through Christ, defeats sin at the level of our experience removing its guilt-inducing, corruption-producing, and slave-recruiting efficacy. But, more importantly or at least more foundationally, in doing so God removes his own just wrath which had destined us for eternal damnation. Amazing grace!

Gaffin on God's wrath

God's wrath is not like our wrath. It is not capricious and subject to fitful outbursts of passionate emotion. But, neither is it metaphorical, impersonal, or just another way of speaking about his love. Wrath is the perfect response of revulsion and rejection of a holy God to sin. Professor Richard Gaffin, in his essay called Atonement in the Pauline Corpus as it appears in The Glory of the Atonement, writes:

The deepest, most decisive consideration, however, is present in the awesome and unfathomable mystery of God's electing purpose. In his active resolve to exercise ("choosing to show") "his wrath," those who are "the objects of his wrath-prepared for destruction" (Rom 9:22) are such before "they were born or had done anything good or bad" (Rom 9:11). For Paul, God's judicial wrath as it terminates on the finally unrepentant, according to his sovereign predestination, is for them absolute and unmitigated. Divine wrath and justice are not merely penultimate (and no more than metaphorical) expressions of his ultimately all-embracing love.

It is unnecessary, and it weakens the biblical concept of the wrath of God, to deprive it of its emotional and affective character. Wrath in God must not be conceived of in terms of the fitful passion with which anger is frequently associated in us. But to construe God's wrath as consisting simply in his purpose to punish sin or to secure the connection between sin and misery is to equate wrath with its effects and virtually eliminate wrath as a movement within the mind of God. Wrath is the holy revulsion of God's being against that which is the contradiction of his holiness. (152-3)

Sin is deeply rooted hostility

Of the many excellent essays in The Glory of the Atonement, the one entitled Atonement in the Pauline Corpus by Westminster Theological Seminary professor Richard Gaffin was one of the more enjoyable and enriching to read. His rhythmic style-sentences with many pauses and transitional words-is one that I particularly like. But his plain, down to earth treatment of major theological concepts helped me easily connect with his points and clarified the concepts in question. In this excerpt, Gaffin emphasizes the overriding concern of sin; it is primarily against God. Consider,

Paul's treatment of sin and its consequences is extensive and multifaceted, particularly in Romans. Above all, sin is theocentric; it is primarily against God and then, derivatively, against human beings, including the self. As such, sin is both relational and judicial, and it is the one only as it is the other. Sin is relational in that it is essentially rebellion against God, the image bearing creature's effective renunciation against God as creator. It is willful rejection of fellowship with God by refusing to acknowledge him as Creator and to live out of thankful creaturely dependence on him. Inevitably, then, sin is idolatrous, the exchange of "the truth of God for a lie," which consists, in virtually numberless ways, in worshiping and serving "the creature rather than the Creator" (Rom 1:25 ESV). All told, sin is deeply rooted hostility, particularly toward God. Thus, inevitably, it is also against others and the self, as made in God's image, again, in nearly countless ways. (146)

The cosmic scope of the atonement

Richard Gaffin on the cosmic scope of the atonement:

Again, the salvation effected in the cross and resurrection is of sweeping cosmic and "new-aeon" proportions.

United to Christ in his death and resurrection, believers share in the eschatalogical triumph of God over sin and its consequences. While for them that victory has a still-future aspect, in the resurrection of the body it is a present reality that has taken hold of, and renewed them at the core of their being. They are no longer slaves of sin but alive to God; they "no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again" (2 Cor 5:15), a life in union with the resurrected Christ that transforms every aspect of their existence.


Christ's death and resurrection inaugurates the realization of God's final, consummate purposes for creation.

(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. 144)