What Did the Cross Accomplish?: A Conversation about the Atonement

by N.T. Wright

Why have I started with Ezekiel 33–34? These passages exemplify an important tendency in the Bible, a tendency that some modern scholars are not happy about. That is the fact that all the way through Scripture, we see two aspects of God’s saving activity juxtaposed. On one side, we see liberation; on the other side, we see forgiveness of sins. In these passages, Ezekiel 33 records God’s promise: “None of the sins that they have committed will be remembered against them.” Then the next chapter (34) issues God’s declaration: “I am the LORD when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslave them.” Side by side we have the forgiveness of sins and liberation, breaking the enslaving bars. The Ezekiel passage we just looked at also has an important third dimension to it. That is what we saw in chapter 34, that God has appointed a representative whom he will use to effect this salvation. In this third dimension, David is that representative. “The LORD will be their God, and [his] servant David will be their shepherd.” God will save them, but David will tend the flock. This is not the historical David, who had been dead for several hundred years when Ezekiel was prophesying, but a future Davidic figure. Ezekiel was looking forward to that figure.