Description: In Nothing but the Blood of Jesus, J. D. Myers provides a careful look at what the Bible teaches about sin, law, sacrifice, scapegoating, and blood. The book examines the significance of each of these five words in relation to the gospel, and also considers numerous biblical texts about each. The Foreword is by Brad Jersak.
Review Quotes:
"Nothing but the Blood of Jesus is nothing but good. From sin to salvation, Jeremy Myers takes readers step by step through the workings of God's grace to expose the structures of scapegoating and to redeem a humanity fallen victim to the ensuing violence. Channeling René Girard and the biblical authors, Myers aptly shows how the blood of Jesus cleanses us from endless cycles of violence and takes us instead into endless cycles of divine/human forgiveness, grace, and peace for the glory of God and the furtherance of God's kingdom."
-Sharon Baker Putt, Professor of Theology and Religion, and author of Executing God
"When we talk about the cross of Christ and how it is that we find salvation in it, we inevitably begin to use words like sin, law, and sacrifice. But these words are always in danger of collapsing into empty religious cliché. Thankfully, J. D. Myers takes us beyond the realm of cliché and into substantive answers in his book, Nothing but the Blood of Jesus. The chief task in atonement theology is to think about the cross in ways that do not project upon God our own sins of retributive violence. This is what Nothing but the Blood of Jesus achieves."
-Brian Zahnd, Lead Pastor of Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri, and author of Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God
"Building on his previous book, The Atonement of God, the work of René Girard, and a solid grounding in the Scriptures, Jeremy Myers shares fresh and challenging insights with us about sin, law, sacrifice, scapegoating, and blood. This book reveals to us how truly precious the blood of Jesus is and the way of escaping the cycle of blame, rivalry, scapegoating, sacrifice, and violence that has plagued humanity since the time of Cain and Abel. Nothing but the Blood of Jesus is an important and timely literary contribution to a world desperately in need of the non-violent message of Jesus."
-Wesley Rostoll, author of Seeing the Cross with New Eyes
"Every Sunday, countless Evangelicals, with their embedded sacrificial mindset, sing of how the blood of Jesus washes away their sins. But what does this really mean? In Nothing but the Blood of Jesus, Myers puts forth an answer that may surprise most. With a strict adherence to both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, the author gently guides his readers through heavy issues like sin, the law, sacrifice, and scapegoating, beautifully concluding his survey with a subversive look at how the blood of Jesus, as we Christians proclaim, indeed saves us."
-Matthew J. Distefano, regular contributor for Unfundamentalist Christians on Patheos, and author of From the Blood of Abel
"Many pastors of mainline churches struggle to explain the cross to their congregations. My churches have often seen themselves as "Christmas and Easter churches," but not "Lent and Good Friday churches." The mainline church needs to reclaim Lent and Good Friday, and to do this, we need to reclaim the cross. Jeremy Myers' book Nothing but the Blood of Jesus does just that. Read this book alone or with your community to discover the radically nonviolent love of God that Jesus revealed on the cross."
-Rev. Adam Ericksen, Education Coordinator at the Raven Foundation and Minister of Faith Development at Lake Oswego United Church of Christ