The Mosaic of Atonement offers a fresh and integrated approach to historic models of atonement.

While modern treatments of the doctrine have tended toward either a defensive hierarchy, in which one model is singled out as most important, or a disconnected plurality, in which multiple images are affirmed but with no order of arrangement, this book argues for a reintegration of four famous "pieces" of atonement doctrine through the governing image of Christ-shaped mosaic.

Unlike a photograph in which tiny pixels present a seamless blending of color and shape, a mosaic allows each piece to retain its recognizable particularity, while also integrating them in the service of a single larger image. If one stands close, one can identify individual squares of glass or tile that compose the greater picture. And if one steps back, there is the larger picture to be admired. Yet in the great mosaics of age-old Christian churches, the goal is not for viewers to construct the image, as in a puzzle, but to appreciate it.

So too with this mosaic of atonement doctrine. While no one model is set above or against the others, the book notes particular ways in which the "pieces"--the feet, heart, head, and hands--mutually support one another to form a more holistic vision of Christ's work. "This is my body," Jesus said to his followers, and by reintegrating these oft-dismembered aspects of atonement, we will note fresh ways in which it was given for us.

In making this crucial turn, Johnson is able to speak to proponents of the various atonement theories and move the discussion forward in a new direction, grounded in the truth of God's infinite wisdom. Genuinely reframing the debate around the atonement, The Reconciling Wisdom of God is a must-read for students of the atonement.

"But many who are first will be last, and the last first."

--Matthew 19:30

The Bible is full of ironic situations in which God overturns the world's wisdom by doing the opposite of what is expected--people are punished by their own sin, the persecution of the church is the catalyst for its growth, Paul claims to have strength through weakness, and more. In this book, biblical scholar G. K. Beale explores God's pattern of divine irony in both judgment and salvation, finding its greatest expression in Jesus's triumph over death through death on a cross. Unpacking this pattern throughout redemptive history, Beale shows us how God often uses what is seemingly weak and foolish to underscore his own strength and power in the lives of his people today.

A now classic work that clearly and directly defines and explains the scriptural, theological, and practical aspects of each facet of the salvation Jesus secured for us. Originally published in 1917, this book explores atonement, grace, propitiation, forgiveness, justification, imputation, regeneration, adoption, sanctification, redemption, and glorification. In the end, Chafer concludes that salvation is possible because God's love is all that a sinner really needs.