Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 178:710 (Apr 2021)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Matthew S. DeMoss

BSac 178:710 (April-June 2021) p. 240

Book Reviews

By The Faculty And Staff Of Dallas Theological Seminary

Matthew S. DeMoss

Editor

The Mosaic of Atonement: An Integrated Approach to Christ’s Work. By Joshua M. McNall. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2019. 338 pp. $34.99.

Joshua McNall serves as assistant professor of theology at Oklahoma Wesleyan University (Bartlesville, OK). While relatively young as a scholar, McNall is fairly prolific as a writer. The Mosaic of Atonement demonstrates depth of scholarship, theological acumen, and practical directives. As the title conveys, he likens the many aspects of Christ’s saving work to a grand mosaic—neither as scattered pieces nor as a densely pixilated photograph. The author divides the work into four major blocks, likening the mosaic to the feet, the heart, the head, and the hands of Christ’s atoning work. He rejects both a kaleidoscope view of the atonement (a take-your-pick approach) and a single or central hierarchical model such as penal substitution.

Part 1 (chaps. 1–3) develops Irenaeus’s model of recapitulation as foundational (“the feet”) to a holistic atonement theology: this is the classical model in which Jesus Christ is the “second Adam” and new Israel. McNall appreciates the patristic understanding of Christ as the archetypal man (the true imago dei) in whose image humanity is created and who through his incarnation sets all things right (Eph 1:10). Jesus Christ initiates the process of “reheadshipping” all things.

In “Where Are You Adam?” (chap. 2), the author respects scientific assumptions that humanity evolved from a broad biological ancestry with other living things. Presenting various evangelical options, he suggests (tentatively) that God chose from among other hominins Adam and Eve to be uniquely imago dei, hence with moral uprightness as representatives of the human race (71–73).

Wending through theological opinions, McNall deems the recapitulation model as the grounds that provide the “foundational presuppositions” (94) for the other major aspects of the atonement. He asks if through Christ’s blood all things have been reconciled to God (Col 1:19), how then does one avoid universal salvation? Weighing the views of T. F. Torrance and John Wesley, McNutt affirms (with Wesley) the need for prevenient grace that enables saving faith in personal response to Christ’s substitutionary death for sin.

Part 2 (chaps. 4–7) exposits penal substitution, the doctrine that Christ vicariously represents (“with us”) and substitutes for (“instead of...