“By this gospel you are saved: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day.” (1 Corinthians 15:2–4)
Over church history, there have been a variety of ways of explaining what happened on the Cross,[1] that combine the diverse language of biblical writers with cultural moments in which the message of the Cross was being preached. Scott McKnight compares it to a set of golf clubs: they all matter at the right time and place.
A foundational view everyone builds on is called Christus Victor: Christ the Victor, or Christ victorious. Jesus’ death and resurrection demonstrated victory over the greatest foes: evil, sin, death, Satan, Hades. Jesus triumphed over them all, freeing humanity from bondage to them.
Jesus drove out the “ruler of this world” (John 12:31), setting spiritual captives free (Luke 4:18; Eph. 4:8).
He destroyed “the one who has the power of death” in order to “free those held in slavery by the fear of death” (Heb. 2:14-15).
He overpowered the “strong man” (Luke 11:21-22), “disarming the rulers and authorities…triumphing over them” (Col. 2:15)
Jesus, the Messiah, truly is the long awaited Liberator of our souls.[2] This is foundational to what happened on the cross.
Add Recapitulation Theory[3] to that foundation. This simply notes that Jesus is the second Adam who is getting right what the first Adam got wrong.[4]
“For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.” (I Corinthians 15:21-22; see also Romans 5:17) [5]
Adam might have messed up the beginning of the story, but that doesn’t mean he controls the end of the story. The Second Adam is the Great Physician who has arrived “so that the world might be saved.” (John 3:17)[6]
Ransom Theory focused on the biblical teaching that Jesus died as a ransom for the debt of our sins.
“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)
Ransom language fit the ancient Greco-Roman world well. Conquest was familiar to those who lived in or had been conquered by Rome; a redemptor could buy the freedom of someone taken prisoner. [7] Ransom language reminds us that we are in a spiritual war. Adam and Eve sold us into slavery to sin and death, and we can’t buy our way out. If the wages of sin is death[8], then the ransom of Jesus’ life satisfied the debt, and Satan cannot claim his due. C.S. Lewis uses this approach in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
In the 11th century, Anselm focused on Satisfaction Theory. Anselm lived during Medieval European feudalism, where honor to one’s earthly master or lord was incredibly important.[9] In the feudal hierarchy of serf/lord/king, dishonoring the one above you was a huge deal. The more noble the person you offended, the greater your reparation.[10] Anselm said that our sin has dishonored God, and honor must be restored. God’s honor is satisfied when reparations are paid – which he paid Himself in Jesus through the cross.[11]
God made him who had no sin to be a sin offering for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
This approach is still a primary approach used by missionaries introducing the Gospel in honor/shame cultures around the world.
A contemporary of Anselm named Abelard focused on what it now called Moral Influence Theory. To Anselm, the most important thing was that Jesus is our example, our moral leader. We see this focus in WWJD or the classic Charles Sheldon book In His Steps.
“He demonstrated the act of the greatest love by laying down his life for his friends. Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2)
Abelard focused on a God who demonstrated his love for humanity through the death of Jesus to show us a righteous way of living.[12]
The Reformers (1500s) reframed Ransom and Satisfaction theory in what we call Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA), the one with which we in the US are generally most familiar. They added a legal framework to Satisfaction Theory, a court-centered “balancing of the ledgers” between what is owed and what is paid.[13]
Here, Jesus was not repaying God for lost honor; rather, he was paying the penalty of death to satisfy the demands of justice. Once again, God Himself, through Jesus, satisfies the demands of justice himself.
"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness."(1 Peter 2:24)
"For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God." (1 Peter 3:18)
I remember being taught an analogy of a judge (God) taking off his robe and stepping down off the bench to stand in the place of the criminal (me) and take my place in jail.[14]
In all of these views, the foundational truth shines through. Jesus’ death on the cross changed everything, and His resurrection proved it.
* * * * *
Easter doesn’t just celebrate a historical event (though it does that); it doesn’t just highlight a theological atonement theory (though that’s important). Easter is not meant to be merely a corporate gathering once a year where we ponder ideas about atonement as an intellectual exercise.
Easter is personal. A person – Jesus – did something for persons: you and me. Jesus didn’t just give himself through his life, death and resurrection out of love for the world in a vague sense, he did it for me and you in an intensely personal sense.
We live in a broken world. This is not a secret. The Bible talks about how all of creation mourns[16] in the midst of the brokenness. There are Big Picture issues like the war between Ukraine and Russia, and Israel and Hamas. There is famine, and human trafficking, and bridges collapsing. There are also family tragedies, and sickness, and despair.
Sometimes we participate in the breaking. It’s another way of saying we step outside of God’s design and we sin. We bully, and slander, and demean. We lust, and fight, and deceive. We are the perpetrators of abuse and hatred. We have dishonored God and others. We know that we are part of the problem of the brokenness in the world.
Sometimes, we have been broken by it. This past year I have had to come to grips with the reality that some bad things were done to me when I was a kid, things that my brain put on a shelf until I was 54. They were the kind of things that rob a kid of innocence and trust, and that leave a mark for a long time. It's been draining, and insightful, and terrible, and healing, and it’s ongoing.
