The Atonement Is Not a Transaction

Why Financial Metaphors Fail to Explain the Atonement

Taylor Halverson
January 15, 2026

Many explain Christ’s atonement as a debt paid or account settled, but that image shrinks the beauty of what God is really doing. In Scripture, redemption is not a transaction to end a deal but a covenant that restores belonging. Discover how God’s goal has always been presence, not payment.

Debt vs Repayment Models of the Atonement Hide God’s Desire for Belonging

Modern Christian and Latter-day Saint discourse often explains the atonement of Jesus Christ using financial language: debt, payment, price, and settlement. These metaphors feel intuitive in market societies shaped by contracts, accounting, and legal finality. Yet they subtly distort the most ancient and enduring way God revealed His love. Financial analogies, while not entirely wrong, obscure the covenantal heart of divine redemption as it appears in the Old Testament and is reaffirmed in the Book of Mormon.

The earliest revelations of God do not emerge in economic abstraction but in relationships. God binds Himself to people through berit, covenant. Covenant is not a transaction that ends when terms are satisfied. It is a living bond that creates belonging, obligation, loyalty, and shared future. When Scripture speaks of sin, it does not first imagine a ledger in deficit but a relationship in rupture, a life out of alignment, a people estranged from their God and from one another.

Financial Metaphors Inevitably Imply Finality

The word “financial” itself comes from fin, meaning end. Accounts are closed. Debts are discharged. Obligations cease. But covenantal love works in the opposite direction. It seeks not closure but continuation. God’s redemptive work is aimed at making it possible for Him to dwell with His people again. The goal is presence, not settlement.

This is why Old Testament sacrificial language does not function as payment. The Hebrew verb often translated “make atonement” (kippēr) does not mean to pay off a debt. It means to wipe, cleanse, cover, or repair. The sanctuary is purified so God can remain among Israel. The people are restored so covenant life can continue. Justice here is not retribution but restoration of right order.

Debt Language in Scripture, When It Appears, Is Relational

To owe is to lack, to stand in need, to be bound by obligation. Obligation itself is kinship language. It presumes relationship. Money, by contrast, is a later technological abstraction designed to manage obligation impersonally. When that abstraction becomes the controlling metaphor for salvation, relationship is flattened into transaction and belonging is reduced to acquittal.

The Book of Mormon strongly preserves the older covenantal grammar. While it occasionally uses redemption language familiar to Christians, its dominant images are unmistakably relational. People are invited to “come unto Christ,” to be “encircled in the arms of his love,” to become “sons and daughters,” to enter and remain in covenant. These are not accounting terms. They are family terms, homecoming terms, belonging terms.

Metaphors Shape Theology and Discipleship

This matters theologically because metaphors shape discipleship. If the atonement is understood primarily as a financial transaction, discipleship becomes optional gratitude for a debt already settled. If the atonement is understood covenantally, discipleship is inevitable. To be redeemed is to be re-bound into a life of loyalty, trust, and shared identity. Obligation is not erased; it is transformed from fear-based liability into love-based fidelity.

Rethinking Mercy vs Justice-They Are Not In Opposition

The popular framing of justice and mercy as opposing forces that must be balanced through payment also reflects later legal philosophy, not ancient revelation. In Scripture, justice and mercy are not rivals. Justice is how mercy takes shape in the real world. God’s justice restores the vulnerable, repairs what is broken, and re-establishes communal life. Mercy is covenant loyalty refusing to abandon relationship even when betrayal has occurred.

When financial metaphors dominate, God risks appearing constrained by an abstract system He did not create, a cosmic economy that demands suffering before love can act. The covenantal witness of Scripture insists on the opposite. God acts first to heal, restore, and reclaim His people so life together can continue.

The atonement of Jesus Christ is not the closing of accounts. It is the reopening of covenant life. It is God absorbing the cost of restoration so His children can belong again. Financial language may gesture toward sacrifice, but only covenant language reveals the heart of God.

In returning to the relational metaphors of the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon, we do not abandon justice. We recover its ancient meaning. We rediscover a God whose deepest work is not transaction, but faithful, enduring love.

