The Christ has conquered death! Hallelujah. Death is dead in the death of the living one. He has wrested the keys of Hades from the Enemy’s cold hand and now rules over death. Satan, Sin & Death ‘died’ on the Cross and Jesus won. Satan was defeated in the way described in Zechariah 3.1-4: the true accusations of the accuser are made to be false because Jesus stood in our place on the cross. Therefore, Satan, Sin & Death are defeated. Christ has won.
A few weeks ago, I taught a session that I called ‘Understanding the Cross’ at my church. We went through some of what sin is and what crucifixion was like and the Old Testament sacrificial system. In the second half we looked at passages of the Bible to find out what happened theologically on or because of the Cross.
I think it’s common that we emphasise one or two of these, but all 12 happened. It is true that the Bible emphasises some more than others and that these are not all of equal weight in our understanding, but together they form a tapestry.
Sometimes we can be so cross (!) about people who minimise penal substitution (that Jesus stood in the place of our punishment on the cross) that we make it the only thing the Bible talks about. Substitution is a main theme, but there are others.
Sometimes these are called ‘theories’ of atonement as though they are competing with one another. That isn’t the right way of thinking, as they’re all mentioned in the Bible. Instead they are facets of the atonement and the question is about how they fit together.
1. Substitution.
Isaiah 53.6, 1 Peter 2.24, 2 Corinthians 5.21
Jesus stands in our place, so that in the ‘Great Exchange’ as Martin Luther called it, we gain his righteousness while he takes our sin. This is our cross, our rightful death, and he takes it instead of us.
Therefore, I don’t have to die, even though sin causes death.
2. Propitiation
Romans 3.35, 1 John 4.10
This is often lumped with the former but it’s a distinctly different thing. It means the turning aside of wrath. Jesus’ death turns aside the wrath of God so that his anger is not levelled at those who trust in Jesus’ death.
Therefore, God’s wrath is not levelled against me, even though he is just and I deserve it.
3. Expiation
1 John 1.7, Leviticus 16
Jesus cleanses our filth so that our sin is taken far away from us. Think of the second goat on the Day of Atonement, who is sent out into the wilderness to be eaten by goat demons. He is identified with the people’s sin and then cast out the camp with their uncleaness on him. Jesus cleanses us not just from the penalty of sin but from its pollution, sending it far away.
Therefore, even though sin made me filthy, I have been cleaned.
4. Ransom
Matthew 20.28, Colossians 2.14
Jesus paid the price of our sin.
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