While all Christians agree that Christ’s death was necessary, the bible does not spell out exactly why He had to die. The Church has developed, over 2000 years, several explanations. Before discussing what I believe, here are the 3 most common views:
Ransom theory – Jesus’ death was necessary to pay the ransom for our liberation
1. Adam and Eve sold the human race into captivity to Satan by their sin.2. Christ’s death paid the price for our liberation from Satan
Issues
1. Why does God need to pay Satan?2. Since Christ did not truly die, then is God a deceiver?
This view is seen in Aslan’s death in The Chronicles of Narnia – the Ice Queen accepts Aslan’s sacrifice as payment, but Aslan does not remain dead.Some scholars feel this was the predominant view throughout the first 1000 years of church history, though others argue for Christus Victor as the predominant view. This view is rejected by most today, but many in the Word of Faith movement do teach this.
Satisfaction theory – Jesus’ death was required to satisfy God’s judgment.
1. God is a Holy and Just God.2. As Holy and Just, God must punish sin.3. The only acceptable punishment for sin is death. 4. Christ voluntarily took our punishment to satisfy God’ sense of justice.
Issues:
1. Who requires God to punish sin?2. Why is the only acceptable punishment for finite sin an infinite death?3. Why is punishing the innocent and letting the guilty go free considered justice?
The first major proponent of Satisfaction theory was St. Anselm, though his theory differs somewhat from the modern view basically developed by John Calvin. The modern protestant view, the Penal Substitution theory, likens the Atonement to a court proceeding.It is the most common view of Protestants today and most “canned” evangelism methods make reference to this theory.
Moral Influence View – Christ’s death was necessary to show God’s mercy and love.
1. The suffering and death of Christ on the cross was to show God’s love to His people, softening their hearts to Him.2. Christ’s death was not directed toward God but toward man.
Issues:
1. This view does not account for scripture which tells us that Christ died in our place.2. This view ignores God’s anger toward sin.
This view is generally held only by liberal theologians.
These are the three most recognized views of the Atonement. It is very likely that all 3 have some element of truth in them, but that none fully explain why Christ had to die on the cross.
Christus VictorThe view I lean most toward is Christus Victor. The name was first coined by Gustaf Aulen when he argued that this was the predominant view of the early church. Eastern Orthodox churches still hold to this view. It is closely related to Ransom Theory, and Aulen argues that our modern views cause us to misinterpret the writings of the Early Church Fathers as supporting the Ransom Theory. But Christus Victor holds that, instead of Christ’s death paying a ransom to Satan, His death freed us from our self-imposed bondage to death, sin, and Satan.
Christus Victor is less a point-by-point explanation of the Atonement, but more of a narrative view of the bible. And before we go further, the reader should be warned – I am not a theologian. What follows is my layman interpretation of what I’ve read of others and of what I read in the bible.
God is the source of life. It is through Him that we live and breathe, that we even exist. Adam and Eve were created to have life in and through God, and this is what God had intended for all of us. But Adam and Eve chose to rebel against God and, by doing so, separated themselves from the source of all life. Thus death, both physical and spiritual, entered the world.
We, as the children of Adam and Eve, inherited the consequences of Adam’s sin; not the sin itself but the separation from God and the propensity to sin because we are separated from Him. But each of us not only inherits the consequences of Adam’s sin, we – each and every one of us – also choose to rebel against God. We not only inherit death but we earn death through our actions.
The Old Testament is a narrative of God’s attempts to reconcile rebellious man with Himself, to bring man back from death into life. But man is too separated from God, too bound to sin and death by our own choices, to reconcile with God. We are unable to conquer death and return to God.
And so we have the New Testament. God becomes man to reconcile man with God. As man, Jesus is as tempted to sin, to rebel against God, as we are. He is isolated from God the Father on the cross, as we live our lives isolated from God. And yet He still conquers death – despite the bindings of sin and death, Jesus rises from the dead. By His death and resurrection, He provides a way for us to conquer death.
Though He walked the earth as a humble, gentle man, Jesus was indeed the conquering King expected by the Jews. He did not come to conquer Caesar but to conquer the spiritual forces that hold man down. Sin, death, Satan – all were conquered on that third day
This is the reason for the Atonement. Not that God needed to pay a price that He Himself decreed, but that we needed to pay a price our own choices decreed; a price we could not pay. Jesus, God Himself in the flesh, rescued us from the captivity we ourselves had entered into.
Isaiah 61:1 tells us
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
We are the poor – Spiritually poor and bound by death, unable to afford the price of reconciliation.We are the brokenhearted – Broken by the power of sin.We are the captives and prisoners – Imprisoned in darkness, unable to see the light.
Christ Himself has brought us the Good News, healed our broken hearts, and freed us from captivity to sin and death. And He is life to all who will receive Him, to all who will reject the ways of the world that lead to death, to all that follow His pathway to death of self and glorious resurrection into new life!
(Originally published at
http://jimmie.compassionatechristianity.org/?p=14)
