Recapitulation – The solution to sin & relationship

Recapitulation is a picture of a hospital for the broken rather than a courtroom for the rebel. It’s about healing mankind by uniting us to God who is life. The word “Recapitulation” comes from the Latin word “sum up / bring everything together / gather together in one” from Ephesians 1:10 “And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth” (NLT).

The idea here is unification, restoration, reconciliation, and the submission of all things to Christ. This happens through the work of Jesus in His life, death, and resurrection to reverse the curse, death, sin, and abolish the devil to bring the world back to a state of Eden and to bring humanity back to a state of innocence. This work of Jesus will be completed at the end of the age but in the meantime, it is in the progress of completion. Jesus is actively working to restore and unify all things. We as humanity are one of those things and Recapitulation theory mainly deals with that issue. When Adam sinned, he brought both spiritual and physical death to all his descendants. Adam once carried the glory of God’s life and light in him but once he sinned, all his descendants were born separated from the glory of God. This was the spiritual state of death and separation from God. As humanity, we stopped carrying the glory but then Jesus came and gave us His Spirit so that we could become glory-carriers once again. We lost the presence of God in Eden, now the Eden of God’s presence comes to dwell in our hearts. Left to our own devices, we were incapable of turning back to God, as it is written “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” (Isa 53:6) and “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Ro 3:23). We have totally missed the purpose for why we were created. But though we have all failed God, He has not failed us. He made a way for us to come back to Him through Jesus. As His creation, we are all His children and God wants us to return to Him and have a relationship with Him (Acts 17:28-29; 2 Cor 5:18-21). We were created in God’s image and in His likeness but we are born lost from our true identity and so we wander through the earth constantly searching for purpose, meaning, and fulfillment. Who are we really? Apart from our jobs, our social media accounts, our friends, our family, our hobbies, and entertainment interests? Those things are just what we do to keep ourselves busy, to distract us, and they are the people around us. But who are we really? What’s our identity? The truth is, we were created in God’s image and for His purpose but we have lost touch with that identity. That’s why so many of us are broken and cannot be reconciled to God. But God has a plan to fix us through His love, light, and life.

In Recapitulation, Jesus lived a perfect life where humanity failed to do so; thus, He restores humanity by doing over everything humanity failed to accomplish. Essentially, the indwelling presence of Christ makes us whole because Jesus lived His whole life in perfect obedience. He said “yes” where we said “no.” He endured where we gave up. He loved where we hated. He blessed where we have cursed. He chose obedience where we chose rebellion. Because Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered as a man and went before us as a pioneer of faith, fulfilling faith perfectly, He can impart to us His victories through His indwelling presence (Heb 4:15; 5:8; 12:2). Now, as we abide in Him and draw close to His life as the Vine, we receive His nutrients of life and become conformed more and more into the perfect Christ (Jn 15; 2 Cor 3:18; Ro 8:29). The incarnation of God becoming man was essential because without it, there would be no imparting of the law of Christ into our hearts so that we are caused to obey His commandments (Jer 31:33; Ezek 36:27). The divinity of Christ was essential because without it, Jesus wouldn’t have lived a perfect life to secure victory for us; and nor would there be sufficient spiritual power to conquer death. Therefore, the hypostatic union of Christ is foundational for our victory of sin, death, and the devil so that we can be fully reconciled back to God. Irenaeus summed up Recapitulation this way:

When He became incarnate, and was made man, he recapitulated in himself the long line of human beings, and furnished us, in a brief comprehensive manner, with salvation, so that what we had lost in Adam—namely, to be according to the image and likeness of God—that we might recover in Christ.
(AH 3.18.1: Gavin Ortlund: Which Atonement Theory is Right? 16:13).

Here is another quote from Irenaeus:

‘Therefore, as I have already said, He caused man (human nature) to cleave to and to become, one with God. For unless man had overcome the enemy of man, the enemy would not have been legitimately vanquished… But the law coming, which was given by Moses, and testifying of sin that it is a sinner… laid, however, a weighty burden upon man, who had sin in himself, showing that he was liable to death… For it behooved Him who was to destroy sin, and redeem man under the power of death, that He should Himself be made that very same thing which he was, that is, man; who had been drawn by sin into bondage, but was held by death, so that sin should be destroyed by man, and man should go forth from death… What He did appear [i.e. human], that He also was: God recapitulated in Himself the ancient formation of man, that He might kill sin, deprive death of its power, and vivify man; and therefore His works are true. (The Anástasis Center).

