atonement

• Christus Victor - Aulen

  God made a bad deal with the devil meaning that he could have the souls of all humans - Christ acts as bait conquering death and the devil
• Christus victor summarised

  View of God - weak and limited

  Humanities role - damsel in distress

  Tone - positive and victorious "O death where is your sting, O death where is your victory"
• Christus Victor


  A theme in the gospels where the evil of the world is concentrated into one place (Jesus), and the victory of the cross and resurrection was a victory over that evil
• N.T. Wright: 'The gospels contain a "dark strand", a theme of evil "clustering around Jesus", starting in Matthew where Herod slaughters the babies to try and kill Jesus until in Luke's telling of the arrest in the garden, Jesus says "This is your hour and the power of darkness"'
• The evil of the world is concentrated into one place (Jesus)

  The victory of the cross and resurrection was a victory over that evil
• Paul: '"God condemned Sin in the flesh of the Messiah" and that Christ "disarmed the principalities and powers" and made a public spectacle out of them (Colossians 2:15)'
• Christ's victory over evil

  Has brought an opportunity for progress towards the kingdom of God coming to earth
• Kingdom of God coming to earth

  "as it is in heaven"
• Primary significance of the Cross

  Part of the theme of the kingdom of God coming to be established on earth, a messianic victory over the "powers" of evil
• The various theories of the atonement (representative, substitution, moral example) all flow out of the context of the kingdom of God coming to earth and Christ's victory over evil
• satisfaction theory - Anselm 


  Satisfaction means reparation. Adam and Eve’s original sin was an offense against an infinite being – God. The offense taken against God’s justice was therefore infinite and the repayment of the debt required to make up for that offense must therefore be infinite. Since humans are only finite, the only way to forgive their sins and offense was to for God to pay the debt by sacrificing Jesus, since Jesus was divine and therefore infinite. Jesus’ sacrifice was ‘supererogation’ of merit. - based on the feudal model
• Penal substitution

  Development of Anselm's satisfaction theory by protestant reformers
• Reformers claimed substitution theory should be based on God's justice, not God's offence taking or honour
• Anselm's view

  Jesus' death made up for the honour God lost for the offense caused to him by original sin
• Penal substitution theory


  God's moral law required punishment to occur for justice to be done, Jesus sacrificed himself to fulfil that justice by suffering the punishment instead of us
• Jesus sacrificed himself

  Humans set free from sin
• Isaiah 53:6, Galatians 3:13: 'Suffering Servant Songs in the Old Testament made descriptions of a suffering God'
• Expiate


  To annul or cancel sin
• Propitiate


  To regain God's favour or by putting to rest his wrath or satisfying his justice
• Christ's death was both expiating of sin and propitiating of God
• Much of the work of Christian theologians on the atonement has focused on the etymological sense of atonement as reconciliation or oneness
• Christian theologians have "completely ignored the Biblical understanding of atonement as expiation or purging or cleansing"
• Theories of atonement by Christian theologians "have nothing to do with atonement in the biblical sense of the word and therefore are not adequate theories of the atonement"
• William Lane Craig argues these points
• Abelard's view on God's justice and forgiveness

  God's justice might indeed want an atoning payment to restore his honour, but that God's love is so boundless and unlimited that it overrules his need for honour. God's nature as omnibenevolent means that nothing prevents him from forgiving humanity. No satisfaction or substitution is needed.
• Abelard: 'God forgave us for our sins, and the point of the Cross was to show his righteousness so that he could be the "justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus".'
• Abelard's view on the purpose of the Cross

  The Cross was atoning by representing such an inspiring moral example that humanity is influenced by it to avoid sin.
• Abelard's view on how the atonement redeems us

  Our redemption through the suffering of Christ, inspired "that deeper love within us which not only frees us from slavery to sin, but also secures for us the true liberty of the children of God." This means that Jesus' sacrifice did not itself directly save us from our sins, but because he sacrificed himself it provided such an inspiring case of a moral role model that it has the indirect power to influence us to act more morally ourselves, which will save us from sin.
• There is significant focus in the Bible on moral preaching e.g sermon on the mount
• Purpose of moral preaching in the Bible

  The most obvious purpose of that is to influence people to act more morally.
• Passages referring to final judgement, like the parable of the sheep and the goats

  Link it to moral conduct, thereby implying that salvation is dependent on how we act
• How influencing us to act better will encourage salvation

  Influencing us to act better will therefore encourage salvation.