Healing Atonement
Scripture
A bound set of New Testament manuscripts. Photo credit: Atlantios, Creative Commons Zero.
Introduction
These resources explore the meaning of Jesus' death, from the understanding of the Christian community in its first four hundred years, expressed in the Nicene and Chalcedonian creeds. Jesus is God's way of undoing human evil, in a personal, loving way. His death was the climax of his victorious struggle over the corruption in his own human nature. We call this "Medical Substitution," although it has gone by other names.
Scripture and Medical Substitutionary Atonement
From August 2025. CC took the approach of emphasizing his personal narrative. CC said PSA Jesus was the only way he could have experienced forgiveness, and is the only way for people to do so. Mako replied with his personal narrative, including his emotional struggles with PSA and trying to minister with PSA. Mako highlights how reading Scripture and the Early Christians helped him see God’s justice as restorative, not retributive, and Jesus’ atonement as a medical substitution for us to become our Cure, not a penal substitution to become God’s victim.
Sources of Atonement Theology
These resources explore the foundation of “Medical Substitution” as the best understanding of the Bible, and the original understanding of the church. There are also links to books, web articles, etc. from representatives of the three broad Christian traditions.
