The cross and atonement

For us and for our salvation

Crucifixion was the most shameful death the Roman world knew, yet the church took the cross as its sign. Why did Jesus have to die? The Nicene Creed answers briefly. The Son "for us men, and for our salvation came down from heaven", and he "was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate" The Nicene Creed. Christians call what his death achieved the atonement: making estranged parties ‘at one’ again.

Long before, Isaiah sang of a Servant who would suffer for others' sins.

But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:5-6

Jesus read his own death in that light: he came "to give His life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). The apostles unfolded it from several sides. "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). He disarmed the powers, "triumphing over them by the cross" (Colossians 2:15). Paul sets out the heart of it in Romans.

God presented Him as an atoning sacrifice in His blood through faith, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand. He did this to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and to justify the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:25-26

"Atoning sacrifice" translates hilastērios (ἱλαστήριος), the word the Greek Old Testament uses for the lid of the ark, called the "mercy seat" in Hebrews 9:5. There the high priest sprinkled blood on the Day of Atonement. Scholars discuss whether the word leans toward turning away God's wrath (propitiation) or wiping away sin (expiation), and many read both together. What is plain is that God does not shrug sin off, and that he himself provides the sacrifice: "God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:19). The cross is not our gift to calm an angry God but God's love coming first: "God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

The pictures the church has used

The church has always confessed the fact of the cross with one voice, but it never fixed one official theory of how the cross saves. It has used several pictures, each drawn from Scripture.

In the second century Irenaeus saw Christ as a new Adam, retracing the ground where Adam fell, undoing disobedience by obedience, and as a man defeating the enemy who had defeated humanity Irenaeus, Against Heresies. In 1930 the Swedish Lutheran Gustaf Aulén called this the ‘classic’ view of the early church and argued that the West had let other accounts overshadow it Gustaf Aulén, Christus Victor.

Near the end of the eleventh century Anselm of Canterbury described sin as robbing God of the honour owed to him. The debt is ours to pay, yet only God could pay it; so the one who is both God and man freely gave his life and repaid it more than fully Anselm, Why God Became Man. For Anselm this was an offering of satisfaction rather than a punishment.

The Reformers stressed that Christ bore in our place the penalty sinners deserve. Calvin taught that Christ stood where the guilty stand and took on himself the curse and condemnation that were ours (Galatians 3:13) Calvin, Institutes 2.16. The Heidelberg Catechism says that all his life, but especially at its end, he "sustained in body and soul, the wrath of God against the sins of all mankind" Heidelberg Catechism, Q37. Matthew Henry, on Romans 3, puts it plainly: "It is plain that he hates sin, when nothing less than the blood of Christ would satisfy for it" Matthew Henry.

In the twelfth century Peter Abelard put his weight on the love shown at the cross, which kindles love in us and binds us to God Abelard, Commentary on Romans. Peter too says that Christ suffered for us, "leaving you an example, that you should follow in His footsteps" (1 Peter 2:21). Many Christians hold that these pictures do not cancel one another; they light up different sides of one event.

Where Christians differ

The first question is which picture stands at the centre. Many evangelicals place penal substitution there, because it answers how a holy God can justify the ungodly, and they hold that the other pictures rest on it. They note that in Colossians God first cancelled our debt, "nailing it to the cross", and then triumphed over the powers (Colossians 2:14-15). Orthodox theology on the whole puts Christ's victory first, his destroying the power of death and healing our human nature (Hebrews 2:14-15), and at every Pascha it sings that Christ has trampled down death by death. Catholic theology since Thomas Aquinas has explained the Passion as merit, satisfaction, sacrifice and redemption together Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, and many theologians in several traditions likewise hold the pictures together. For the objection that penal substitution sets the Father against the Son, and the replies, see Why did Jesus have to die?.

The second question is the extent of the atonement: for whom did Christ die? The Reformed Canons of Dort (1619) confess that his death is of infinite worth and value, "abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world", yet teach that God purposed it to redeem effectually those chosen and given by the Father to the Son Canons of Dort, Second Head. John Owen defended this from texts such as "The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep" (John 10:11), arguing that Christ's death does not merely make salvation possible but actually secures it for those for whom he died John Owen, The Death of Death. This is called definite, particular or limited atonement.

The Five Articles of Remonstrance (1610) answered that Christ died for all people and for each one, obtaining redemption and forgiveness for all, though only believers actually enjoy it The Remonstrance. Wesleyan Methodists and Lutherans also teach that Christ died for all, as do the Catholic and Orthodox churches Council of Trent, Decree on Justification. They point to the atoning sacrifice "for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2) and to the one "who gave Himself as a ransom for all" (1 Timothy 2:6).

The two views share more than their debates suggest. Both hold that Christ's death is sufficient for everyone, that the gospel is to be offered freely to all, that those who believe are saved, and that salvation is by grace from first to last. The question is bound up with the one taken up in Grace and election.

Standing at the cross

Before the cross is a theory, it is love. Paul speaks of "the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Galatians 2:20). At the end Jesus said, "It is finished" (John 19:30). Chrysostom notices that the Lord chose his moment: "He did not bow His head because He gave up the ghost, but He gave up the ghost because at that moment He bowed His head" Chrysostom.

Because the work is finished, we cannot treat sin lightly, and we need not despair that ours is too great to be forgiven. For the good news in brief, see What is the gospel?; for the morning after the cross, the next lesson.

Practice