Summary & Analysis of Atonement Theories

In this article, we will review all the atonement theories previously presented but in a more condensed form. I will also do my best to answer why I included them on the list and/or how penalties are understood, how forgiveness is obtained, and other relevant mechanisms for the atonement theories. There are certain subjects I wrote about that aren’t officially recognized atonement theories like: General Substitution, The Blood of The Covenant, Reconciliation, Restored-Icon, and The Gospel of the Kingdom. But I included them in this series for good reasons as they present a fuller understanding of the gospel and address many different parts of our humanity that need restoration to God. Also, all these theories I have previously presented are my own view of them and have my own intellectual and emotional bent, so I cannot guarantee that they align with the common consensus among theologians. However, I tried my best to present them in the most positive light, to include a biblical understanding of them, and to exclude nonsense.

In Penal Substitution, forgiveness of sins is through the mechanism of our sins being imputed to Jesus, taking our punishment, and dying in our place as a substitute. Our punishment is traded by Jesus being punished. This can be likened to a judge in a courtroom pronouncing us guilty and then someone steps in and says, “wait, I’ll trade places with him. Put me in prison and put me to death instead.” And then the judge agrees to the decision to satisfy the demands of justice since someone needed to be punished. In this way, retributional justice is satisfied and the punishment of death is rendered null & void.

For those of you who hold to PSA, let me suggest to you that it is not a complete wholistic theory. It deals with the issue of forgiveness to take away one’s penalty but there is more to atonement (at-one-ment) than simply letting us off the hook. Yes, we need forgiveness and that’s a big thing. But forgiveness alone may not restore one’s relationship to God. Other things within the human being are broken and need to be fixed or mended for a full-restoration to take place. I think we would do well to not consider PSA as a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s like saying, “Oh, you have a gaping wound. Here’s some duct tape. It works for everything.”

In General Substitution in combination with Recapitulation, forgiveness/removal of sins is through Christ’s perfect life lived for us on our behalf. He overcomes all the weaknesses of humanity in His own body and learns obedience through the things He suffered to later grant obedience to us. Having overcome all sin and temptation, He then died on the cross, putting to death human corruption and its propensity toward evil. When He died, a natural and metaphysical victory took place. This victory then is ours when the Christ-life is imparted to us through faith. When Christ lives in and through us, we naturally live a life of repentance, thus, saving us from the corruption of death which was the result of sin. Being united to Christ, we have His life and are thus delivered from natural and spiritual death. In this way, consequential justice is overcome thereby bringing reconciliation to God and forgiveness from God. If we add retributional justice to these models, then forgiveness is obtained by the mercy of God through faith but that forgiven state is maintained through abiding in Christ, living a life of repentance and faith through the power of Christ in us. But a retributional eye-for-eye and tooth-for-tooth justice is not absolutely required because remedial justice is an acceptable solution. That is, if people change their evil ways, then they don’t need to be punished. Forgiveness is given through God’s gracious and sovereign decree to cancel the penalty of our sins. Death is the penalty for sin but death is seen as the consequential natural result penalty for sin rather than death being a retributional penalty. Therefore, death is avoided through the natural and metaphysical work of Christ and our union with Him. As an analogy for General Substitution, this can be likened to being in the middle of a war and someone sacrifices his life by jumping in front of you to take the bullet that would have killed you. An analogy for Recapitulation would be having a kidney transplant or being connected to a dialysis machine to filter out the toxins in your blood and kidneys to keep you alive. There was a sort of re-circulation cleansing process that happened on the cross on our behalf. We could say that our humanity was with Jesus when He died. We were crucified with Christ.

To be clear, I am not saying that retribution is required to be absent in this model. God’s wrath isn’t displayed or experienced by Christ at the cross but as the Passover Lamb, God’s wrath passes over humanity. That is, God’s wrath is averted. Retributional wrath can still be active for all those who refuse to repent and believe in Jesus. In a Recapitulation Model, it is permissible to believe in death as God’s retributional wrath along with death being a natural consequence of sin. In this way, we could see death as retribution in terms of capital punishment. But what about “eternal conscious torment?” you may ask. You’ll have to see all my other writings for that.

Note: General substitution isn’t really separate from Recapitulation but for the purpose of analysis and because of the progress of knowledge in which I studied these subjects, I divided them into two separate atonement theories within this teaching series. General substitution falls under the umbrella of Recapitulation. However, it can be helpful to understand them separately sometimes, especially for those who come from a PSA understanding.

Both Penal Substitution and Recapitulation are the main two substitution theories. Having some kind of substitution theory is necessary to satisfy all the substitutionary or seemingly substitutionary language in the Bible and from the church fathers. Besides these two substitution theories, I know of no others. Therefore, one must choose between Penal Substitution or Recapitulation to form the core and base foundation of their atonement theology. However, since there are also other atonement theories that address the issue of forgiveness, we will continue on with the list to address that specific issue and how these other atonement theories view the solution to that subject.

In Vicarious Satisfaction theory, forgiveness is obtained through Jesus having lived a perfect life and offering His body to the Father as a sacrifice and pleasing aroma to Him. The death of Jesus was pleasing to the Father because of Jesus’ perfect life and perfect love. Such sacrifice moved the heart of the Father to forgive people of their sins and since the sacrifice of Jesus was morally and lovingly perfect, it was infinitely meritorious to forgive whosoever will believe in Jesus and repent of their sins. In this way, God’s retributional justice was overcome by this love offering and He freely remits to people the penalty that is due for their sins. In love, He forgives all who come to Him.

