Christ's Atonement as the Model for Civil Justice

Jeffrey C. Tuomala, Christ’s Atonement as the Model for Civil Justice, 38 Am. J. Juris. 221 (1993).

This article explains: “Legal doctrines are justified by, and maintain coherence as part of, a particular worldview. . . . The doctrine of Christ’s atonement is of singular importance for theories of punishment as it is the judicial archetype of the way in which God deals with sin and crime. . . . The civil magistrate, as “minister of God for justice,” should deal with crime and civil wrongs according to the same principles by which God deals with sin through the atonement.” This is a must read; it sets the groundwork for a theory of justice based upon God’s justice.