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Course 10 · Lesson 5.1

Atonement and its extent: for whom did Christ die?

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 10 outline

Module 1: Sin and Human Nature

  1. Human beings in the image of God
  2. The fall in Scripture: Genesis 3 and Romans 5
  3. Original sin in Augustine and the Western tradition
  4. Ancestral sin and mortality in the Eastern tradition

Module 2: Grace and Free Will

  1. Pelagius and Augustine
  2. The church responds: semi-Pelagianism and the Council of Orange
  3. Luther and Erasmus on the bondage of the will
  4. Monergism and synergism across the traditions

Module 3: Justification and Sanctification

  1. Justification in Paul and James
  2. Justification by faith alone in the Lutheran and Reformed traditions
  3. The Catholic teaching and the Council of Trent
  4. Sanctification, holiness and theosis
  5. Recent ecumenical discussion of justification

Module 4: Predestination and Election

  1. Election and predestination in Scripture
  2. Augustine, Aquinas and Calvin on predestination
  3. Arminius, Wesley and conditional election
  4. Eastern and Catholic views on election and foreknowledge

Module 5: Atonement, Redemption and Adoption

  1. Atonement and its extent: for whom did Christ die?
  2. Redemption: the images of ransom, freedom and return
  3. Adoption: sons and daughters of God
  4. The order of salvation across the traditions

Module 6: Death, Resurrection and Judgment

  1. Death and the intermediate state
  2. The resurrection of the dead in Scripture and the creeds
  3. The final judgment: Christ the judge
  4. Purgatory, the Orthodox practice of praying for the dead, and the Protestant objection

Module 7: Heaven, Hell and the New Creation

  1. Heaven and the vision of God
  2. Hell: eternal torment, annihilationism and universal hope
  3. The fate of those who have not heard the gospel
  4. The new heavens and the new earth

Module 8: The Millennium and Christian Eschatological Traditions

  1. Revelation and apocalyptic literature
  2. Premillennial views, historic and dispensational
  3. Amillennial and postmillennial views
  4. Preterist, historicist and futurist approaches
  5. What the traditions hold in common about the end

All courses

Program / Course 10: Salvation and Eschatology / Lesson 5.1

What you will learn

  • Name the main images or models of the atonement and the tradition most associated with each.
  • State what the churches affirm together about the cross.
  • Explain the question of the extent of the atonement and the Reformed, Lutheran, Arminian, Catholic and Orthodox answers.
  • Read the key texts on both sides of the debate.

The big idea

Christians confess that Christ died for sins and that his death reconciles sinners to God. The creeds do not give one theory of how the cross saves, and the church has used several images: ransom, victory, sacrifice, satisfaction, substitution and example. A second question is for whom Christ died. Most traditions say he died for all. Reformed theology teaches that his death was intended to secure the salvation of the elect. Both sides appeal to Scripture and to the sufficiency of his sacrifice.

Key terms

Atonement
The work of Christ in his death by which sinners are reconciled to God. The English word means ‘at-one-ment.’
Christus Victor
The model, common among the early fathers and strong in the East, in which Christ defeats sin, death and the devil.
Satisfaction
Anselm’s model in ‘Why God Became Man’: Christ gives the honor owed to God that human sin withheld.
Penal substitution
The view, developed in the Reformation, that Christ bore the penalty of sin in the place of sinners.
Moral influence
The view, often connected with Peter Abelard, that the cross reveals God’s love and moves sinners to love in return.
Limited (definite) atonement
The Reformed teaching that Christ died with the intent to save the elect. Many prefer the name ‘particular redemption’ or ‘definite atonement.’
Unlimited (universal) atonement
The teaching that Christ died for all people, so that salvation is available to all.
Sufficient for all, efficient for the elect
A formula, from Peter Lombard, that Christ’s death is great enough for all but effective only for those who are saved.

Background

The New Testament uses many images for the cross. Jesus says that the Son of Man came “to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Paul speaks of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-19), of Christ made a curse for us (Galatians 3:13) and of a sacrifice of propitiation (Romans 3:25). Hebrews describes Christ as the high priest who offers himself once. First John calls him the propitiation for our sins and for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). No creed adopts a single explanation.

