Four Theories of the Atonement | Rev. Michael Fredericks

All right. So, our series is called what

Christians believe.

And we have been

looking at some major doctrines of the

church, working through them little by

little. Here's what we've covered so

far. We have said in our series that

Christians believe God has made himself

known, especially in Jesus. That was the

sermon on the word of God. What it means

that we can know God, how we can know

God. Christians believe that God is

triune. That was a sermon on the

trinity. Christians believe that God

created the universe. So we talked about

creation. Christians believe that all

human beings are made in the image of

God. Christians believe that a spiritual

enemy of God exists called Satan.

Christians believe that all human beings

have sinned, turning to our own way.

Next slide, please.

And uh last Sunday, Christians believe

that despite our sin, God pursues

relationship with us because of his

unfailing love. We talked about how God

pursues us with the chairs. Um okay.

Today, today we are saying this that

Christians believe that the greatest

demonstration of God's love was on the

cross where Christ atoned for our sins

that we may be saved.

Yes, sir.

>> There's no Okay. All right. Well, if if

you follow along with the highlighted

parts in the text, hopefully the next

slide is the right one. Should be good.

Okay. So, with our with our theological

focus now squarely on Jesus in our

series, I want to start uh this morning

by just reminding ourselves of the

fundamentals of Christian belief

regarding Jesus Christ. And uh and I

think a good way to do that is to look

at the Nyian creed. We've talked about

this already. 3:25 AD is when the Nyian

creed was written. So this very old,

very ancient statement of belief from

the church. This is just the Jesus part

of the Nyine creed. So there's bit

before that about the father. Then

there's the big Jesus section and

there's a little bit at the end about

the Holy Spirit and the church. Uh, so I

just want us to actually, just like

we're not Baptists, stand together and

recite this part of the Nian Creed

together. Can we do that? If you're able

to, please join us.

All right. It says this. We believe in

one Lord Jesus Christ, the only son of

God, eternally begotten of the Father,

God from God, light from light, true God

from true God, begotten not made, of one

being with the Father. Through him all

things were made. For us and for our

salvation, he came down from heaven, was

incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the

Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our

sake, he was crucified under Pontious

Pilate. He suffered death and was

buried. On the third day, he rose again

in accordance with the scriptures. He

ascended into heaven and is seated at

the right hand of the Father. He will

come again in glory to judge the living

and the dead and his kingdom will have

no end. Amen. You can be seated.

These are statements. These are

statements which unite the church. This

is one of the reasons I love the Nyian

creed because thousands of different

denominations of every single variety of

Christianity say amen to these words. I

think that's pretty cool. Of all the

things that we think about that divide

us as Christians, we are united in these

words, which is beautiful.

Now, I want to just look quickly at the

different parts and the next slide shows

you um I've I've broken them into color

sections. So, the first part there, that

green section, that's a section of the

Nying creed that speaks about Jesus's

identity. We covered that in the Trinity

sermon. And then in the next part there,

the second part speaks about his

incarnation, his coming to earth as a

human being. And I thought about doing a

sermon on that in the series, but I did

a whole sermon on that at Christmas time

uh as we talked about Jesus's birth. So,

we're not going to spend time on that

today. Then it says in the white part

there, for our sake, he was crucified

under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death

and was buried. That's what we're going

to look at today. And then the next

section on the third day he rose again

in accordance with the scriptures and so

on. We're going to talk about that on

Easter. You might have guessed. Uh and

then in the very last message in this

series, we're going to cover what's in

the blue there about Jesus's return and

his kingdom and what that's going to

look like. So that's how we're using the

Nyine Creed. But today, as the countdown

to Good Friday is on, let's zero in on

the cross.

I remember when Mel Gibson's The Passion

of the Christ film came to theaters back

in 2004.

It was a Hollywood movie about the

suffering and death of Jesus Christ. And

it was weird. It was weird because

conservative churches like mine

were encouraging their people to go to

the movies, right? Some of us remember a

time when good Christians don't go to

the movies. Um but uh it was a time

churches were not only were churches

saying you should go see this but they

were like booking whole theaters. They

were like buying all the tickets and

like handing them out on the street as

like an evangelistic thing. Anyone

remember that? Anyone was around for

that? Yeah, I remember that. Did anyone

go see The Passion of the Christ? Yeah,

some of you did. Um

u what's even more wild about it was

that the movie was rated R. an R-rated

movie, but it was rated R because it

accurately portrays what Jesus went

through, the horrible, bloody, gruesome

violence he experienced at the hands of

his Roman captives.