In this way, we could point to 1 Peter 2:24 which says, “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” Peter and Irenaeus are not saying here that Jesus had some kind of substance of sin inside Him that was placed there from us or from His human nature (sin is a choice, after all). Rather, the idea is that the corrupted human nature was conquered by Jesus’ death, divinity, and moral perfection so that when Christ’s Spirit comes to reside in us, these victories are ours as well and the corruption begins to reverse. In this metaphorical and mystical way, our sins were in Christ’s body when He died in the way that Paul describes it: “I have been crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20) and we have died to sin by being baptized into Christ’s death, we became united to Him in the likeness of His death because we were crucified with Him and have died with Christ (Ro 6:2-8). Our sins weren’t literally in Christ’s body but our sins were crucified with Him because He overcame the weaknesses of the human flesh which had been used by others as an instrument for sin because of its inherent weakness and proclivity towards sin. In this way, sin was crucified with Jesus. It’s a sort of metaphysical substitutionary infusion of Christ’s life and tangible righteousness to us and by extension, our sin destroyed in His body. Or, it’s possible that 1 Peter 2 simply means that Christ bore our sins, that is, He endured the violence of humanity against Him which crucified Him. For Penal Substitutionary Atonement advocates, they would take the view that our sin and guilt was legally imputed to Christ on the cross and then His righteousness was legally imputed to us. But instead of a legal process, Recapitulation sees this as a medically restorative process which happened in a real way at the cross, both physically and spiritually. Another term for Recapitulation is Medical Substitution. Both terms are acceptable for this model but Medical Substitution is not as widely known or used. One might also call this Healing Atonement. In this theory, Jesus was not our legal substitute but our medical substitute.

One aspect of Recapitulation is this theological belief called Theosis. Irenaeus put it this way, that He “became what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.” (Wik). Call it what you want: sanctification, deification, Christian perfection, entire sanctification, becoming a saint, or being conformed into the image of Christ. How far can we actually go in this pursuit on earth? What degree of sanctification is necessary to be saved? And is salvation just going to heaven? Or is there more to that word? These questions are for another day because of the breadth in which this subject entails. I do want to mention though that growing in our sanctification is a very important part of continuing our reconciliation with God that it might be more complete. After all, how can we relate to God and truly know Him if we are so unlike Him? You might find your friends or spouses based upon common interests and like minds but there are other people that you just don’t “get,” and don’t understand or relate to because the two of you are so different. So, if we apply this principle in our relationship with God, how are we truly going to know and understand Him intimately if we live unholy lives? What do we have in common with God if our lives do not reflect His nature and values? If our speech is filthy? If our hearts are bent towards evil desires? If we want to know Him and be like Him, then we need to live the way He lived, have a heart for people the way He had a heart for people, and think in accordance to what is true and what is wise. Our ultimate aim is for our hearts to come into alignment with His heart and for our minds to come into alignment with His mind. This is the path to fulfilling Jesus’ High Priestly prayer for us, “that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me” (Jn 17:21).

The view of Recapitulation is one held strongly by the Eastern Orthodox Church. I cannot say though that how I present this view accurately represents their beliefs since all their beliefs are strictly confined to tradition and so when they speak of doctrinal matters, they are obligated to say no more and no less and no different than what their tradition teaches. On the other hand, I am not bound by such things. I believe in the free expression of thought on doctrinal matters. What I will mostly focus on in this lesson is how our broken relationship with God is restored. In other atonement models, we covered the problem of sin, the corrupted heart, unbelief, the law, death, and the devil. In this atonement model, I will emphasize the problem of shame and guilt. If all the other problems are dealt with but shame isn’t, then this could be your particular barrier in fully reconciling your relationship with God. Even if you are already a Christian, this could still be a barrier. It was for me.

This is how I conceive the Recapitulation Atonement model to deal with sin, God’s wrath, our severed relationship with God, and salvation: The death of Jesus showed us God’s love to convince us to believe that God is for us and wants us to be reconciled to Him. The love of His death brought us over to God’s side. Sin and shame are what have been holding us back from connecting to God. These things are not what held God back—but what held us back. It is true that God is angry with sinners and that His wrath abides on the unrighteous because He is a just God and He is angry with what the good creation that He has made has done to themselves; we have smeared this creation in the mud and turned it into what is worthless. Not that we are worthless but we have turned the image-of-God that we were created in to reflect the opposite of God’s good nature. We have corrupted the glory of God in which we were made and thus have fallen short of the radiance of that glory. But through faith in His love, we are able to come back to that radiance, to receive the glory of God’s Spirit to dwell within us, and fulfill the purpose to which we were made. It is through the indwelling presence that we are justified through faith in His blood. By His blood, we mean, the love demonstrated through His death and the purging of sin that this blood produces for us through our Great High Priest that has sprinkled our hearts clean with that blood through His love and the unification of the Spirit to our bodies achieved through faith. Where there is this kind of reconciliation, remediation, and restoration, there is no wrath because God’s ultimate desire for us is our hearts in relationship to Him. This is also where we find our greatest fulfillment.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and drives says that humanity’s greatest fulfillment is in reaching the top of the pyramid which is self-actualization. It is here where we are achieving our fullest potential and making the best use of ourselves to fulfill our needs. But what most people don’t know is that true self-actualization is a relationship with God. That is our fullest potential. This is our greatest achievement to be all that we can be because what we are and what our needs are, can only be fully met in God. If we were created for Him but disconnect from our Creator and Designer, then we are not operating by the manufacturer’s specifications yet we are somehow surprised when the gears start grinding and we break down. That is because true fulfillment and health is only fully found in God.

