Healing the Gospel

A Radical Vision for Grace, Justice, and the Cross

DEREK FLOOD

FOREWORD

by Brian D. McLaren

FOR ME, GROWING UP Evangelical meant growing up believing that the gospel was the theory of penal substitutionary atonement. Trusting Christ, accepting Christ, getting saved, being born again all meant - covertly or overtly - accepting the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement, namely, that God’s justice requires that we all be sent to hell forever, but that God punished his perfect son Jesus in our place, which means we can go to heaven.

That’s the version of the gospel that is broadcast 24/7 on radio and television across America, around the world. That’s the version of the gospel that many missionaries use to define effectiveness, that many theologians use to define faithfulness, and that many Christians and nonChristians alike use to define Christianity itself.

Given how deeply rooted this understanding of the gospel is (especially in Evangelical, Charismatic, and even some Roman Catholic circles), it’s no wonder that I couldn’t imagine questioning it for most of my life. Penal substitutionary atonement was the heart of the gospel! The whole system of Christianity would be frivolous, meaningless, or ridiculous without it!

Then came a conversation with a well-known Evangelical theologian who asked me a simple question: shouldn’t we let Jesus define the gospel? That question forced me to take seriously Jesus’ gospel - the good news of the kingdom of God, here and available now to all who repent and believe. What did Jesus mean by kingdom of God? How did that relate to my inherited understanding of the atonement?

Those questions disrupted my system, but that only meant I had to fit my cherished atonement theory in a new place - maybe not at the center of the gospel, but certainly in an important footnote position.

Then came another conversation with another well-known Evangelical theologian, a few years later. He was asked what parts of Evangelical theology needed to be re-thought, and without a heartbeat of hesitation, his first of three replies was “doctrine of atonement.” What?

That sent me on a long process of rethinking. I started asking questions that made a lot of my friends nervous.

And back then, there was no book like this one by Derek Flood to help me. But now there is such a book to help you.

You may never have even heard the precise term “penal substitutionary atonement,” but you “know” it - it’s the point of everything for millions of Christians around the world. The only problem that really matters? God’s just and infinite wrath at our sin. The only good news that really matters? How to be rescued from falling into that fiery lake of divine wrath. The main reason Jesus matters? Because he took that wrath upon himself so we don’t have to.

If you’ve begun to have qualms about some parts of that doctrinal system, this is the book you need. I’m enthusiastic about it for four reasons.

First, it’s simple and short. True, many of the ideas in this book can be found in thick and nearly impenetrable theological tomes. But no book focuses on the question of what’s wrong with conventional penal substitutionary atonement theory better than this one - in a slim and readable book, and in terms and syntax that any literate person can understand.

Second, it engages with Scripture in a responsible, mature, and faithful way. From his reading of Romans to his reading of Isaiah 53, from his insights into Paul to his insights into Jesus, from his engagement with specific biblical terms (like justice, sin, saving, and wrath) to his understanding of the general biblical narrative, Derek models how to make good biblical and theological scholarship accessible to normal folks.

Third, this book engages with Christian history with equal maturity, responsibility, and faithfulness. He brings ancient voices like Athanasius and Gregory into conversation with contemporary ones like Wink, Girard, and Sittser. Where he must disagree - whether with historic figures like Anselm or contemporary ones like Packer - he does so respectfully, sympathetically, and fairly, not rudely, rashly, or dismissively.

And fourth, this book combines the mind of a theologian with the eye and heart of an artist. Derek sees that meaning comes in images and narratives, not just in formulas, theories, or models. So he combines the two, and in the process, presents us with something we thought we knew but didn’t really.

No doubt that’s a big part of what repentance means ... acknowledging that we didn’t really know before, and thereby opening ourselves up to a fresh and deeper knowing.

I had two great fears when I began rethinking my inherited understanding of the gospel and the atonement. First, I was afraid that I would get in trouble with my authority figures and peers: I lived in circles where honest difference of opinion on such matters was not easily tolerated. Second, I was afraid that I would end up somewhere that was less biblical than where I started. Because I didn’t have a book available to me like this one, I stepped out with great fear and trembling.

But as I read Derek’s book, I feel more than ever that the view he proposes is not less biblically defensible, and not even equally so, but far more so. I think you’ll agree that the view he proposes is most faithful to Scripture in its totality, both in a close reading where all the details are attended to, and in a more expansive reading for the broader themes and narratives that it explores.

This fresh approach to the Bible not only heals our understanding of the gospel, but it also offers healing to us - because a distorted gospel will inevitably harm us. And through us, a distorted gospel harms the world at large.

Our world suffers not only from the ravages of sin - personal and systemic, but also from the ravages of sincere and zealous but misguided and misguiding religion. This book, like the original gospel it seeks to clarify, is about being saved, freed, and healed from all those ravages, in all their forms.

That’s why I am so grateful for this book. If you are willing to step out and walk through the following pages with Derek Flood as your guide, a lot of healing can flow. A lot of healing indeed.

Brian D. McLaren