And I think that for many people, seeing

that movie was the first time that they

really grasped just how terrible the

cross was for Jesus. And I know a lot of

people can't bring themselves to watch

it again or to watch it at all for that

reason. He suffered a cruel,

humiliating, and excruciating death on

the cross. The word excruciating

actually comes from crucifixion.

We could talk we could talk more about

the nature of that experience. I don't

want to get into that today. If you're a

podcast person, uh there's a podcast

called The Rest is History. Some of you

may have listened to that before if

you're a history person. And they had a

whole episode a couple years ago on

crucifixion. Um it's it lays out a

precise historical account of how the

Romans crucified people including Jesus.

Uh if you want to dig deeper on that.

But today I want to focus less on what

happened on the uh in terms of the

physical death of Jesus and more on why

it happened.

The question for us today is why did

Jesus die on the cross?

And there's two ways to answer that

question. There's like the very like

literal reason, the kind of historical

reason where you could say, well, at

that point in time, uh Jesus was

starting a new religious movement and

people were calling him the Messiah and

that made people in power uncomfortable.

It made the the Jewish leaders

uncomfortable that he was uh you know

they were calling him a heretic and he

was stirring up this new religious

understanding and made the Roman uh

officials uncomfortable because they

liked things to be calm and steady and

didn't want disruption and so he was a

disruptor right and because of that uh

he was arrested and crucified. So that's

that's sort of you know like the the the

why. But why on a deeper level? Why on a

deeper level? Why did Jesus die on the

cross? And the way we we learned it in

Sunday school, right, was that well,

Jesus died on the cross for our sins,

right? For my sin, for your sin, so we

can be saved from our sin. And we say

amen to that. Yes. Amen to that. Uh like

we said last week with our chairs, our

sin has separated us from God. There's

been a separation between God and man.

And we can attempt to turn our lives

around, but we're never going to sustain

it very long before we mess up again.

So, we've we've got this problem, this

terminal sin condition. And if it's not

resolved, each of us will die in this

state of separation from God for

eternity. So, that's why Jesus died. He

God so loved the world that he gave his

son. And in his death, Jesus took our

sin upon himself and in doing so makes

it possible for us to be reconciled to

God. So these are these are truths of

the gospel. Why did Jesus die on the

cross? Another simple way of

illustrating it is like this. So I'm

going to use the white board here. Okay.

So we've got the cross here and we have

people

here, sinful people.

And uh there's a a verse. It's uh 2

2 Corinthians 5:21

Corinthians 5:21. It says, "He became

sin who knew no sin that in him we might

become the righteousness of God." He

became sin. Jesus took sin upon himself.

He became sinful. Not he didn't become

sinful, but he bore our sins. He became

sin who knew no sin. He was spotless. He

was sinless. So that we might become the

righteousness of God. So there's this

sort of exchange that happens

with Christ's death on the cross and

through faith. This beautiful exchange

takes place. He takes our sin, shame,

guilt, wickedness, brokenness on the

cross. He bears it for us and removes it

from us. And when we believe that in

faith and we trust in him as our savior,

we receive his righteousness.

The the apostle Paul calls it

justification by faith. Justification by

faith. That is righteousness, holiness,

purification,

holiness through faith.

And as a result of that, because Jesus

deals with this sin problem, we can have

a restored relationship with God

forever. We have the availability to

have relationship with God. We'll put

God there in a cloud. We don't know

again how to how to draw God

effectively. Okay, there we go. Okay, so

this uh this basic sort of summary of

what Christ did on the cross is laid out

beautifully in the book of Isaiah.

There's a passage in Isaiah. We I I

quoted it last week a little bit, but I

want to read the whole thing today. It's

it's known as the suffering servant

passage. This was written, you know,

hundreds of years before Jesus came and

it just vividly um portrays what would

happen when when the Messiah comes and

dies for us. So, I'm going to read that

um starting in Isaiah 52:13.

