by Hugh Martin
in ePub, .mobi & .pdf formats
“The Atonement” by Hugh Martin is not merely another theological treatment of Christ’s death—it is a precision strike against every shallow, sentimental, or speculative view that dares diminish the glory of Calvary. With razor-sharp clarity and covenantal depth, Martin sets forth the Atonement not as an isolated doctrine to be endlessly theorized, but as a divinely revealed reality—rooted in the eternal covenant, executed through Christ’s priestly office, and perpetually applied by His intercession.
Martin’s central conviction is this: you cannot rightly understand the atonement unless you understand it within the framework of the Covenant of Grace. The Son of God did not die as a tragic victim or moral influence—but as the covenant Surety of His elect, fulfilling the terms of an eternal agreement between the Father and the Son. The cross is not an abstract symbol of love or divine tolerance. It is the covenantal curse borne by the Mediator on behalf of a covenant people, and it is efficacious—it saves. Martin defends substitutionary atonement with towering logic and scriptural precision, showing that only a federal framework can withstand the philosophical assaults that have plagued weaker views of the cross.
This volume unfolds in three dimensions:
Covenant – the legal, relational, and redemptive structure in which Christ acts on behalf of His people;
Priesthood – the sacred office that makes Christ’s death a divinely accepted offering, not a mere example;
Intercession – the continuation of Christ’s priestly ministry, ensuring that what He accomplished is unfailingly applied.
Along the way, Martin dismantles Amyraldian compromise, exposes the futility of "universal atonement" as both philosophically incoherent and theologically dishonest, and shows how the rejection of covenant theology inevitably leads to either cold rationalism or hollow mysticism.
If you are weary of vague preaching on the cross, and long to see the glory, sufficiency, and necessity of the atonement set forth with reverent boldness, this book will be a feast for your soul and a fortress for your mind. Read it slowly. Wrestle with its categories. And behold the Lamb of God, not as an abstraction, but as the faithful Covenant-keeper, the true High Priest, and the living Intercessor of His people.
"Hugh Martin did not belong to the type of theologian who simply pours new wine into old wine bottles, or vice versa. He thought through the truth from first principles, always sensitive to the text of Scripture. Thus the reader is never left simply ticking off boxes, 'heard that', 'know this'...In addition, it should be said that The Atonement is not Martin's easiest book. But precisely for that reason it is wonderful medicine for the Christian mind and will open up new veins of evangelical truth for preachers to mine. Perhaps for some it will provide entirely new land on which to graze. In today's context it is scarcely possible to over-estimate how valuable his work is. Professor John Murray was surely right to say that, "At no time in the history of Scotland was the church of Christ adorned with a brighter galaxy of gifted and devoted ministers of the gospel than in the middle half of the nineteenth century '...Among these names none deserved more honor than that of Hugh Martin.'"
--Sinclair B. Ferguson
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
I. ATONEMENT AND THE COVENANT OF GRACE
II. ATONEMENT AND THE FEDERAL THEOLOGY
III. ATONEMENT AND CHRIST'S PRIESTLY OFFICE
IV. CHRIST'S PRIESTLY ACTION IN HIS DEATH
V. ATONEMENT AND INTERCESSION:—I. THE DIRECT ARGUMENT
VI. ATONEMENT AND INTERCESSION:—II. THE INVERSE ARGUMENT
VII. ATONEMENT AND REMISSION
VIII. THE COUNTER-IMPUTATIONS OF SIN AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
IX. ROBERTSON OF BRIGHTON'S VIEWS OF VICARIOUS SACRIFICE
X. ATONEMENT, AND THE DISTINCTIVE PECULIARITY OF MORAL LAW
APPENDIX:—A DISCOURSE ON GOD'S BLESSEDNESS AND HIS STATUTES