Program / Course 9: Christology and Pneumatology / Lesson 5.1
What you will learn
- Define atonement and explain the origin of the English word.
- Identify at least six biblical images used to speak of the death of Christ.
- Explain why the New Testament uses many images and not one theory.
- Describe the debate over the meaning of the Greek word hilasterion in Romans 3:25.
The big idea
The New Testament says clearly that Christ died for sinners and that his death accomplishes something. It does not give one theory of how. Instead it uses many images from many settings: the temple sacrifice, the slave market, the lawcourt, the battlefield, the family and the hospital. Each image shows part of the truth. The later theories of atonement take one or more of these images and build an explanation on it. A student who knows the images first can judge the theories more fairly.
Key terms
- Atonement
- The work of Christ in dealing with sin and restoring people to God. The English word was formed in the sixteenth century from at one, meaning to make at one or reconcile.
- Sacrifice
- An offering made to God, often involving the death of an animal. Used in the Old Testament and in Hebrews to interpret Christ’s death.
- Redemption
- Buying back, as of a slave or a pledged possession. A word from the economy of the ancient world.
- Ransom
- A price paid to free a captive.
- Propitiation and expiation
- Two English renderings of hilasterion and related words. Propitiation means turning away anger or making God favorable. Expiation means wiping away or covering sin. Which is meant is debated.
- Justification
- A legal image: being declared righteous or acquitted before God.
- Reconciliation
- A personal image: the restoring of friendship between people and God who had been estranged.
Background
The creeds say that Christ died for us and for our salvation, and that he was crucified, dead and buried. They do not say how his death saves. The question of how is the subject of the doctrine of atonement. The church has never adopted one official theory. The councils did not define one, and the major traditions allow several.
A sound way to approach the question is to start with Scripture. The writers of the New Testament used the images that were closest to hand for their first readers, many drawn from the Old Testament. Reading them together shows a rich picture, and shows why different theories have arisen.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Sacrifice and the Day of Atonement
The Old Testament sacrifices are the background. Leviticus 16 describes the Day of Atonement, when the high priest brings the blood of a goat into the most holy place and sends another goat, bearing the sins of the people, into the wilderness. The letter to the Hebrews reads Christ as the high priest who enters the true sanctuary with his own blood, once for all (Hebrews 9:11-14; 10:10).
John the Baptist calls Jesus “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and Paul says “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). These images present the death as an offering that deals with sin. What the offering does, whether pays, cleanses or covers, is interpreted in different ways.
Step 2: Ransom and redemption
Mark 10:45 says the Son of Man came “to give his life a ransom for many.” Paul writes that in Christ “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Ephesians 1:7) and that Christ redeemed his people from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for them (Galatians 3:13). The language of buying back comes from the slave market and from the story of the Exodus.
Early Christian writers asked: to whom was the ransom paid? Some said to the devil, some to God, and some thought the question pressed the image too far. Gregory of Nazianzus rejected the idea of a payment to the devil. The question shows how an image becomes a theory.
Step 3: Propitiation, expiation and the lawcourt
Romans 3:24-25 says that people are justified freely through the redemption in Christ Jesus, “whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.” The Greek word is hilasterion. In the Greek Old Testament it refers to the lid of the ark, the mercy seat. Interpreters differ on whether the word means a sacrifice that turns away wrath, one that removes sin, or the place where atonement happens.
The language of justification is that of the courtroom. Romans 5:1 and 8:1 speak of peace and no condemnation. Paul says Christ was made sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Some traditions read this as a legal exchange, and others read the language more broadly.
Step 4: Victory, reconciliation and healing
Colossians 2:15 says that Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross. Hebrews 2:14 says he shared flesh and blood to destroy the one who has the power of death. These are images of battle and victory, and they emphasize the defeat of evil powers.
Second Corinthians 5:18-19 says God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and Romans 5:10 says that while people were enemies they were reconciled by his death. First Peter 2:24 says “by whose stripes ye were healed.” Reconciliation is a relational image, and healing a medical one. Both stress restored relationship and wholeness.
Step 5: Servant, example and the new Adam
Isaiah 53, the song of the suffering servant, shapes many New Testament passages: the servant bore griefs and was wounded for our transgressions. First Peter 2:21 also calls Christ’s suffering an example to follow. Romans 5:12-19 sets Christ against Adam: as one man’s trespass led to death for all, so one man’s obedience leads to life.
These images combine in practice. Hebrews 9 joins sacrifice and covenant. First Peter 2 joins example and substitution. The New Testament writers seem not to have felt any need to choose one picture. The later question is whether one image should govern the others, and which.
- Which biblical image of the cross is most familiar to you, and which is least?
- Why might the New Testament use so many images for one event?
- What difficulty arises from asking to whom a ransom is paid?
- Why is the translation of hilasterion debated?
- How does Isaiah 53 help explain the language of bearing sins?
- Which images stress what Christ does for us, and which stress what he does in us?