Isaiah 52:13

It's on the screen as well.

So this is the prophet Isaiah sort of

prophesying about the coming of the

Messiah and what he would experience his

death, the degree of his suffering and

what it would accomplish.

It says, "See my servant will prosper.

He will be highly exalted." But many

were amazed when they saw him. Amazed in

a bad way. His face was so disfigured he

seemed hardly human. And from his

appearance, one would scarcely know he

was a man. and he will startle many

nations. Kings will stand speechless in

his presence for they will see what they

had not been told. They will understand

what they had not heard about. And then

to chapter 53, who has believed our

message? To whom has the Lord revealed

his powerful arm? My servant will My

servant grew up in the Lord's presence

like a tender green chute, like a root

in dry ground. There was nothing

beautiful or majestic about his

appearance. Nothing to attract us to

him. Just a normal guy Jesus was. But he

was despised and rejected. A man of

sorrows acquainted with deepest grief.

We turned our backs on him and looked

the other way. He was despised and we

did not care.

Yet it was our weakness he carried. It

was our sorrows that weighed him down.

And we thought his troubles were a

punishment from God, a punishment for

his own sins. But he was pierced for our

rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was

beaten so we could be whole. He was

whipped so we could be healed. This is

that ex beautiful exchange that takes

place. All of us like sheep have strayed

away. We've left God's path to follow

our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the

sins of us all.

He was oppressed and treated harshly.

Yet he never said a word. He was little

like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a

sheep is silent before the shears, he

did not open his mouth.

Unjustly condemned. He was led away.

No one cared that he died without

descendants,

that his life was cut short in

midstream. But he was struck down for

the rebellion of my people. He had done

no wrong. He had never deceived anyone,

but he was buried like a criminal. He

was put in a rich man's grave.

Incredible, precise uh prophecy, isn't

it? This is written hundreds of years

before, and it just lays out exactly

what happened. But it was the Lord's

good plan to crush him and cause him

grief.

Yet, when he made his life, yet when his

life is made an offering for sin, he

will have many descendants. He will

enjoy a long life, and the Lord's good

plan will prosper in his hands. When he

sees all that is accomplished by his

anguish, he will be satisfied. And

because of his experience, my righteous

servant will make it possible for many

to be counted righteous, for he will

bear all their sins.

I will give him the honors of a

victorious soldier because he exposed

himself to death. He was counted among

the rebels. He bore the sins of many and

interceded for rebels. Wow.

He bore the sins of many and interceded

for rebels.

So this we call the atonement.

The atonement.

How Christ through his death brought

about the reconciliation

of God and humankind. That's what

atonement kind of means. in our um in

our denomination, the CBAC, the Canadian

Baptist of Atlantic Canada, we we formed

as a denomination in 1906. And in that

year, uh some very wise people sat down

and wrote what's called the basis of

union, which is a doctrinal statement

that we ha we hold together as a

denomination. Uh a statement of agreed u

beliefs. And they have this to say about

atonement.

It says atonement, the perfect life,

vicarious death, and resurrection of

Jesus Christ have removed the obstacles

in the way of the Holy Spirit's

regenerating power and of the Father's

forgiving grace being extended to the

sinner and constitute for every

believing soul an allprevailing plea and

sufficient ground for righteousness

before God.

Now, I know that's wordy, but boy,

that's beautiful. Hey, kudos to our

Baptist forefathers who wrote that and

four mothers. Uh, just it's lovely.

Here's a simplified way to express the

meaning of atonement. Atonement, if you

break it down, you could say at onement.

At onement, it literally brings us back

into one with God, into harmony with God

instead of separation from God. It makes

amends in a way between us and God

through the vicarious death of Christ.

Now, a lot of people hear all of that

and they follow it up with a question.

Say, "Cool. Yeah, that sounds cool. I

like that. But how how

does Jesus's death make our salvation

possible? How did the death of the God

man on a Roman cross 2,000 years ago

make it possible for our sins to be

atoned for? Make it possible for us to

be reconciled back to God. What was it

about this experience of Jesus dying on

a cross that makes all this true?

I had a I had a professor at St. Vex

University uh when I was studying there.

