Atonement as Gift

I came across this article on the atonement by Kelly Kapic and wanted to share this selection:

The strangeness of the gospel is that God's kingdom comes not by taking but by giving: God gives himself in Son and Spirit, making us his (John 3:16; 14:16-17). From creation and humanity's fall, to Jesus and his coming kingdom, the whole Christian story is founded on the dynamic gift and reality of belonging to God.

In this light, the atonement is more fully appreciated. Humanity's plunge into sin and death is overcome only by the life of God in Jesus Christ: driven by divine love, the Son overcomes the damning power of sin, death, and the devil. In and through Jesus's atoning life and work, God overcomes the darkness of sin, maintains his justice, and expresses his love. The cross is not the precondition of God's love but the very manifestation of his love as gift: he is given for us. In this way he maintains his holy love-in no way compromising his character.

This broader story of gift helps inform all metaphors, images, and theories concerning the atonement, for, in the end, we can be sure of this: that God so loved, he gave, and this giving in the atonement is "for us" so that we might be reconciled to the God from whom we were estranged (John 3:16; 2 Cor 5:19). Only in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection are we, by his Spirit, renewed in our communion with the Triune God.

This is from the “Atonement” entry in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (3rd edition, 2017), p. 99.