Atonement

1 Peter 2:24 NASB: and He Himself brought our sins in His body up on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; by His wounds you were healed.

For Christ followers, the core of our faith is the death and resurrection of Jesus. This one act is the foundation of our belief and, in church language, is what we call the atonement. While the act itself is at the crux of atonement, how we relate to his sacrifice and conceptualize it varies from person to person. 

Personally, I don’t believe there is a “right” way to think about atonement.  However, whichever concept you identify with most will shape your view of God and, likely, how you view yourself. Different metaphors speak to us at different times.  With that in mind, I wanted to explore some of the more common views of atonement. 

I have five of them illustrated in my artwork this week. Can you spot and name them? 

The favored metaphor of the early church was Christus Victor, symbolized by the broken chain and shackle.  Sin has enslaved us and held us captive, and Jesus set us free.  Recall that for the first disciples and for Jesus himself, the exodus and the end of enslavement were the central narratives of the Jews.  That Jesus died during Passover only reinforced this concept, that once and for all, the chains of sin were broken and freedom in Christ was found. 

Also from Jewish tradition is the view of atonement as a scapegoat.  In fact, on the Day of Atonement, as described in the Old Testament, a goat was chosen, and the high priest laid both hands on the goat’s head, placing all the sins of the people of Israel on its head, and then released the goat into the wilderness to carry the sins away.  Christ, then, became the permanent scapegoat, taking our sins away and, more crucially, taking our guilt away as well. 

The next atonement model appeared much later in history and is known as Penal Substitution. The gavel represents this legal metaphor. John Calvin popularized the idea that we stand before God, guilty and deserving punishment (such as the death penalty), but that Jesus willingly chose to pay the penalty for us. 

Notice the windows in my art; they are frosted, with patches in the center slowly melting in the sunlight. I chose this to represent the cross’s transformative metaphor. The idea is that sin causes self-focus and a hardened heart, but Christ’s sacrificial love transforms us from self-focused to others-focused. We love because he first loved us. 

Finally, the symbol I most identify with is healing/restoration. The empty hospital bed represents the idea that sin is poison, a disease that leads to death. However, Christ, the great physician, took the poison into himself, dying so that we might not only live but also be completely healed. The verse above says essentially this. 

Your view of God depends on which model you prefer: God as victor, high priest, judge, love, or healer.  In truth, He is all in all. He is the light that breaks chains, bears burdens, satisfies justice, softens hardened hearts, and restores what was broken.