Our contemporary preaching of the gospel message would be improved by making better use of the much neglected and misunderstood subject of divine judgment. The breadth of the biblical use of judgment is considered in this article and it is argued that judgment as a metaphor of atonement provides the wider context in which penal substitution should be understood. The metaphor of judgment can also be a means of coordinating disparate biblical images of the atonement. The author proposes that judgment is the primary metaphor of atonement and that redemption, victory and sacrifice are best understood in its light as subordinate metaphors to judgment.