Not a Christian. It wasn't even a

religious studies course. I don't

remember what the course was, but I

remember this. I remember that he knew

that there was a small group of us in

our class that were Christians and for

one reason or another, he called us out

in class one day and and uh he he cuz we

had somehow mentioned Jesus or our faith

in class and he said, "Okay, you

Christians, answer me this." Uh and I

remember the spotlight's on us, the

whole class is staring at us. Tell me,

how does Jesus's death on a cross save

you from your sins?

Oh well um yeah good good question. We

really didn't have an answer and I'm

actually very thankful for that moment.

Some people would say oh those secular

professors I was like no thank you thank

you for asking that question actually

because it forced me to do a big deep

study on how the death of Jesus on the

cross saves us from our sins. And it has

led me to uh discover that there are

these theories of the atonement.

Theories of the atonement. Uh it's this

is a question that people have wrestled

with over the whole lifetime of the

church from the earliest years. They've

said how is this what how does this

work? So they developed these theories

of how it works. There's actually seven

or more theories of the atonement.

Um, today we're going to look at at four

of them that are kind of the most widely

accepted and I'm going to go through

them. I'm going to use the whiteboard,

go through these and then um make one

last point. Okay.

So,

to answer that question, how does

Jesus's death on the cross actually

bring about the possibility of

salvation? The first theory of the

atonement I want to look at is called

the ransom theory. The ransom theory.

The ransom theory was the most prominent

view in the early church for the first

thousand years of the church. Actually,

this was the most prominent view. It was

uh articulated well by a man named

origin in the 3rd century, one of the

early church fathers.

And the key idea of the ransom theory is

that Jesus gives his life as a ransom.

And that's from a couple of key texts.

Mark 10:45 where Jesus says, "The Son of

Mark 10:45

Man came to give his life as a ransom

for many." And then Paul repeats that in

1 Timothy chapter 2, where he says, "For

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

there is one God, there is one mediator

between God and man, the man Christ

Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for

all, which is the testimony given at the

proper time.

Jesus gave his life as a ransom.

So then that raises a question. You read

those passages and you go, okay, I kind

of understand the idea of a ransom,

right? Someone's sort of been kidnapped

or held hostage and then someone's

asking for a ransom and you pay the

ransom and then those people are

released. That's what a ransom does. So

in this scenario, uh if Jesus paid a

ransom, the question then is well who

did he pay a ransom to? To whom is the

ransom paid? And in the dramatic imagery

of this view, the idea is that actually

the ransom was paid to the devil.

So again, don't really know how to

depict the devil. So we'll go with a

pitchfork.

All right.

Okay. So rant. So the devil play

features predominantly Satan in features

predominantly in this theory going back

to the garden, right? It starts with

Satan where he tempts Adam and Eve,

deceives them and they that causes them

to sin.

And because he did that and they sinned,

now humanity has been ins snared by the

devil. So we'll put a sort of a lasso

around the human race. The human race

has been ins snared by the devil,

trapped,

held captive to sin and death and and to

the devil. held captive and because of

this captivity that we have because of

these chains that bind us, we are

there's a separation between us and God.

That's where the separation comes in.

We're unable to have relationship with

God because we're being held captive to

sin.

Okay? So then God comes up with an idea,

a rescue plan, the plan of salvation.

And this plan involves making a deal

with the devil.

Okay? And so the idea is, okay, all

right, the devil's got you held captive.

We need and I'm going to we're going to

pay a ransom so that you will release

people. And the price that I will pay is

the price of Jesus. So Jesus is the

ransom.

He gave his life as a ransom for many, a

ransom paid to the devil. And so this so

Satan thinks, okay, do I want to take

this deal? Hm.

I have to release all of humanity, but I

get Jesus.

And he thinks, "Yeah, yeah, that's a

good deal. I want that deal. I want that

deal. Good trade." So, Satan agrees to

the deal. And then Satan then enacts the

plan. He enters Judas. Luke 22, it says,

"Satan entered Judas, one of the 12. And

Judas went to the chief priests and

officers of the temple guard and

discussed it with them how they might

betray Jesus. So sa uh Satan influencing

Judas leads to Jesus's betrayal, arrest,

crucifixion,

and on the cross Jesus pays the ransom.

