Simon Gathercole’s, Defending Substitution: Why I Am Unconvinced and Concerned

Abstract

This article is a reflective review of Simon Gathercole’s book, Defending Substitution, in which he defended the position that Paul held a substitutionary position of atonement. That position contends that Jesus died ‘instead of sinners’, replacing them in his death. I primarily offer an exegetical critique based on an Old Testament understanding of Paul’s language, in which I do not find a mechanism of substitution. That critique is followed by some reflections on why I find Gathercole’s substitutionary view to fall short of the portrayal of God’s offers of grace and atonement that are found in the OT and picked up on by the New Testament writers as they use the OT language.

Hope for the Future of New Testament Theology

“…God was simply taking to its logical and ultimate extreme the activity in which he had been involved throughout the First Testament story" (Goldingay 2015, p. 12). 4 For a detailed rebuttal of penal substitutionary atonement and an appeal for a more comprehensive understanding of the work(s) of Christ in general, see my article (Duke 2018).…”