—Taylor Halverson, Ph.D.
Learn Deeply. Live Meaningfully. Spread Light and Goodness!

Want more? Try Teacher’s Circle, a guided learning community for those who teach, lead, or lift others spiritually.

PS: Transactional vs Relational Atonement: A Conceptual Contrast Chart

Category	Western Transactional Frame	Ancient Near Eastern Relational Frame
Core Metaphor	Finance, law, accounting	Family, covenant, home
Primary Question	“What was paid?”	“Who can live together again?”
Problem of Sin	Legal guilt, owed penalty	Broken relationship, disorder
Meaning of Debt	Monetary liability	Lack, obligation within relationship
Justice	Satisfaction through payment	Restoration of right order
Atonement Goal	Accounts closed	Communion restored
Time Orientation	Final, completed	Ongoing, enduring
Role of Christ	Substitute payer	Mediator, healer, kin
Nature of Obligation	Cancelled	Transformed into loyalty
God’s Role	Judge enforcing law	Father restoring household
Human Role	Accept payment	Return, trust, remain
Salvation	Status change	Belonging change
Discipleship	Optional gratitude	Inevitable participation
Covenant	Contract	Kinship bond
Sacrifice	Transactional exchange	Ritual repair enabling presence
Forgiveness	Debt erased	Relationship healed
Repentance	Legal admission	Return and reorientation
Community	Secondary outcome	Central goal
Grace	Unmerited acquittal	Unearned welcome
End State	Case closed	Life together renewed

Why the Transactional Model Persuades

It feels clear, efficient, and fair. It works well in modern legal and economic cultures where impersonal systems dominate. But it misreads the Bible’s social world, which lacked abstract markets and prized honor, loyalty, and kinship.

Transaction metaphors answer modern anxieties about guilt.
They do not answer ancient questions about belonging.

Why the Relational Model Fits Scripture

Biblical authors assumed:

People exist within households
Wrongdoing fractures community
Repair requires presence, not payment
Justice means life can continue together

This is why sacrifice restores access, why forgiveness precedes reform, and why covenant is never dissolved lightly.

Atonement is not about God changing His mind.
It is about making room for God to stay.

Theological Consequences

If atonement is transactional:

Salvation becomes minimal
Obedience becomes optional
Community becomes secondary
Christ’s work feels finished without us

If atonement is relational:

Salvation means incorporation
Obedience expresses belonging
Community becomes essential
Christ’s work continues with us

Ancient Near Eastern clarity

In the Ancient Near East:

You did not “pay” to be family
You did not “settle” covenant
You did not “close” relationships

You repaired, returned, renewed, or were cut off.

The Bible overwhelmingly chooses the first path.

Book of Mormon alignment

The Book of Mormon strongly reinforces the relational model:

“Come unto Christ”
“Encircled in the arms of his love”
“Becoming sons and daughters”
“Covenant people”

These are belonging verbs, not accounting verbs. The text adopts Ancient Near Eastern covenant logic and quietly resists modern transactional reduction.

Final synthesis

Transaction asks: “Is it finished?”
Covenant asks: “Will you stay?”

The atonement of Jesus Christ is not the end of obligation.
It is the beginning of restored life together.

Some journeys change how you read scripture.
Others change how you live it.
Expand your journey on a life changing tour with me. ExodusTours.com.

A New Translation of the Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy (by Taylor Halverson, Ph.D.)

This downloadable PDF e-Book presents A New Translation of the Torah providing a fresh, faithful translation of the Five Books of Moses. Scholar Taylor Halverson removes ancient barriers using Tran...

$29.99 usd

The Covenant Path in the Bible & the Book of Mormon

The Covenant Path in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, available as a downloadable PDF e-Book, reveals how God’s covenants shape sacred history and personal discipleship. Through clear scholarship ...

$9.99 usd

Scripture Insights | ExodusTours.com | Instagram | E-Books | Teacher’s Circle

The Atonement Is Not a Transaction

Subscribe to keep reading

Keep Reading

STAY CONNECTED