Examples
The scapegoat
In Leviticus 16 the priest lays his hands on the head of a live goat, confesses the sins of Israel over it and sends it into the wilderness. Christian readers often see an anticipation of Christ carrying sin away, while Jewish tradition reads the rite in its own way.
The slave market
Imagine someone in the first century hearing the word redemption. A listener who knew the slave market would think of a person freed by a payment. A listener who knew the Exodus would think of Israel brought out of Egypt. Both pictures are present in Paul’s use of the term.
A constructed workshop
A study group assigns each person one image and asks them to explain the cross using only that image. The one who has the lawcourt finds it hard to speak of love, and the one who has reconciliation finds it hard to speak of justice. The group concludes that the images need one another. (A constructed example.)
Different perspectives
Catholic
The Catechism uses several images, including sacrifice, ransom, satisfaction and redemption, and holds that Christ’s death is a sacrifice of expiation and reconciliation. It does not name one theory as official.
Orthodox
Orthodox teaching stresses victory over death and the healing of human nature, with the cross and resurrection seen together. It uses the language of sacrifice and ransom, but is cautious about legal and penal readings.
Protestant, Reformed and evangelical
Reformed and many evangelical writers give the images of sacrifice, propitiation and substitution a central place, reading Romans 3 and Isaiah 53 as describing Christ bearing the penalty of sin. They also use the other images.
Protestant, other
Lutheran, Anglican and Methodist writers use the full range, often with strong emphasis on victory and on the exchange of sin for righteousness. Some modern Protestant writers prefer images of solidarity and healing.
Jewish perspective
Jewish tradition reads the sacrificial system and the Day of Atonement in its own terms, and after the destruction of the temple understands atonement as coming through repentance, prayer and good deeds. It does not accept that one person’s death atones for the sins of others in the Christian sense.
Why it matters
A student who thinks of atonement as a single theory will miss the New Testament’s variety. A student who knows the images can see why each later theory arose, what it explains well and what it leaves out.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: The Bible teaches one theory of atonement.
Correction: The Bible uses many images, and Christians have drawn different theories from them. Anyone who says Scripture teaches only one is selecting.
Misunderstanding: The images are just metaphors and mean nothing definite.
Correction: Metaphors can make real claims. The image of a ransom says that Christ’s death frees people at cost to himself. The question is how far each image should be pressed.
Misunderstanding: Hilasterion obviously means appeasing an angry God.
Correction: Some scholars hold that it does, others hold that it means removing sin, and others that it refers to the mercy seat. The usage in the Greek Old Testament is part of the evidence. Translations differ.
Knowledge check
Name six biblical images of the work of Christ.
They include sacrifice (Hebrews 9), the Passover lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7), ransom (Mark 10:45), redemption (Ephesians 1:7), justification (Romans 3), reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5), victory over powers (Colossians 2:15), the suffering servant (Isaiah 53), healing (1 Peter 2:24) and the new Adam (Romans 5). Any six, with references, is a good answer.
Why does the New Testament not give a single theory?
Its authors write to different audiences using familiar pictures, from temple, market, court and war. They seem to hold that the death of Christ is too large for one image. Later theologians built theories from one or more images. That is why traditions differ, even where they agree on the fact of the atonement.
What is the debate over hilasterion in Romans 3:25?
The word is translated propitiation, expiation or mercy seat. Propitiation implies turning aside God’s wrath, expiation implies removing sin, and mercy seat points to the place of atonement in the temple. Scholars argue from the Greek Old Testament and from the context in Romans 1 to 3, and no single answer is universally accepted.
Which images stress victory and which stress law?
Colossians 2:15 and Hebrews 2:14 present the cross as a victory over the powers and over death. Romans 3 and 2 Corinthians 5:21 use the language of the lawcourt and exchange. The first set underlies the ransom and victory theory, and the second the satisfaction and penal substitution theories, as the next lessons describe.
Think it through
- Which image of the cross do you rely on most, and what does it leave out?
- Do you think images should be combined or ranked?
- How might a first-century listener have heard the word ransom?
- What would you add to the list of images, and why?
Independent assignment
A map of the images
In your own notebook, write 500 to 700 words. Make a table of at least eight images from this lesson. For each give a passage, the setting the image comes from, what it says about the problem and what it says about the solution. Then write a paragraph on how the images fit together and one on a tension between two of them. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ A modern study of the cross. Read selectively on the biblical images.
- Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation of the Word Read the sections on why Christ died.
- Jewish Publication Society, The Hebrew Bible in English (JPS translation) Read Leviticus 16 and Isaiah 53 in a Jewish translation.
- Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church Read the paragraphs on Christ’s sacrifice and redemptive death.
- Isaiah 53:5 Wounded for our transgressions.
- Mark 10:45 A ransom for many.
- Romans 3:25 God set forth Christ as a propitiation.
- Colossians 2:15 He triumphed over the powers.