Color

David Bebbington (1989) nominates the 1730s as the birth of what has become known as evangelical Christianity in Great Britain (20).⁶⁸ During this founding period of British evangelicalism, three figures are often cited as being of particular significance.

The first is John Wesley (1703-1791)⁶⁹ who was the founder of Methodism.⁷⁰

Concerning Wesley‘s atonement theology, in his sermons, substitutionary and juridical understandings of the atonement can certainly be located. For example, in his sermon entitled ‗Salvation by Faith‘ ([1738] 1984), Wesley said ‗salvation […] implies a deliverance from guilt and punishment, by the atonement of Christ actually applied to the soul of the sinner‘ (124). Furthermore in his sermon ‗Justification by Faith‘ ([1746]

1984) he also talked of how ‗by the offence of one [Adam] judgement came upon all men [sic]‘, yet as a result of ‗his well-beloved Son, of which he hath done and suffered for us, God now vouchsafes […] both to remit the punishment due to our sins [and] to reinstate us in his favour‘ (186). In the very same sermon however, Wesley also

utilised a whole variety of alternative atonement images. This includes ransom images:

‗Plead thou singly the blood of the covenant, the ransom paid for thy proud, stubborn, sinful soul‘ (199). Quoting language from the liturgy of the Lord‘s Supper in the

68 Stephen Holmes (2008) agrees with this dating for the commencement of British evangelicalism.

Other scholars though have advocated an earlier dating. Michael Haykin (2008: 52ff), for example, has sought to emphasise the ‗great deal of continuity between Puritanism and evangelicalism‘ (60). A.T.B.

McGowan (2008) also asserts that in a Scottish context ‗there is an unbroken line of evangelicalism from John Knox (c. 1514-72) to William Cunningham (1805-61)‘ (63). For Bebbington‘s response to these alternate positions see Bebbington (2008).

69 R.G. Tuttle (2001) describes John Wesley as the ‗primary figure in the eighteenth-century Evangelistic Revival‘ (1266).

70 The Methodists remained a group within the established Church of England during Wesley‘s lifetime only finally becoming a separate denomination from the Church of England in 1797 (Tuttle 2001: 1266;

Mickey 2001: 768). P.A. Mickey (2001) described Methodism as a ‗name designating several Protestant groups, Methodism has its roots in the work of John and Charles Wesley. […] A friend and Oxford classmate of the Wesleys, George Whitefield, was also instrumental in forming the Holy Club (c. 1725) which stressed ―inward religion, the religion of the heart.‖ These awakenings, coupled with the club‘s insistence on exacting discipline in scholastic as well as spiritual matters, earned its members the jeering title of Methodists by 1729‘ (767).

75 Church of England Book of Common Prayer, he also adopted atonement images of

sacrifice, satisfaction, redemption and recapitulation:

He [Jesus] made his soul an offering for sin.‘ He ‗bare [sic] our sins in his own body on the tree‘ […]. ‗And by that one oblation of himself once offered‘ he ‗hath redeemed me and all mankind‘ [sic]; having thereby ‗made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world‘. […] Even so by the sacrifice for sin made by the second Adam, as the representative for all of us, God is so far reconciled to all the world that he hath given them a new covenant. (186-87)

This trend of using a variety of atonement images continued in Wesley‘s work, The Principles of a Methodist ([1742] 1989). In this he represented in juridical terms Jesus‘

death as achieving ‗the satisfaction of God‘s justice by offering his body and shedding his blood‘ (51). Yet on the same page, he also referred to the significance of Jesus‘

death in terms of ransom:

For whereas all the world was not able to pay any part towards their ransom it pleased him, without any of our deserving, to prepare for us Christ‘s body and blood, whereby our ransom might be paid, ‗his law fulfilled, and his justice satisfied‘ […] ‗He for them paid the ransom by his death…‘. (51)

This phenomenon continued in the work edited by John Wesley ([1780] 1983) entitled A Collection of Hymns, For The Use of the People Called Methodists.⁷¹ In Hymn 123 for example, while containing a sacrificial image of Jesus as the Lamb of God, the language of justice and punishment permeates the hymn as do images of Jesus standing in punishment for the worshipper singing these lines expressed emphatically in

Verse 7:

71 Stephen Holmes (2008) maintains that John Wesley‘s younger brother Charles Wesley (1707-88) is regarded as having made a significant contribution to this work (269).

76 6. Guilty I stand before thy face,

On me I feel thy wrath abide;

‘Tis just the sentence should take place,

‘Tis just – but Oh! thy Son hath died!

7. Jesus, the Lamb of God hath bled, He bore our sins upon the Tree!

Beneath our curse he bowed his head:

‘Tis finished! He hath died for me.

8. For me I now believe he died;

He made my every crime his own;

Fully for me he satisfied; Father,

well-pleased behold thy Son! (Wesley [1780] 1983: 234)

However in the section of hymns in this book entitled For Believers Saved there are again numerous other atonement images which can be identified including: ransom (Hymns 406, 411 and 414), sacrifice (Hymn 415) and cosmic victory (Hymns 407 and 427) (Wesley [1780] 1983: 582ff).