We call Crucifixion Friday “Good Friday” not only because we have a Savior who atoned for us that day, but because in his living and dying we know that God understands us because Jesus experienced the worst of what it is like to live in this broken world.
“On the cross, Jesus insists that God is in the hard things, the low things, the scandalous things. The gritty, messy, broken things. God does not hold God’s self remote from the worst of this world.”[17]
Then, resurrection.
In the light of dawn, the Light of the World reveals himself. All was not lost; all is not lost. “Behold,” Jesus said, “I make all things new.” (Revelation 21:5) As Tolkien described it, because of Jesus’ Resurrection, everything sad will become untrue.[18] Now it is clear that all that is evil has been conquered by the Risen Jesus. Crucifixion will not have the last word; Resurrection will.
We may see part of our lives burn to ashes, but Jesus makes beauty from ashes.
We may feel like death has come for our hearts and souls, but Jesus specializes in bringing dead things back to life.
We may take our own Prodigal path, but Jesus, the Good Father, waits to embrace us with joy and feasting.
There is night, but there will be a morning characterized by rejoicing, whether in the life or the next.
This is the hope: the brokenness of our history is not our destiny.
His love, as displayed on the cross, covers a multitude of our sins. His power, as shown through His resurrection, shows us that when he says he can make something new, he can make something new.
There is nothing in us so broken he cannot mend it; so foul he cannot cleanse it; so evil he cannot save it; so worthless he cannot refurbish it; so useless he cannot rehabilitate it; so lost he cannot find it; so dead he cannot revive it; so parched he cannot refresh it; so bitter he cannot sweeten it; so in despair that he cannot fill it with hope.
“I’ll remind you of just one beautiful image of God, evident in the Christ of the Gospels: he’s the Restorer of lives. Jesus is the One who sat by the well and restored the Samaritan woman to her place in her community. He restored Zacchaeus’ integrity and offered him friendship. He saved and restored the woman caught in adultery to morality and life.
He restored the paralytics, the blind and the deaf to wholeness. He restored outcasts such as lepers and the bleeding woman. He restored the sanity of the demonized. Even harshest rebukes were offers of restoration to the unrepentant. When we see Jesus in action, we are seeing the true heart of God, the Restorer of lives.” (Brad Jersak)
I don’t know the history of your wounds, the length of your scars, the depth of your sin and failure. But I do know this: Jesus came so that we might be saved from the sinful ravages of this broken and fallen world. He offers real life in His Kingdom starting now and continuing into the ages to come. He offers a new life in exchange for your old one, over and over and over.
Christ is Risen (He is risen indeed).
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[1] https://www.sdmorrison.org/7-theories-of-the-atonement-summarized/
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/history-theories-atonement/
[2] “For the earliest Christians, the story of salvation was one of rescue all the way through: the epic of God descending into the depths of human estrangement to release his creatures from bondage to death, penetrating even into the heart of Hades to set the captives free, recall his prodigal children and restore a broken creation.” (D.B. Hart)
[3] https://faithrethink.com/7-atonement-theories-from-church-history/
[4] “God became what we are so that we might become what He is.” – Irenaeus
[5] Scott McKnight thinks Jesus is recapitulating Israel also. “Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 8:3; when tempted to jump off of the temple, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:16; and when tempted to seize the kingdoms, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:13. Each of these texts is from Israel’s wilderness experience. Jesus is being depicted as a second Israel in a second wilderness. He became what Israel was to undo what Israel did.”
[6] These two views remain the heart of the Eastern Orthodox position. https://orthodoxbridge.com/2018/07/22/orthodox-christians-on-penal-substitutionary-atonement/
[8] There was/is disagreement about to whom that ransom is owed. Was it Satan? The grave? Meanwhile, Isaiah 43 talks about God trading nations as ransom for Israel, but that looks like picturesque language about the depth of their bondage, not an actual trade.
[9] https://faithrethink.com/7-atonement-theories-from-church-history/
[10] https://andrewspringer.medium.com/five-views-on-the-atonement-of-christ-d71dddca9b84
[11] Jesus offered an overflow of satisfaction to human beings so they can satisfy God’s honor. https://faithrethink.com/7-atonement-theories-from-church-history/
[12] “1 Peter 2:22, “For this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.” https://andrewspringer.medium.com/five-views-on-the-atonement-of-christ-d71dddca9b84 See also Mark 10:42-45, Romans 12:1-21, and 1 John 3:16.
[13] “John Calvin, who studied law before becoming a Reformer, replaced the image of a serf trying to satisfy his lord with a courtroom where God as righteous judge condemns sinners who violate his law... [it] is immediately intelligible in the world of the Reformation, Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Industrial Revolution.” https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/april/bonnie-kristian-atonement-theories-historical-context.html
[14] Reformers talked of “imputed righteousness” where Jesus literally took upon himself all of mankind’s sins and in exchange transferred (or imputed) his righteousness to the repentant sinner. https://faithrethink.com/7-atonement-theories-from-church-history/
[16] Romans 8:22
[17] https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/3362-cruciform
[18] Samwise to Gandalf