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The Cross in Context

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June 2026

June 23, 2026

How Biblical Sacrifices Vindicate God’s Glory

What if we’ve fundamentally misunderstood the purpose of biblical sacrifice? While popular theology focuses on...

June 09, 2026

What Exactly Does Christ Purify?

The connection between morality and cleanness runs deep in human psychology. We instinctively associate wrongdoing...

March 2026

March 03, 2026

What are Essential Elements of Atonement?

What exactly is atonement? Despite its importance, this question receives oversimplified answers that miss the...

November 2025

November 11, 2025

The Heart of Biblical Sacrifice Is Not Blood and Death

Popular evangelical theology often reduces Israel’s sacrificial system to a simple blood transaction: God punishes...

September 2025

September 30, 2025

The Temple as Sacred Space for Divine Honor

Israel’s temple functioned as theological statements about God’s design for creation and the nature of...

September 02, 2025

Why “Jesus Died the Death I Deserve” Misses the Point

A common phrase in contemporary evangelical theology is "Jesus died the death I deserve." You'll...

October 2023

October 24, 2023

Must God punish every sin … including forgiven sins?

Some claim that punishment is the mechanism that secures God’s forgiveness; instead, it is the...

October 03, 2023

The Divine Banquet: Biblical Sacrifices as Symbolic Meals

The Old Testament presents numerous examples of sacrifices, many of which can be understood as...

August 2023

August 02, 2023

Aubrey Sequeira questions me on the atonement. Here are my answers.

This video answers Aubrey Sequeira's 3 questions to me concerning my view of the atonement...

August 01, 2023

My Response to Aubrey Sequeira’s Interview and Critique

Aubrey Sequeira spent significant time critiquing me and my book The Cross in Context. In...

April 2023

April 04, 2023

Was Jesus Forsaken By God? It Depends

“My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” People often assume Jesus’ words have...

March 2023

March 28, 2023

Bearing Sin Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does

What is the link between atonement and sin bearing? And why does "bearing" seem to...

March 21, 2023

Does Atonement Require Payment, Penalty, or Punishment?

Few things muddle the doctrine of atonement more than when we mix biblical metaphors. One...

March 14, 2023

Does Burning or Blood Effect Atonement? You Sure?

What's common to every type of sacrifice? Hint: It’s not blood. It's burning. What are...

March 07, 2023

Atonement – Defining a Misunderstood Term

People too often *assume* they grasp the meaning of atonement. That’s a bold claim, but...

January 2023

January 24, 2023

Affirming Penal Substitution But Not Its Logic

Yes, it's possible to affirm penal substitutionary atonement but not the logic that most PSA...

December 2022

December 06, 2022

The Atonement Has a Few Main Ingredients

We tend to start with a limited set of atonement theories and overlook the more...

November 2022

November 29, 2022

The Atonement in Biblical and Cultural Context

In The Cross in Context: Reconsidering Biblical Metaphors for Atonement, I divide the chapters into...

November 22, 2022

The Cross in Context is Published Today!!

Today is finally here! After years of labor, The Cross in Context: Reconsidering Biblical Metaphors...

November 15, 2022

The Atonement is a Shibboleth

I’m honored that Joshua McNall accepted my request to write the foreword to my forthcoming...