The second person often associated with this initial period of British

evangelicalism is John Wesley‘s Oxford University and subsequent ministry colleague, George Whitefield (1714-1770).⁷² In his Sermon entitled Of Justification by Christ (1771-1772a), Whitefield employed an expressly penal and juridical understanding of the human predicament

he [God] hath also given us both a natural and a written law, whereby we are to be judged […] and that each of us hath broken these laws, is too evident from our sad and frequent experience […]. And if we are thus offenders against God, it follows, that we stand in need of forgiveness for thus offending Him; […] he demands our obedience to that law, and has obliged us

universally and perseveringly to obey it, under no less a penalty than incurring his curse and eternal death for every breach of it […] unless some means can be found to satisfy God's justice, we must perish eternally. (Whitefield 1771-1772a)

72 Mark Noll (2001a) has described George Whitefield as the ‗best-known evangelist of the eighteenth century and one of the greatest itinerant preachers in the history of Protestantism‘

(1273).

77 Later in this sermon, when discussing the effect of Jesus‘ death, he also emphasised the substitutionary character of Jesus‘ atoning work within a broadly juridical framework along with an accompanying reference to ransom: ‗because nothing but an infinite ransom could satisfy an infinitely offended justice, [God] should send his only and dear Son Jesus Christ […] [to] die a cursed, painful, ignominious death, for us and for our salvation! (Whitefield 1771-1772a). In his sermon entitled The Power of Christ's Resurrection, Whitefield combines together various atonement images (including:

redemption, Christus Victor and sacrifice) when explaining the substitutionary significance of Jesus‘ death:

It had pleased the Father […] to wound his only Son for our transgressions, and to arrest and confine him in the prison of the grave, as our surety for the guilt we had contracted by setting at nought his commandments. Now had Christ continued always in the grave, we could have had no more assurance that our sins were satisfied for, than any common debtor can have of his creditor's being satisfied, whilst his surety is kept confined. But he being released from the power of death, we are thereby assured, that with his sacrifice God was well pleased, that our atonement was finished on the cross, and that he hath made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the world. (Whitefield 1771-1772b)

The third prominent evangelical of this period was the Massachusetts Congregationalist Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758).⁷³ In some of Edwards‘ early sermons, he also employed a variety of images to understand the significance of the atoning work of Christ. In his sermon God Glorified In Man’s Dependence ([1731]

1999), he preached about the substitutionary nature of Christ‘s death anchored in a combination of mercantile and juridical understandings:

73 Concerning the corpus of his theological work, Mark Noll (2001b) commented that Edwards

‗produced one of the most thorough and compelling bodies of theological writing in the history of America‘ (366). Though not a British evangelical, Edwards did have direct ministry associations with British evangelicals of this period, such as George Whitefield (Gordon 1991: 41).

78

‘Tis of God that we actually do receive all the benefits that Christ has

purchased. ‘Tis God that pardons and justifies and delivers from going down to hell, and ‘tis his favour that the redeemed are received into, and are made the objects of, when they are justified. (202-3)⁷⁴

Further and more specific emphasis is placed upon a penal substitutionary

understanding of Jesus‘ death in his famous sermon entitled Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God ([1741] 2003). Here Edwards employed vividly juridical language to characterise the human predicament, passionately stressing that humans

deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way […]

justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins […].They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They don't only justly deserve to be cast down thither; but the sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind [sic], is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over already to hell. (405-406)

However, as George Marsden (2003) has noted, the motif of Christ‘s cosmic victory over Satan is also extremely significant in Edwards‘ theology (194). Thus in ‗Sermon Thirty‘ Edwards ([1744] 1989) explained by use of battleground imagery that:

God glorifies his strength in the church‘s weakness in making his people, that are like a number of little infants, finally to triumph over all earth and hell, so that they shall tread on the lion and adder. The glorious power of God appears in conquering his many and mighty enemies by that person that once [was] an infant in a manger, and appeared as a poor, weak, despised man. He conquers them and triumphs over them in their own weapon, the cross of Christ. (305)

Thus with respect to the first period of the founding fathers of British

evangelicalism, the work of these three seminal figures in British and North American

74 Later in this sermon Edwards adds in the theme of sacrifice: ‗Yea, God is both the purchaser and the price; for Christ, who is God, purchased these blessings for us, by offering up himself as the price of our salvation. He purchased eternal life by the sacrifice of himself […] ―He offered up himself‖ and […] He hath appeared to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself‘ (Edwards [1731] 1999: 207).

79 evangelicalism supports the conclusion that they unanimously conceived of Christ‘s atoning work in substitutionary terms. However concerning how this substitutionary atonement is to be anchored, while juridical and penal substitutionary terms can definitely be identified, these were by no means unique. Other atonement theologies and metaphors were also utilised, often in combination. The use of juridical images by these three founding evangelicals also seemed completely uncontroversial (Holmes 2008: 270) and they appeared to move naturally and fluidly between different atonement images within the same writings.⁷⁵