The argument of this book is that judgment, understood as the whole process of bringing justice, is the primary metaphor of atonement, along with other metaphors—such as victory, redemption, and sacrifice—which are subordinate to it. Judgment also provides the proper context for understanding penal substitution and the calls to repentance, baptism, Eucharist, and holiness.
“We shall take ‘atonement’ to mean the bringing together of two parties who have become estranged, literally at-one-ment.5 It will also be used to refer to the state of harmony brought about through such an action.” (Page 3)
“The word that it proclaims constantly affirms people in the state in which they find themselves and refuses to disturb them from it.” (Page 144)