Because of this, it is wise to say that the church has confessed the fact of the atonement more firmly than any one theory of its mechanism. Different traditions emphasize different images. Within that, the question of extent arose in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as part of the debate over election, and it is treated here as a separate matter.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Early images

The earliest fathers stressed Christ’s victory over death and the devil and his work of recapitulation, summing up humanity in himself and renewing it (Irenaeus). Some described the cross as a ransom paid to the devil, an image later criticized by Anselm and others. Athanasius taught that the Word took a body to die and thus to put an end to death’s reign. This is the main line in the Eastern church, where Easter hymns celebrate the defeat of death.

Step 2: Satisfaction and substitution

Anselm of Canterbury, in Why God Became Man (about 1098), argued that sin dishonors God, that humanity owed a debt it could not pay, and that only a God-man could make satisfaction. Aquinas developed the idea, and Catholic theology has used both satisfaction and sacrifice.

The Reformers, notably Calvin, described the cross as Christ bearing the punishment due to sinners. This penal substitution is strongest in Reformed and evangelical teaching, though Lutherans share it as well. They cite Isaiah 53 and passages such as 2 Corinthians 5:21 and 1 Peter 2:24. Critics, including many Catholic, Orthodox and some Protestant writers, argue that it is only one image among many and can seem to divide the Father and the Son if poorly stated. Defenders reply that rightly stated it expresses both God’s justice and love.

Step 3: Love and example

Peter Abelard, in the twelfth century, emphasized that the cross shows God’s love, which moves the sinner to love in return. Few theologians hold that this is the whole of the atonement, but most agree it is a part of it (Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:10). Many modern writers hold that the models are complementary, each correcting the other.

Step 4: The extent debate

The question of extent is this: did Christ die intending to save every human being, or only the elect? Those who hold limited atonement point to texts such as John 10:15 (the shepherd lays down his life for the sheep), Ephesians 5:25 (Christ loved the church and gave himself for it) and Matthew 1:21. They reason that if Christ’s death secures salvation, and not all are saved, then it must have been intended for the elect alone. The Canons of Dort state that Christ’s death is of infinite value and sufficient for the whole world, but efficacious only for the elect.

Those who hold universal atonement point to 1 John 2:2, 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, John 3:16, 1 Timothy 2:6 and Hebrews 2:9, which say that Christ died for all. They reason that the offer of the gospel to all would be insincere if there were no atonement for all. Lutherans, Arminians, Catholics and Orthodox hold universal atonement, though they differ in what they believe the cross accomplishes for those who do not believe.

Step 5: The middle positions

Some Reformed thinkers have taken a middle course. The French Reformed theologian Moses Amyraut (1596 to 1664) taught hypothetical universalism: Christ died for all on condition of faith, and God elects those who will believe. Others hold that the atonement has a double reference, a general one for all and a particular one for the elect. Among Reformed Christians today there is a range of views, and the question is still debated among Calvinists as well as between traditions.

  1. Which image of the cross makes the most sense of your own sense of sin: debt, captivity, guilt or distance?
  2. Why might one model alone be insufficient?
  3. What does the phrase ‘sufficient for all, efficient for the elect’ say, and what does it leave unsaid?
  4. Can the gospel be offered sincerely to those for whom Christ did not die? How would a Reformed theologian answer?
  5. What does 1 John 2:2 say, and how do different readers explain ‘the whole world’?
  6. Does the question of extent change how a person prays for others?

Examples

A debt paid

A teacher explains satisfaction with the image of a heavy debt. A person cannot pay it. Someone else pays it fully. The teacher then asks whether the person must also accept the payment. Different traditions answer the question differently, but the picture helps students see the logic of Anselm’s argument. (A constructed illustration.)

Reading 1 John 2:2

Two students read that Christ is the propitiation for our sins and ‘not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.’ One says that the text means the whole human race. The other says that the ‘whole world’ means people of every nation, not Jews alone. Each is using a recognized reading. The students decide to examine how John uses the word world elsewhere. (A constructed example.)

