How Can an Evangelical Emphasis on the Atonement Go Wrong?

For a while now I have thought that, as deeply ironic as it might be, it is possible for things to go wrong in the midst of an emphasis on substitutionary atonement. I have absolutely no doubt that the reality of Christ's substitutionary sacrifice on the cross is at the very heart of the Christian faith. But even this crucial doctrine can be conceived of in ways that are so man-centered and self-centered that its real meaning is subverted.

So I was struck by a blog post that I saw today, that makes essentially the same point, triggered by a quote from John Stott's classic book, "The Cross of Christ":

"… if we dare to call our Judge our Father we must beware of presuming on him. It must even be said that our evangelical emphasis on the atonement is dangerous if we come to it too quickly. We learn to appreciate the access to God which Christ has won for us only after we have first seen God's inaccessibility to sinners. We can cry ‘Hallelujah’ with authenticity only after we have first cried ‘Woe is me, for I am lost’." (p.109)