but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Jesus gave up Divine status and privilege not Divine attributes, nature, or capability Wayne Grudem: Systematic Theology. (2000, 549-552)
consubstantial [coessential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood
Reflections Jesus s human nature through the facets of atonement What to me and to you?
Some more truth than others We are blessed with the advantage of time
Moral Influence Theory Recapitulation Theory Ransom Theory Scapegoating Theory Governmental Theory Penal Substitution Theory
Moral Influence - relieves your dread, fear, and avoidance of God because He loves you Recapitulation Theory by Christ you are being changed into the you you are becoming to be forever Ransom Theory you were a slave but now you are set free Scapegoating Theory - Jesus bears your guilt and shame, leave your prison guilt and shame Governmental Theory any sense of God s just punishment due you has been paid by Jesus Penal Substitution Theory Jesus freely assumed the judgement you personally deserve, yours is but a new life to be lived for Him
Our sin is an attitude that alienates us causing dread, fear, and avoidance of God Jesus life and death (see Erickson, p 785): provides a moral sense of right and wrong provides God s love through Jesus which can remove our fear toward God provides human example of God s love and acceptance to extend to others
Luke 19:10 - "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.". 2 Corinthians 5:19 - namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
1 John 4:9-13 By this the love of God was manifested 1a in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
Christ is seen as the new Adam who succeeds where Adam failed. Christ undoes the wrong that Adam did and, because of his union with humanity, leads humankind on to eternal life. James Bethune-Baker n.11
Jesus became what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself Irenaeus, n.17
Classic early church view Satan stole man from God by tricking us into sin and requires a blood price to ransom us back God tricked Satan to retrieve us back through the blood of Jesus Jesus life and death provides a blood payment that liberates us (see Erickson, p 793)
1 Corinthians 6:20 - For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. Matthew 20:28 - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.
Job 41:1 "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook? Or press down his tongue with a cord?
Matthew 20:28 The word translated ransom is the one commonly employed in the papyri as the price paid for a slave who is then set free by the one who bought him, the purchase money for manumitting slaves. Robertson s Word Pictures
Based on humanities mimetic desires that yield violent conflict John 8:44; Genesis 4:8 Jesus dies as the atoning Scapegoat of humanity s violent rivalry Jesus is not a sacrifice but a victim that overcomes the legalistic sacrificial order and thus offers us freedom from death God s overcomes our violence by substituting Himself for the victim
Matthew 18:7 "Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes! Leviticus 16:10 "But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the 1 scapegoat.
2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Christ's suffering and death served as a substitute for the punishment humans might have received for breaking God s law so that God as moral governor (ruler) of the universe could forgive humans without punishing them while still maintaining divine justice.
Reaction of Grotius (c. 1631) to the Socinians (c. 1610) Christ's suffering serves turns away God s punishment that humanity deservers for sinning against Him Christ's death applies not to individuals directly, but limited to the Church, the elect, as a corporate entity Arminian more than Calvinist, though some Calvinist concurred (i.e. Jonathan Edwards) Point - you can lose your salvation
Christ on the Cross, in virtue of the dignity of His person did make and present, on behalf of poor sinners, a sacrifice of infinite value. This sacrifice, by showing all worlds the terrible evil humanity had committed by breaking God s law, also showed humanity God s love and pity by forgiving all those who repent and return in confidence to Him, enabling Him to be just and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. - William Booth
Jesus received the full and actual punishment due individual men and women, suffering the unbridled wrath of God on the Cross in their stead... thus satisfying the demands of justice so God can justly forgive the sins.
Romans 3:23-26 Galatians 3:10, 13 Isaiah 53:4-6, 10, 11
Moral Influence - relieves your dread, fear, and avoidance of God because He loves you Recapitulation Theory by Christ you are being changed into the you you are becoming to be forever Ransom Theory you were a slave but now you are set free Scapegoating Theory - Jesus bears your guilt and shame, leave your prison guilt and shame Governmental Theory any sense of God s just punishment due you has been paid by Jesus Penal Substitution Theory Jesus freely assumed the judgement you personally deserve, yours is but a new life to be lived for Him