The Atonement
…. was crucified, died, and was buried ….
Did Jesus have to die in the way he did? Was his death inevitable at that point in history? What does the manner in which he died mean for us today?
Atonement
In Christian theology, the Doctrine of the Atonement deals with man’s reconciliation with God through the sacrificial death of Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Christ died for our sins” (1Corinthians 13.3). But the translation from Greek could be misleading. The word for translates from the Greek buper which actually means on behalf of. This can mean different things to different people. The early church taught that the death of Christ was a debt paid to Satan, who had acquired rights over man by the fall. The general patristic teaching is that Christ is our representative, not our substitute, and that the effect of his suffering, obedience, and resurrection extends to the whole of humanity. Anslem (c1100) maintained the death of Christ was nor a ransom paid to the devil, but a debt paid to the Father. Luther rejected the satisfaction theory and taught that Christ, in bearing by voluntary substitution the punishment due to man, was reckoned by God a sinner in man’s place. Over time, broadly three lines of thought have emerged.
1. The Victorious Christ
Christ is seen as the conqueror for all time of the embattled forces of evil, and his victory as open for all to share. As Paul wrote in letter to Colossians (2.15): “On that cross he [Jesus] despoiled the cosmic powers and authorities, and boldly made a spectacle of them, leading them as captives in his triumphal procession.” The difficulty with this view is that we only have to look out into the world, and into our own hearts, to see that the power of evil is not broken.
2. Appeasement of an angry God
The cross is seen as a sacrifice which ‘atoned’ for the sins of mankind. Jesus literally bore the pain and punishment which should have fallen on us. This picture of Jesus as our substitute raises a number of questions:
(a) Does God need to be placated or satisfied before he can forgive?
(b) If God punished Jesus instead of us, then he punished the only perfect person in the entire world, an action which justice could hardly tolerate.
(c) If we understand God as justice and love, then God cannot allow sin to go without penalty, but in his love he must forgive.
3. Ultimate love of God
The death of Jesus may be seen as the ultimate and final demonstration of the love of God. He is saying no matter what you do, I will not stop loving you. But if this is so, why did not Jesus embrace God’s love and stop proceeding towards what became the inevitability of the cross? Because I believe the cross was the inevitable end for Jesus as it is for anyone else who acts similarly in the face of an intransigent system. History is full of such sacrifices.
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