And it works. It works. Humanity, Satan

says, "Okay, a deal's a deal." And he

releases human beings from their

captivity

to sin. And now the ability for us to

have a relationship with God has been

made possible. And Satan is feeling

pretty good. You say, "I won. I won. I

got the better deal. Woohoo."

But but

Satan has been outsmarted. Surprise,

surprise.

Because actually the cross was the bait

on a hook. Okay. The cross was like the

bait on a hook. And Satan fell for it.

He took the bait. Satan saw the bait. He

saw he saw Jesus's humanity, Jesus's

death, his ability to be to be killed as

this very tempting bait. But what he

didn't see behind that bait was Jesus's

divinity. The hook is the divinity of

Christ, you see. And so, because Jesus

is God, he is not able to be held by

death or the devil. and he rises from

the grave. All right. And Satan on on

resurrection morning, Satan realizes,

"Oh no.

OH NO. OH NO. HE TRICKED ME." OKAY. And

so Satan is furious. And that's why from

now until Christ returns, he's so angry

and he's always trying to continually

ins snare us again and pull us back into

sin and and trap us once again. but he

will lose in the end. Okay, so that's

the ransom theory in a nutshell. Okay, I

mean there's different ways we could

discuss that, but in summary, that's

kind of how it goes. And the key word um

that you might use or the key idea of

the ransom theory is freedom.

That what Christ accomplishes on the

cross is our freedom, our freedom from

sin.

Okay, that's the ransom theory. Uh held

as the kind of the main idea of the

church for a thousand years. Not the

only one, but for the first thousand

years of the church, this was the

predominant theory. Um then um there was

a theory developed called the Christ

Victor theory, which is very similar to

ransom theory. That's why I'm using

going to use the same color marker.

Okay. Um we got different colors for

different theories. Um but uh this in

very similar to the ransom theory it but

uh this term christrist victor was

coined in the 1930s

uh but it reflects an ancient belief

and and the variation with Christ victor

is basically that uh a lot of people

sort of felt well we don't like the idea

of of God having to make a deal with

Satan like it seems like that's giving

Satan entirely too much credit and

entirely too much power that he has the

power to ensnare all of the human

Um and so um instead what they focused

on more is Christ's victory over evil.

So they still say yes, humanity's in

bondage, but not really in a sense of to

the being of Satan, but humanity is in

bondage to to sin and to death

and and the devil. Yes, he's got us in

bondage. Or in general, how you might

describe that is just humanity's in

bondage to evil.

Okay, so evil has us ins snared.

And as if that wasn't bad enough,

in the act of crucifying Jesus,

we see the worst of human depravity on

display.

At the cross,

all the powers of evil

converge

on this hill of Calvary.

All the powers of the world and all the

the wickedness of the human heart

converge in this moment when Jesus is

crucified, when he's nailed to a Roman

cross.

And humans did the most unthinkable

thing imaginable.

They killed the son of God. Can you

imagine a more evil thing to do?

And in that moment, it looks like evil

has won.

Not only has evil ins snared humanity,

but now it has also conquered God in the

flesh.

Evil has won.

Ah, but the paradox is that what seems

like a loss for Jesus is actually a

victory. In Colossians 2:15 it says,

Colossians 2:15

"Having disarmed the powers and

authorities, he made a public spectacle

of them, triumphing triumphing over them

by the cross." The cross was a victory

over the powers and authorities.

So the victory is won on the cross but

not revealed until the resurrection.

When Jesus rises, it becomes clear.

When Jesus rises, everyone realizes,

"Oh, actually, evil doesn't get the last

word." And Jesus conquers sin, death,

and the devil. Evil does its worst, but

Christ still wins.

Our sin put him there. His love held him

there. And his power over death sets us

free. So once again, it's about this

idea of setting us free from our sins

and from evil. And if we were to use a

key word

to summarize this, we might say victory.

Christrist victor, Christ the victor.

My chains are gone. I've been set free.

God, my savior has ransomed me.

So we are set free from sin and death

and Christ has the victory. Okay. So

that's one way to frame it and

understand it. And for much of the early

church history, this was the major way

of understanding the cross. And then a

guy named an Anselm comes along. Um this

was in about the year 1000. And Anselm

says, "Well, I'm not sure that that's

the main thing that happened on the

cross, Jesus paying a ransom or winning

a victory. He sees something else."

