A few weeks ago, I taught a session that I called ‘Understanding the Cross’ at my church. We went through some of what sin is and what crucifixion was like and the Old Testament sacrificial system. In the second half we looked at passages of the Bible to find out what happened theologically on or because of the Cross.
I think it’s common that we emphasise one or two of these, but all 12 happened. It is true that the Bible emphasises some more than others and that these are not all of equal weight in our understanding, but together they form a tapestry.
Sometimes we can be so cross (!) about people who minimise penal substitution (that Jesus stood in the place of our punishment on the cross) that we make it the only thing the Bible talks about. Substitution is a main theme, but there are others.
Sometimes these are called ‘theories’ of atonement as though they are competing with one another. That isn’t the right way of thinking, as they’re all mentioned in the Bible. Instead they are facets of the atonement and the question is about how they fit together.
1. Substitution.
Isaiah 53.6, 1 Peter 2.24, 2 Corinthians 5.21
Jesus stands in our place, so that in the ‘Great Exchange’ as Martin Luther called it, we gain his righteousness while he takes our sin. This is our cross, our rightful death, and he takes it instead of us.
Therefore, I don’t have to die, even though sin causes death.
2. Propitiation
Romans 3.35, 1 John 4.10
This is often lumped with the former but it’s a distinctly different thing. It means the turning aside of wrath. Jesus’ death turns aside the wrath of God so that his anger is not levelled at those who trust in Jesus’ death.
Therefore, God’s wrath is not levelled against me, even though he is just and I deserve it.
3. Expiation
1 John 1.7, Leviticus 16
Jesus cleanses our filth so that our sin is taken far away from us. Think of the second goat on the Day of Atonement, who is sent out into the wilderness to be eaten by goat demons. He is identified with the people’s sin and then cast out the camp with their uncleaness on him. Jesus cleanses us not just from the penalty of sin but from its pollution, sending it far away.
Therefore, even though sin made me filthy, I have been cleaned.
4. Ransom
Matthew 20.28, Colossians 2.14
Jesus paid the price of our sin. We can get a bit unstuck here because we want to know who he paid the price to, did he pay off the Devil? No. He didn’t, instead we should understand it as an analogy of costliness. If the price is paid to anyone, it would be the Father.
Therefore, I am free of the price of my sin.
5. Redemption
Galatians 3.13, Exodus 6.6, the whole exile → exodus narrative (so the whole Bible)
Sometimes preachers talk about the way the word for redemption in Greek would be used in slave markets and say that being redeemed is like being bought from slavery. This is half right, but the referent is wrong: we should think of the Exodus. Yahweh didn’t buy Pharaoh off, he crushed him under the weight of the sea. Jesus forcibly brings us from the oppression of this world’s snake-king into a promised land.
Therefore, I am free from the bondage to sin.
6. Reconciliation
2 Corinthians 5.18, John 15
This is the classic ‘bridge to life’ analogy that I was first taught to share the gospel with. We are no longer the enemies of God but we’re at peace. Our warfare with heaven has ended. More than that we are given the greatest love, the love of the age to come, Jesus declares us friends.
Therefore, I can have a relationship with God despite my sin.
7. Sacrifice
Hebrews 9.13-14, Leviticus
The Cross acts like the Levitical sacrifices of Purification, Ascension, and the Peace Offering. We are made holy, our sin is covered and we are lifted to the heavens, and a table is laid in the Lord’s Supper with the ‘meat’ of the sacrifice.
Therefore, Jesus takes us to the Father and gives us a meal.
8. Recapitulation
1 Corinthians 15.3, 22, Romans 5.15-17
Most associated with St Irenaeus. The Cross (and the Resurrection and Ascension and Gift of the Spirit) is the climax of all of the Bible’s stories. Jesus is consciously ‘redoing’ Adam’s failure at the tree in the garden, and being killed on wisdom’s tree so that we will have access to that tree of the knowledge of good and bad.
Therefore, Jesus is the climax of the Bible’s story.
9. Demonstration
Jesus’ death is a demonstration of God’s justice (Romans 3.24-25), his love (Romans 5.8), his power and wisdom (1 Corinthians 1.22-25), and his profound mercy (1 Timothy 1.15-16). It is in the death of the Christ, Jesus, that we discover who God is.
Therefore, we see what God is like.
10. Example
1 John 3.16, 1 Peter 2.21
Jesus’ death is an example of how we’re to live, self-forgetfully and self-sacrificially. Because some people have taught that Jesus’ death was only an example, others have scoffed at it. It’s a Biblical idea though: as we look at God dying for us, we learn who God is and who we turn can be in God.
Therefore, I’m called to live like Jesus.
11. Victory
Colossians 2.15, Genesis 3.15
The Christ has conquered death! Hallelujah. Death is dead in the death of the living one. He has wrested the keys of Hades from the Enemy’s cold hand and now rules over death. Satan, Sin & Death ‘died’ on the Cross and Jesus won.
Satan was defeated in the way described in Zechariah 3.1-4: the true accusations of the accuser are made to be false because Jesus stood in our place on the cross.
Therefore, Satan, Sin & Death are defeated. Christ has won.
12. Gift
Isaiah 53.10, Galatians 2.20.
The cross was not required by the laws that God had set to govern the Universe. No one forced him to do it. Jesus chose to freely offer himself in your place. As St. Athanasius says, he hung in the air, arms wide outstretched to embrace the world.
Therefore, God loves you.
This is all very good news. Thank the Lord for his kindness.
Photo by CRISTIANO DE ASSUNÇÃO on Unsplash
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nuakh 