Views on Christ's Atonement

Various historical views on Christ’s atonement

1. Classic or Ransom Theory: This view sees that the atonement of Christ as the victory over Satan and the forces of sin and evil. God offered his son as a ransom on the cross, a bargain that Satan eagerly accepted. But On the resurrection, Satan was left without either his original prisoners or the ransom he had accepted in their stead. So with resurrection, Jesus triumphed over the power of Satan. The presupposition behind this view is the cosmic struggle between God and Satan, who always wanted to control over human beings from God. So, on the cross, Christ paid ransom to the devil; but it turned out to be a trick and Satan and his all followers were defeated after Christ has resurrected. 
2. Satisfaction Theory: This view is proposed by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury. Anselm saw sin as totally dishonoring the Holiness of God.. The insult of sin was so great that only one who is God can provide satisfaction. But it should also be done by one who is also man, so only man should do so. Thus, God send his Son Jesus to become man and died, and finally satisfied God’s honor again. The problem here is that Christ’s death offered satisfaction to God’s honor, not His wrath. 
3. Moral Influence Theory: This view is proposed by Peter Abelard and hold by many liberals today. This view presents the greatness of God’s love on the cross. This delivers us from fear and kindles in us an answering love. We must respond to this love with love and no longer live in selfishness and sin. In this view, God is seen mostly as love; his attributes of justice and holiness is neglected. 
4. Governmental Theory: This view is promoted by Hugo Grotius (d. 1645). His view is called “governmental” because Grotius sees God as a ruler or a head of government who passed a law: “ the soul that sins, it shall die.” Yet God did not want all the sinners to die, so he relaxed his rule and accepted Christ’s death instead. He could have forgiven the sins of all, but that would be against his divine justice. So the death of Christ became public example of the depth  and seriousness of sin, and satisfies the demands of justice. 
5. Universal Reconciliation Theory: This view is promoted by Karl Barth. This view holds that Christ’s death reconciled the world to God the Father. Thus, the cross of Jesus Christ makes the election of all humankind possible. 

Now I will delineate what I believe is most biblical theory of atonement. It is called Penal Substitution. 

Penal Substitution Theory: This view is promoted some church father and Reformers. This view was formulated by the 16th century Reformers as an extension of Anslem’ satisfactory theory. Anselm’s theory was correct in introducing the satisfaction aspect of Christ’s work and its necessity, however the Reformers saw it as insufficient because it was referenced to God’s honor rather than his justice and holiness. This Reformed view says simply that Christ died for man, in man’s place, taking his sins and bearing them for him.In short, this theory holds that Jesus Christ bore penalty for our sins and in so doing he appeased God’s wrath. 

When we look at a number of passages, some anticipate and some reflect upon the death of Christ as a penal substitutionary sacrifice for sin (Ex. 12; Lev. 16; Isa. 52:13-53:12; Mark; John; Rom. 3:21-26; Gal. 3:10-13; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18). These passages clearly states that Jesus bore teh penal consequences of sin when he died on the cross. For example, Isaiah 53:5 states, “the punishment that brought us peace was upon him.” It was also clear that God’s wrath was poured out on his Son; in the powerful OT imagery of “the cup” picked up in Mark 14:36 (cf. Ps. 75:8; Isa. 51:17-23; Jer. 25:15-29; Ezek. 23:31-34). As a matter of fact, Jesus bore the consequences our sin in our place, as substitute. He did not merely share in the punishment we deserve; he bore it instead of us. Thus, Isaiah testified, “he was pierced for our transgressions” (53:5). He had no guilt of his own, being innocent, but our guilt was imputed to him, and for this he suffered and died. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Through his death, Christ rescues us from God’s wrath. “Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath” (1 Thess. 1:10). “Since we have now been justified by blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!” (Rom. 5:9). The prophet Isaiah already anticipated the work of God’s suffering Servant’s substitutionary act, which will later be fulfilled in Christ Jesus. (Note personal pronoun he/his verses our/us.) 

verse	The Servant’s Part	The People’s Part
53:4	he took he carried	our infirmities our sorrows
53:5	he was pierced  he was crushed his punishment his wounds	for our transgressions for our iniquities brought us peace we are healed
53:6	laid on him	the iniquity of us all

Here is one final note for you. All the theories mentioned above are not totally and mutually exclusive to one another. As a matter of fact, the concept of atonement is vast and deep, and when we talk about this in one theory, we need all the vivid concepts of redemption, propitiation, justification, ransom, love, grace and justice. Each theory draws its own attention to one or two aspects of atonement, and seem to neglect the others. Nevertheless, penal substitutionary theory seems to incorporate all the aspects from each theory and present the most biblically sound theory of atonement. Penal substitution integrates fully with God’s justice and truthfulness, preserving the harmony of his attributes of justice and mercy, holiness and love. It also sheds light on Christ’s victory over evil powers. This view also emphasizes the fact that God gave his Son for his enemies (Rom. 5:10), so it deepens our appreciation of God’s love. And this view also gives us the correct understanding on ransom theory. In fact, we are indebted not to the devil but to God. it is to God that a ransom must be paid. Finally this view also helps us to better understand union with Christ. Since Christ has bore our sins and imputed his righteousness to us, we are united with Him by his Spirit through faith, and receive benefits of his atoning work.