The cross seems to be fading in public worship. While the symbol may still be prevalent on web sites and in some architecture, is seems to be disappearing from songs and sermons in the church. In It is Well, Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence assert that the neglect of the cross in the church is the result of something more than our growing fascination with the subjective and with self-improvement. There is a growing hostility to the whole notion that Christ suffered as a substitute, that God would desire such a thing, or that God is at all wrathful.
Theologians have reread parts of the Bible—or set it aside—in order to fashion a seemingly more humane religion, a religion of improvement rather than rescue. In such a domesticated version of Christianity, there is no place for a bloody cross.
And that’s where It is Well: Expositions on Substitutionary Atonement comes in. Dever and Lawrence work through crucial texts from the Old and New Testament that shape our understanding of the atonement to show how deeply rooted the atonement and substitution are in the story of the Bible.
“We Christians serve no mute God,” Dever explains. “God predicts, God acts, and God interprets his actions. Long ago God revealed the connection between sin and death. He taught his people that forgiveness would involve sacrifice, and he planted the concept of substitution from very early in human history. Isaiah the prophet was given unusual clarity about the substitution that we as fallen humans would require, and that God would provide. And in the life and ministry of Jesus, all the prophesies came true. God provided a substitute for us.”
Learn more about It is Well or read the intro and chapter 3.
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