And so he proposes what is known as the

satisfaction theory

aka the penal substitution theory.

This microphone is bugging me. Okay. So

um I'm going to use the red marker for

that one. Okay. So satisfaction theory

is sort of the title that Ansom gave it

but it became known as the penal

substitution theory after the Protestant

Reformation.

This is probably the view that most

Baptists know best. Um, it it's not

mainly about a transaction with the

devil or evil, but more so about a

transaction with God the Father.

The starting point is that human sin is

very serious and God is very holy and

our sin creates the separation.

God is also very just.

He is a just judge and because of that

sin must be punished.

The Bible says that the wages of sin is

death. The wages of sin is death. We

understand that as eternal separation

from God. So you can imagine a courtroom

scene in this in this theory. Hold on.

This mic, if I don't fix this, I'm just

going to be going crazy for the Yeah,

I'm having a problem with the mic. Ever

since Hudson preached and used my mic

and changed the shape of it to fit his

weird ears,

now it doesn't fit my ears.

Okay,

maybe I got it that time.

All right. So imagine a courtroom scene

and and God is the judge and he's seated

at his judge's desk and we are seated

across from him

and the case has been made that we are

sinners

and the verdict has come down guilty.

Yes, he's guilty. Yes, she is guilty of

sin. And because the Bible says the

wages of sin is death or the just

penalty for sin is death, then God

declares the death penalty.

And this is a good and just decision of

God in this scenario. So there's a

lightning bolt that kind of depict the

idea of God's justice and judgment

coming down on us.

And just as he's about to put us in

handcuffs and say, "Take them away.

Something stirs at the back of the

courtroom. All right. And and then next

thing you know, bursting through the

doors enters Jesus. BOOM. THE DOORS OPEN

UP AND THE whole room is stunned in

silence and they watch as Jesus walks up

the aisle and HE SAYS, "STOP THE

PROCEEDINGS. EVERYONE STOP THE

PROCEEDINGS."

He says, "I

will take his place. I will take his

punishment."

And God the Father, the just judge

considers this.

And he says, "Yes.

He is a spotless lamb. He is a suitable

substitute that satisfies

my justice." That's why it's called the

satisfaction theory.

And so God says, "Okay, I will accept

that." And the death penalty falls on

Jesus,

not us.

So what would have been our punishment

instead goes to Christ.

And he's taken away and he's crucified.

And the penalty

goes to a substitute. That's why it's

the penal substitution theory. The

penalty, our penalty goes to a suitable

substitute in our place.

And the result then for us is that our

sins are forgiven.

Our debt has been paid. We have peace

with God. And we walk out of the

courtroom scot-free.

Now this this approach, this

satisfaction theory, this penal

substitution theory is very consistent

with the Old Testament picture of

sacrifice. We have animal sacrifices

particularly on the day of atonement.

The day of atonement when a uh when a

scapegoat is selected from amongst the

animals and all of the sins of the

nation are symbolically put onto this

scapegoat who is then sent out into the

wilderness to die

and the sins of the people are forgiven

for another year.

So Jesus in is in a way in this theory

our scapegoat as we read in Isaiah 53

the punishment that brought us peace was

upon him

and as we talked about last Sunday with

Abram cutting this covenant with God

where God walks the bloody path. God

says I will take the punishment if Abram

doesn't fulfill his side of the

covenant. And this is what happens on

the cross. Jesus takes the covenant

curse upon himself.

So the main uh if you were to use one

word to kind of summarize this uh this

theory of the atonement, you might say

the main thing that is accomplished is

forgiveness. Forgiveness.

And then one last theory I want to look

at is called the moral influence theory.

the moral influence theory. So around

the same time that Anselm in the year

roughly the year 1000 uh said I think

that the satisfaction theory is the

right approach there was another guy

named Abalard who responded to Anselm

and said Ansom I don't think you've got

it right I think it's this and he

proposed what has become known as the

moral influence theory and this theory

focuses less on what the cross

accomplishes

and more on what the cross reveals or

communicates or says.

So the question is not what does the

cross do, what does Jesus's death do,

but what does it say? What is it

communicating?

