Musings: Notes From My Daybook

A good friend wrote over the weekend asking about the meaning of Christ's death.  Here was my response:

Thanks for your letter.  I think that you raise a very important theme in Christian faith.  Through the years Christian people have wrestled with the question, "why did Christ die?"

You also raised some threads of thought that I would largely concur with.  Namely, that Christ's death is a demonstration of God's love and that it also made it clear, even to Satan, of God's agenda and power.  And, it is quite true, that in ancient cultures, the primary way in which wrong or sin or transgression was mitigated was through sacrifice.

The church has, over the years developed three major responses to the question.  In the earliest centuries, the church, living in a world of superstition and darkness, saw the world as the domain of Satan,  Paul reflects that view of the world in his well-known remarks in Ephesians 6.10ff.  In such a world, good and evil are at war with each other.  And, with the death of Christ, it appeared as though evil had won.  But death's triumph and evil's celebration was short lived.  With the resurrection, Christ arose victorious over death and evil.

This view is known as "Christ as Victor."  And, in that sense, the idea of ransom comes into play.  Human beings are held "hostage" by the forces of evil.  Jesus' death was to be the price paid for humanity.  However, the surprise is that Jesus "outwitted" Satan by not only freeing humankind, but be beating death himself.

A second understandiing of Christ's death (or the big word for the question of "why did Christ die" is atonement) was developed--finding full flower in the reformation of Luther and Calvin (1500's).  Focusing on the legal language of justification or righteousness (different words in english but they are the same word in the original greek).   In a nutshell, human beings were created to live in relationship with God.  However, sin has marred humankind.  And since God is perfect and holy, then some legal distinction, some action needs to take place.  Through the death of Jesus, a transaction takes place.  He takes on the sin of humanity, thus satisfying the legal demands.

This second understanding is often called the "substitutionary theory" of atonement--Jesus substitutes himself in our stead.  Because of his actions we are now justified or made righteous.  Because of his actions, we are now complete and can enter into a full relationship with God.  Paul uses a lot of this sort of language in Romans 3.  Or, we can also find the idea of Jesus being both that which is offered for us and language of Jesus acting as our attorney or advocate for us.

A third understanding of the atonement began to develop--with a 12 century person by the name of Abelard.  He was a rather famous character on several counts but for the present  I would focus on his attention on, not unlike some of your comments, how he saw in Jesus' sacrificial, innocent death, a unequivocal demonstration of God's love for humanity.  Again Paul himself would say in Romans 5 that God showed his love toward us that while we were sinners he died for us.

Great debates have often taken place about which of these three points of view are the right one.  I am more inclined to believe that the truth of Jesus' death is so great that a single explanation would simply be inadequate.  It would like to trying to describe the Grand Canyon with only one sentence.  And that is why many theologians would suggest that each of these three points of view affirm something true and important to remember.
1.  Christ as Victor reminds us of the reality of good and evil and that even though we do not fully know or understand the evil in the world, God is victorious over evil and evil's chief weapon--death.
2.  Substitutionary atonement focuses on the objective realities of our relationship with God.  It is true that we are in no shape to enter into a relationship with God.   God demonstrates that he is a righteous being by dealing with sin and he makes us righteous in that act.
3.  Understanding the atonement as a demonstration of God's love for us focuses on the subjective realities of Jesus' death.  It has a persuasive effect of waking us up and calling to us.  Jesus comes not only as a victorious warrior (beating up on evil) and as the one who takes on our sin, but he also comes as a lover--wooing us into a relationship with him.

All three views have something to commend to us and all three reflect the witness of Scripture.  I don't know if I have been helpful with this or if I have only managed to muddy the water.  Let me know what you think.