Ebook: Healing the gospel: a radical vision for grace, justice, and the cross

Why did Jesus have to die? Was it to appease a wrathful God's demand for punishment? Does that mean Jesus died to save us from God? How could someone ever truly love or trust a God like that? How can that ever be called "Good News"? It's questions like these that make so many people want to have nothing to do with Christianity. Healing the Gospel challenges the assumption that the Christian understanding of justice is rooted in a demand for violent punishment, and instead offers a radically different understanding of the gospel based on God's restorative justice. Connecting our own experiences of faith with the New Testament narrative, author Derek Flood shows us an understanding of the cross that not only reveals God's heart of grace, but also models our own way of Christ-like love. It's a vision of the gospel that exposes violence, rather than supporting it--a gospel rooted in love of enemies, rather than retribution. The result is a nonviolent understanding of the atonement that is not only thoroughly biblical, but will help people struggling with their faith to encounter grace.;The limits of law: penal substitution and the failure of retributive justice -- God's justice: restorative justice as the heart of the Gospel -- Salvation means healing: atonement rooted in restorative justice -- Loving sacrifice: understanding sacrifice as healing sanctification -- Christus Victor: the drama of restorative justice -- The tyrant of wrath: unmasking the bondage of personal and systemic evil -- Incarnational atonement: vicarious atonement as participation in the way of Christ -- The suffering servant: understanding Christ's suffering in the context of injustice -- The theology of the cross: God's saving act in the midst of human injustice -- A crucified people: living the theology of the cross through love of enemies.