And in the moral influence theory, you

would say the cross is saying something.

It's radiating a message. When you look

at the cross, it's speaking. And the

thing that it is speaking is love.

Love,

love. When you stare at the cross and

you think about the death of Christ and

what he did, it's shouting love.

God is love. God loves you. In Romans

Romans 5:8

5:8, it says, "God demonstrates his love

for us in that while we were yet

sinners, Christ died for us." That's his

demonstration of his love. Jesus's life

was a life of love.

and he died as a martyr for the cause of

love.

So Jesus's death shows us how sinful we

are

and how deeply how deeply God loves us

anyway despite our sin.

And the idea here is that the as as we

gaze at the cross,

it influences us deeply. As we gaze at

the cross, our hearts are moved.

Love awakens love in us and we therefore

repent of sin and turn towards Christ.

We follow his example and become people

of love. And so in this in this

approach, salvation is not so much a

legal transaction that happens between,

you know, Jesus and the devil or between

Jesus and God and man and God. It's not

about a legal transaction. It's that

salvation is experienced when we become

devoted followers

shaped by Christ's love. Humanity is

saved by being inspired through ex

through the example of the death of

Christ to repent and turn to God.

So we're influenced by the death of

Christ, by the love displayed on the

cross. That's the moral influence

theory.

The main emphasis of the moral influence

theory is love.

Okay. So,

so is it this one or this one or this

one or this one?

>> Or some other one?

Which one is it?

And and I What did you say, Shirley?

>> Or all of them. Yeah. Hey, I think

you're on to something, Shirley.

I would say to all of these theories of

the atonement, I would say a resounding

yes.

>> Yes, he did all of that. He I don't

think we have to pick. He did all of

that and more. Uh William Lane Craig

says, "The atonement is a diamond with

many facets."

And Joel B. Green refers to the

atonement as a kaleidoscope.

Many different colors and aspects to it

that all at once show us the picture of

what Christ accomplished.

So if you were to ask me which one,

Michael, do you think is the right one?

I say I think they all have truth.

That's what I believe. And you may

prefer a particular theory of the

atonement. Some people say that they're

incompatible with each other. Um I don't

think they are, but some people think

they are. For me, I see that all of them

point us to the truth. Did Jesus's death

on the cross win our freedom from death,

sin, and the devil, and declare victory

over evil?

>> Yes. Did Jesus's death on the cross take

the just punishment we all deserve for

our sin, diverting the penalty of sin

onto himself rather than on us, allowing

us to be forgiven?

>> Yes. Did Jesus's death on the cross

reveal the extent of God's love? That he

was willing even to let mankind kill him

and yet still he loves us, motivating

us, influencing us to turn our hearts

fully toward him and live new lives.

>> Yes.

Honestly, I see little to no conflict.

Rather, I praise God and thank him that

in one act, in one brilliant

and yet enormously painful, horrible,

excruciating, sacrificial act, he was

able to accomplish so much.

In 1 Corinthians 1:18, it says this,

1 Corinthians 1:18

"For the message, next slide, for the

message of the cross is foolishness to

those who are perishing, but to us who

are being saved, it is the power of

God." You know, my professor at St. X,

he didn't get it right. He just thought,

"It's foolishness. It's foolishness. You

you Christians and your weird mythology

that somehow the death of a guy on a

cross can save you from your sin and

give you eternal life. Foolishness

to those who are perishing. Yeah, they

don't get it. They don't get his

nonsense.

But to us who are being saved,

it's the power of God. It's like, oh my

goodness, God is so incredibly powerful.

Look at all that he could do through

this one sacrificial act. It is the

power of God. It is everything.

And for you, if you have already

experienced this beautiful exchange,

praise God. I hope that this message

causes you to love Jesus even more, to

understand even more richly the depth

and beauty of the incredible sacrifice

he underwent for you. I really

appreciate it.

And if you haven't experienced that

beautiful exchange through faith in

Christ, my prayer is that something that

said today will help you recognize your

own need for atonement, your own need

for salvation,

that you will accept it and receive it.

Because the wages of sin is death, but

the free gift of God is eternal life

through Christ Jesus our Lord. Believe

it in faith and be saved.

>> Amen.

>> Hey, cool.