To the Christians, let me say this: Your greatest fulfillment is to live in relationship with God and then out of the overflow of that relationship, to bless others. Don’t get this the opposite way around or you are certain to burn out or seek God’s love and favor for doing good things when He is already well-pleased with you. God wants your heart first. Actions come after. If ministry becomes too much, slow down. Spend time with God. He wants your service but He doesn’t need your service. He is not a God in need of anything. He can always get someone else to do the job. Jesus didn’t die so that God could have a bunch of slaves serving Him out of fear and duty. Jesus died so that we could be His friends and partner with Him in His work. One is servile-fear—the other is loving-relationship.

Here is a perspective on sin from a YouTube TikToker, Cia Cloud:

God does not ask you to stop sinning because He doesn’t care about your desires. It’s because sin destroys what we were meant to become, which is a free person—with a pure heart—made in the image of God. Because the thing about sin is that when we are choosing it, we are acknowledging that our desires are above the desires of God; and the more we choose it, the more we begin to decide that everything we choose—will begin with our feelings. Now, why this is dangerous is not just because we’ve been taught that sin is bad, stay away from sin. It’s much bigger. It’s because if the foundation of your life is built on things that are only based off of feeling, the enemy can constantly convince you that brokenness is your portion because brokenness is all you’ve ever known as a feeling—in order to fix it, you get something else that’s broken. So it keeps you in a cycle where you are constantly, consistently acknowledging that brokenness is who you are. I’ve talked to so many people on the street and the first thing they tell me is, “I don’t need your apology,” “I don’t need your truth,” “I don’t need your love,” “I have me.” Sin will convince you that you can rely on no one but yourself—because the entire goal of it is to isolate you away from believing that you can ever heal from things that happen to you—by keeping you in a cycle where everyone else is the enemy—and you’re the only one that can save yourself. Sin causes us to hate freedom.
(Cia: A different view on sin)

Cia has said it well. Sin destructively removes us from the grace of God’s life and presence and thwarts our purpose and destroys our innate identity so that we live broken lives. Sin keeps us in a destructive cycle of turning to feeling rather than turning to healing. But we don’t have to choose brokenness—we can choose restoration. The first time I heard this video on YouTube, my mind had a difficult time wrapping itself around this because for the most part in my Christian upbringing, the only way most preachers talked about sin was that it was an offense against God to incur His wrath. Throughout the years, that monolithic view has been hammered into my mind—and it was unhealthy—because it was unbalanced. So I would encourage you to put that idea of sin on the shelf for awhile so that you can see this other perspective. It could be liberating. For me, this video was one of the first steps to heal my relationship with God because of the shame I held for not measuring up and the division I had in my faith of the Father’s love for me because of the division that Penal Substitutionary Atonement placed in my heart because of the division of that view with the Trinity because of the picture it created of the cross—the Father’s wrathful hatred for me. Over the course of months, I came back to this other view of sin again and again to try to understand it along with my own Bible study and then one day it finally clicked. At that time, the love of God entered my heart to cleanse it and to give me a peace that surpassed all understanding and this peace abides with me today. It was a culmination of many things but the result was that the desires and passions of sin that I had tried to crucify my entire life were finally put to death. It was through the love of the Father, faith in Jesus, and living the crucified life by faith that I was finally able to overcome. “This is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 Jn 5:4).

To sum up, Recapitulation is all about the reconciliation and restoration of all things to Christ from one level of glory to another until all things are glorified into their perfect and restored states. The main focus of Recapitulation is the moral perfection of Jesus while living and dying in the weakened human body. On the cross, He put to death the proclivity towards sin by crucifying it in His own body. He could do this because He never sinned and He obeyed every law. This life and victory are imparted to all who receive Him by faith. This is regeneration. This is the transformed life. God healed the corrupted human nature so that we could live in that healing. In this atonement model, sin is viewed as more of a disease and corruption to our humanity. It is this corruption that leads all who do not believe in Jesus into eternal death. It is only by the uniting of Jesus’ nature to our nature that we can be saved as we turn away from the darkness in our own hearts to receive the light, life, love, and healing of Jesus so that the corruption can be undone. In this, we will be able to say, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal 2:20).

