Edgework

As we continue reading the biblical text without looking through the biases of established atonement theories, we turn our attention to the book of Acts. And, to the surprise of many, there appears to be scant evidence of atonement theory rhetoric here.

There is one reference in Acts 20:28 which some have used to support a particular atonement theory. It reads, “Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” This text is considered to be problematic for a number of reasons. First, it is unusual for Paul to refer to the Church of God; usually he refers to the Church of the Lord. Although it was the blood of the Lord (Jesus) that was shed on the cross, here it sounds as though it is God’s own blood that was shed. That is without precedent in any other biblical texts and makes it appear to be a “foreign injection” into the text. In any case there is no development in Acts of the significance of the death of Christ and how it works to secure salvation.

As Joel Green and Mark Baker say in their book, Recovering the Scandal of the Cross, “Acts portrays Peter and Paul outlining the gospel of Jesus Christ in missionary speeches to Jew, Gentile and mixed audiences, but never in those speeches do we hear of the atoning death of Jesus” (71). So when the evidence is in, it becomes clear that for Luke salvation is available through Jesus because of his resurrection and ascension; that is on account of his exaltation to the right hand of God. We will look at three specific passages where this becomes clear.

In Acts 2:14-40, Peter gives a spirited defense of the strange events that happened on Pentecost, especially speaking in tongues. What you see, he declares, is what was prophesied by Joel. Of course in the context of Joel, it would have been clearly understood that “Yahweh” would be the one pouring out the Spirit. What Peter does, essentially, is argue that in the present manifestation it is “Jesus” who is pouring out the Spirit – thereby declaring that Jesus is God. “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses to the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear” (Acts 2:32-33). And then he proceeds to proclaim that this salvation is not only for Jews but for “all who are far off” (Acts 2:39).

On a second occasion, while addressing the Sanhedrin, Peter declares that it is because of Christ’s exaltation that salvation is made possible. “The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead – whom you had killed by hanging on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel” (Acts 5:30-31). It is clear here that “repentance and forgiveness of sin” represents salvation in a similar way that the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 represented the whole of salvation. This is known as a synecdoche – a rhetorical device by which the part is taken for the whole – a practice commonly employed in Acts.

Then on a third occasion while addressing those gathered at Cornelius’ house, Peter proclaims, “All the prophets testify about him (Jesus) that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:43). Again it is clear that forgiveness of sins represents salvation. Peter’s Jewish audience would have been familiar with the Old Testament concept that only Yahweh could forgive sins because he was the only exalted God. Even the prophets never promised that the coming Messiah would forgive sins. So how could Peter be arguing here that forgiveness can come through believing in Jesus? Green and Baker say the following: “The answer can only be that, according to the consistent view in the book of Acts, on account of his exaltation Jesus is Lord; as Lord, he assumes the divine prerogative to administer the benefits of salvation, here represented as the forgiveness of sins” (73).

These windows into the sermons preached in Acts make it clear that the apostles of the early church understood that salvation was predicated on the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus, not on the reality of his suffering on the cross. At the same time it becomes clear that even while salvation can be seen as an individual experience there is a strong bias toward seeing salvation in the context of God restoring Israel while at the same time creating a new multi-ethnic community. This is evident in the 3000 persons who believed in Acts 2 being baptized and incorporated into the emerging community, presumably mostly Jewish. The new “global” community comes into focus in Peter’s address to the Jerusalem council when he proclaims that “…it is through the grace of the Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are (Gentiles)” (Acts 15:11).

To be sure, the focus on the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus does not negate the significance of Christ’s suffering in the Luke-Acts narrative as a whole. It was at the scene of the crucifixion that the Gentile centurion declared Jesus to be a righteous man (Luke 23:47). In Acts it becomes clear that the Jewish rejection of the crucified Christ frequently leads to the spreading of the gospel among the Gentiles (See Acts 13, 14, 18 and 28). As well, Jesus’ suffering on the cross becomes the backdrop to Paul’s understanding that those who follow Christ will also have to endure hardships (Acts 14:22).

But the proclamation in Acts of salvation for all who believe rests squarely on the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead and exalted to the right hand of the Father, not on the fact that he suffered a terrible death on the cross.