Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Hippie Heretic

Home
Progressive Christian
What Did Jesus’ Death Accomplish? (Here’s the Best Explanation I’ve Heard)

What Did Jesus’ Death Accomplish? (Here’s the Best Explanation I’ve Heard)

Last updated on: May 23, 2017 at 8:32 am by Chuck McKnight

What Did Jesus’ Death Accomplish? (Here’s the Best Explanation I’ve Heard) 2017-05-23T08:32:35-07:00 Chuck McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

It’s Good Friday, and the church is contemplating the death of Christ. Why did he die? What did his death accomplish? How does the atonement work?

The single best explanation I’ve heard on this matter is Benjamin Myers’ talk on the “Patristic Atonement Model.” He gave the talk back in 2015 (and it was also published in the book Locating Atonement), but several unrelated conversations I’ve had recently have brought it back up again, and I thought it would be well worth sharing today.

Human beings are the products of love. They are created in God’s image for the purpose of reciprocating divine love. Human nature, motivated by an internal principle of desire, tends naturally upward toward God. Since God is the source of all life, to be lovingly moving toward God is to be alive. But to turn away from God, even for one second, is to begin to die: to slide downward, away from life, love, and reality.

Since the beginning of history, the whole human race has been locked in a downward slide toward nothingness. But because of his great love for humanity, the Son of God leapt down from heaven and wrapped himself in our plummeting human nature. Because he was human, he participated fully in our perilous slide toward nothingness. But because he was divine, he was able to arrest our downward movement and to reverse it, initiating an upward movement toward the life, love, and reality of God. In the movement of that one human life, the life of Christ, the whole of human nature has undergone death and resurrection. (Locating Atonement, p. 86)

Here’s the full talk. (It isn’t as long as it appears. The last half hour is Q&A.)

His talk brings new life to the recapitulation view of Irenaeus and Athanasius, along with a more-clearly articulated understanding of Christus victor. What Myers so skillfully does is elucidate the understanding of the atonement held by the very earliest church fathers (which has been consistently maintained by the Eastern Orthodox tradition, but has been all but forgotten in Western Christianity). And he does so in a way that makes it applicable for believers today. This is exactly what we’ve needed.

The only clarification I’d add has to do with his discussion on the impassibility of God. Impassibility means different things to different people, and I don’t personally agree with the idea that God has no emotions—that he cannot suffer with us in any true sense. I believe our God is a personal God with very real emotions, and he always suffers with us. However, in Myers’ talk, the focus of impassibility is God’s inability to suffer death, which meant that God had to assume a mortal human body first. On this I certainly agree.

Parts of this post have been adapted from my earlier review of Locating Atonement*.*

Previous Post

April 13, 2017

Disturbing Divine Behavior by Eric A. Seibert (Book Review)

Next Post

April 17, 2017 The Least of All Nations (RTT)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Church Personal Reviews Scripture Social Justice Theology

Select a Month August 2021 September 2020 August 2020 July 2019 March 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 July 2016 June 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many minor prophets are there in the Old Testament?

Select your answer to see how you score.

7 15 12 10