Athanasius saw that the death and resurrection of Christ was necessary to overcome the sin which corrupts us and leads us all the way to the corruption of death. To him, being saved from sin required more than just repentance to give us salvation:

Nor does repentance recall men from what is according to their nature; all that it does is to make them cease from sinning. Had it been a case of a trespass only, and not of a subsequent corruption, repentance would have been well enough; but when once transgression had begun men came under the power of the corruption proper to their nature and were bereft of the grace which belonged to them as creatures in the Image of God. No, repentance could not meet the case. What—or rather Who was it that was needed for such grace and such recall as we required? Who, save the Word of God Himself, who also in the beginning had made all things out of nothing? His part it was, and His alone, both to bring again the corruptible to incorruption and to maintain for the Father His consistency of character with all. For He alone, being Word of the Father and above all, was in consequence both able to recreate all, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be an ambassador for all with the Father. […] This He did that He might turn again to incorruption men who had turned back to corruption, and make them alive through death by the appropriation of His body and by the grace of His resurrection. Thus, He would make death to disappear from them as utterly as straw from fire. The Word perceived that corruption could not be got rid of otherwise than through death.
(On the Incarnation of the Word: Ch.2, pg. 6-7)

Jesus died and rose again to defeat the root cause of our sin problem—the weakness and corruption of our bodies which were inclined towards sin. He did this in His own body on the cross to give us life and immortality. Athanasius saw that the problem of humanity was their sin resulting in corruption and death. The solution then was Jesus as our medical substitute to heal our nature and remove sin from us. Not legally but actually.

While there are many people who hold to Penal Substitution and who believe in a transformed life as necessary for true salvation, there are others who hold to PSA thinking that it’s fine to simply say a prayer to be saved, make a declaration of faith, or to believe that your legal case is settled in heaven. But with Recapitulation, such things are not sufficient or possible to believe because salvation is the indwelling and transforming presence of Christ within a person. There is no salvation apart from Christ Himself. The goal then is to have faith so that the Spirit of Christ becomes united to us so that we have salvation, turn from the darkness inside our evil hearts, so that through faith and repentance, our hearts become cleansed from evil and united to God. For some people then, salvation will be a definitive moment in their lives where their hearts were cleansed and they received new life in Christ. But for others, attaining salvation may be a process of ascending higher in faith and continuing in repentance so that the evil passions and desires of the flesh finally become crucified with Christ (Gal 5:24). The repentance that is effectual here is a daily denial of self and absolute surrender of one’s life to God. It’s not really about doing many inward and outward forms of piety but it’s about humility in coming to the end of ourselves, our own efforts, and our own self-will to be empty enough to receive Christ’s Spirit to rule over our hearts. For those who are unsaved who are already at the end of themselves because of their brokenness, hurting, humility, and conditions of dependence and suffering, they may find it easy to come to salvation. But for those who are prideful, self-willed, ambitious, wealthy, and high-achievers, they will find it much more difficult. Since they are so full of themselves, there is no room for Christ. Even though I have mentioned these things about repentance as necessary for salvation, I personally see them more of helps or aids to get closer to salvation. This isn’t about earning salvation but about positioning oneself in a way that he or she becomes ready to receive salvation. For that reason, repentance isn’t primary. Faith is primary. People must come to fully see their need for God and to be desperate for God so that faith has the opportunity to be strong enough to believe in God’s love, goodness, and grace to cleanse the heart from the evil passions and desires. It is the love of the Father through Jesus Christ that cleanses the heart through faith; so above all, pursue faith. Read the Bible to get to know who God is and read the articles on this website to be convinced of the love and goodness of God for all of humanity so that faith may be vivified within you. The message presented here regarding salvation is a mixture between my Protestant roots and also the Orthodox church’s belief about salvation within their belief of Recapitulation as an atonement model.

Here are some Bible verses that speak about the importance of both Christ’s death and His life as being necessary to save us and to restore our relationship with God. There also seems to be a connection here between Christ’s divinity and His role in reconciliation.

Romans 5:10

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Colossians 1:19-20

For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

For understanding the next atonement theory, Reconciliation, it is important to first understand the definition of sin presented here in this article on Recapitulation. In this way, the next atonement theory builds off of this one.