Different perspectives

Catholic

Christ died for all human beings and for each one. The Catechism says so and teaches that the Church offers the fruits of his sacrifice through the sacraments. Catholic theology uses the images of sacrifice, satisfaction, redemption and victory, and holds that no single image exhausts the mystery.

Orthodox

Orthodox theology emphasizes Christ’s victory over death and the devil and the healing of human nature in the incarnation, cross and resurrection. Christ died for all. Orthodox writers are cautious about the idea of penal substitution and a legal framework, and speak instead of ransom, sacrifice and victory.

Lutheran

Lutherans confess that Christ made satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, and that the Gospel is to be preached to all. They hold to substitution and to the victory over sin, death and the devil. They teach that unbelievers perish through their own unbelief.

Reformed

Reformed churches teach that Christ’s death is of infinite worth and the offer of the gospel is to be made to all, but that he died with the definite purpose of saving the elect and certainly secured their salvation. Reformed writers argue that otherwise Christ’s work would be only a possibility.

Arminian and Wesleyan

Christ died for all, and the atonement makes salvation possible for every person, who receives it by faith. Arminians and Wesleyans also use the governmental view in some forms, which sees the cross as a demonstration of God’s justice that allows forgiveness. They hold that limited atonement conflicts with God’s universal love.

Why it matters

The cross stands at the center of Christianity. Learning the several images protects against supposing that a single metaphor is the whole truth. Learning the debate over extent shows how a question about Christ’s death becomes a question about election, assurance and the sincerity of the gospel offer. In both cases it is helpful to see how seriously each tradition tries to be faithful to the same texts.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: The church has an official theory of the atonement.

Correction: The creeds confess that Christ died for our sins but do not adopt one theory. Councils have not defined whether the cross is a ransom, satisfaction or substitution.

Misunderstanding: Limited atonement means that Christ’s death lacked power.

Correction: Reformed teaching affirms that his death is of infinite worth and sufficient for all. The claim is about the intent and design of the cross.

Misunderstanding: Penal substitution is the only Protestant view.

Correction: It is dominant in Reformed and evangelical teaching, but Protestants also use Christus Victor, moral influence and governmental views. Lutherans combine several.

Misunderstanding: Universal atonement means universal salvation.

Correction: Those who hold that Christ died for all do not therefore hold that all will be saved. They teach that the benefits are received by faith.

Knowledge check

Name three images of the atonement and the tradition most associated with each.

Christus Victor, in which Christ defeats death and the devil, is strongest in the early fathers and the East. Satisfaction, from Anselm, is strongest in the medieval West. Penal substitution, in which Christ bears the penalty of sin, is strongest in the Reformation and in Reformed and evangelical teaching.

What does the formula ‘sufficient for all, efficient for the elect’ mean?

It means that the worth of Christ’s death is great enough to cover the sins of all people, but that its saving effect is realized only for those who are saved. It comes from Peter Lombard. Reformed writers read it as describing the design of the cross, while Arminians, Lutherans and Catholics read it as saying that provision is made for all and received by faith.

What are the main arguments for limited atonement?

Reformed theologians cite texts speaking of Christ giving his life for his sheep or his church, and argue that if the cross secured salvation, and not all are saved, it must have been intended for the elect. They say that otherwise the work of Christ would only make salvation possible and not actually save anyone.

What are the main arguments for universal atonement?

They cite texts such as John 3:16, 1 John 2:2 and 1 Timothy 2:6 that say Christ died for the world or for all. They argue that the sincere offer of the gospel to all requires a provision for all. They also hold that God’s love extends to every person and not only to a chosen number.

Think it through

  1. Which image of the cross have you heard most often in your own church, and which have you heard least?
  2. Do you think it matters whether the cross is understood as a legal or as a healing act? Why?
  3. How would you answer a friend who asks, ‘Did Christ die for me?’

Independent assignment

Images and extent

In your notebook, write 500 to 700 words. In the first part, describe three images of the atonement, using one New Testament text for each. In the second part, state the Reformed and the Arminian answers to the question of extent, each in the strongest form its supporters would give, citing two texts for each. End by noting what both agree on about the cross.

Further study