On Biblical Interpretation

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A Review of LAMB OF THE FREE by Andrew Rillera

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  Rillera, Andrew R.  Lamb of the Free: Recovering the Varied Sacrificial Understandings of Jesus's Death . Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2024.   Reviewed b y Kelly D. Liebengood Jesus saves. But how ? And in particular, what did Jesus accomplish in his death? Historically, most Protestant traditions have replied that he died to offer himself as an atoning sacrifice. That is, in his death, Jesus stood in the place of sinners (substitution) and took upon himself the punishment for sins (penal) that they committed in order to appease God’s wrath, to satisfy his justice, and to secure forgiveness of sins (atonement). In Lamb of the Free , Rillera disassembles the building blocks for this prominent interpretation of Jesus’s death (often referred to as penal substitutionary atonement [henceforth, PSA]), and replaces them with an account of the saving significance of Jesus’s death that is coherently aligned with the logic of Old Testament sacrifice and the prophetic expectations t...
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Putting Lent in Its Proper Place: A Homily for Ash Wednesday

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  Putting Lent in Its Proper Place. A Homily for Ash Wednesday February 18, 2026 By Kelly Liebengood Lent is dangerous if we do not put it in its proper place! If we do not engage this season within its larger context, we run the risk of either agitating our propensity toward self-absorption and/or self-loathing; or even worse, developing a confidence that we have achieved God’s favor through performance. So, putting Lent in its proper context is critical if we are going to benefit from it. That is to say, if we are going to be healed, if we are going to mature, if we are going to be more conformed to Jesus and what he wants for us during this season, we will need to grow into what Jesus knows about us; we will need to embrace what is most true about us. And what does Jesus know about us? What is it that is most true about us? That before we are anything else, we are first loved. Before we are sinners; before we totally depraved; before we were in need of forgiveness and redemption...
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Christian Fellowship is Not an Ideal But a Divine Reality: A Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter 2020

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Acts 2.42-47 Psalm 23 1 Peter 2.19-25 John 10.1-10  Christian Fellowship Is Not an Ideal but a Divine Reality It’s hard to imagine a more beautiful scene than the one described for us at the end of Acts 2: Spirit-birthed togetherness, harmony, devotion to the Scriptures, awe and wonder; gratitude, radical generosity, hospitality, prayer, the breaking of bread,  and heart-felt worship. For almost two thousand years, this scene has inspired churches throughout the ages to “get back to its roots”. Is this not ultimately what we all long for, to be in a community like this? It feels strange to read this passage today in our time of social distancing and isolation, and in our age of increasing tribalism.  As you may remember, we flash this passage up on the big screen each Sunday before the Prayers of the People as a reminder of why we structure our corporate gathering the way we do. We gather in devotion to the apostles teachings (Scripture reading an...
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