In Moral Government theory, God’s justice is mainly seen as governmental and remedial. Since that is the case, forgiveness is offered to all who put their faith in Jesus and repent of their sins. Adding retributional justice to this theory, God cancels out people’s debt of sin in the case when remediation becomes effective. In this way, retribution is averted. There is no need for retribution if an alternative solution works. However, Jesus’ death on the cross was a means for God to maintain and uphold His moral order in the presence of all His creatures so that He remains and shows forth His justice to all. Otherwise, He either would not be just or He could lose the favor and devotion of His creatures by such a gracious act of forgiveness and mercy through His creatures presuming upon His grace and rebelling against Him. Therefore, by His death, God’s moral order was upheld. His law was still enforced. Death was paid.

In The Blood of The Covenant theory, the sacrifice of Jesus was the enactment and guarantee of a covenant oath to forgive us our sins. It is rooted in His covenant oath to Abraham to make him the father of many nations in which his descendants would be as numerous as the stars and would be a blessing to all the nations. And God was indicating not just physical but spiritual blessings, salvation through faith. And so the death of Jesus on the cross was also a ratification of the previous covenant oath to Abraham to make good on God’s promise and to see the promise fulfilled by saving many people. Therefore, forgiveness and salvation are offered to all because of God’s close friendship and love for Abraham. We become beneficiaries and partakers of that covenant through faith and co-heirs with Abraham. God did all these things because of His great lovingkindness and because He is a God who cannot lie and will always keep His promises. He died on the cross because He is faithful, loving, and true. God will always uphold His end of the covenant, will always love us, always receive us, and always forgive us if we turn to Him. Therefore, we can always be assured in the forgiveness of God because His faithfulness never fails. It continues throughout all generations. This theory offers an alternative explanation to animal sacrifices that the sacrifices were about covenant relationship rather than about satisfying God’s wrath and so this theory’s main focus is that God is a relational God, desiring relationship with all people. If reconciliation with God is obtained, then death will not result because of life in Jesus and/or there is no need for a death penalty. God’s mercy triumphs over judgement.

In the Ranson theory, the death of Jesus paid and satisfied the requirement of the law. This law was a sort of agreement between God and the devil or a natural or spiritual law inherent to the world’s creation and how things operate in the natural and supernatural world. The devil had a legal right upon all those who do evil, to bring them to death. In this way, it was necessary for Jesus to die to break him who had the power of death, the devil, and who had enslaved the world to his evil and corruption. By two very unlike and opposite things, a supernatural miracle was produced: In His death and resurrection, the perfect divinity and perfect humanity of Jesus broke the powers of darkness, paying or overcoming this law which had previously bound humanity in subjection to the devil. Forgiveness is offered to all those who leave their captivity to the devil to join Christ and be free from what previously enslaved them. They were helpless to overcome and did not know they were enemies of God and in that way, they were victims of the devil to do his will. Jesus said on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do…” Therefore, forgiveness here is about reconciliation to God and coming to serve good rather than evil, having been freed from the power of the devil. Ransom theory may understand God’s wrath in a more consequential sense, that our punishment is inherent to the sin and where that sin leads. That is, our sin bound us to the devil, thereby having a claim over our lives to destroy us, to keep us and bring us to death. But, God saved us from that consequential wrath.

Christus Victor theory continues off of the foundation of Ransom and so the two are not mutually exclusive. While Ransom is mainly about Jesus freeing us from slavery, Christus Victor is about Jesus as a King and warrior, defeating the devil to reclaim what is rightfully His. And what Christ has performed for His Father and for the justice of making things right, we are taken into this victory to receive the plunders of His raid against the forces of darkness as we become citizens of His kingdom. Rather than the cross being a picture of suffering as in some atonement models, it is so much more a picture of triumph. Jesus wants people forgiven, free, and to believe in Him because all of humanity is rightfully His. He created them and they are His possession and inheritance. But the devil stole them away through his evil scheming in the garden and by the devil’s continuous seductions toward evil. Humanity’s subjugation to the devil through sin, unbelief, loss of identity, and relinquishment of authority, gave the devil power and authority over the earth. All the evils of the world feed the devil’s power and ownership over the world. But through the life of Jesus, He showed us how to starve the devil of power and reclaim our true identity and authority over the earth to serve God. The death of Jesus Himself, since it was the greatest act of good, it was like a nuclear explosion against the powers of darkness that completely shattered their kingdom. Jesus overcame evil with good and filled us with His Spirit so that we can be glory-carriers once against and walk in our true authority to be the rightful and worthy inheritance of Christ. Forgiveness then, is offered to all those who abandon serving the devil and get on God’s side. There is no middle ground. Jesus said that you’re either for Him or against Him. You’re either a child of God or a child of the devil. Choose your master. Choose your commander. The devil’s kingdom will be utterly abolished and everything that stands with it. So, if you’re with the devil, then you will be destroyed along with him unless you turn to God. From Christus Victor theory, we can see that governmental justice is God’s method of punishment. It’s about purging and purifying the world from the spiritual darkness that all originated from the devil. Since that is the goal, as long as you’re on God’s side, you’re okay. You’re forgiven. Reconciliation has been successful and therefore, retribution is not needed.

In Reconciliation theory, which is just a continuation of Recapitulation, God forgives us when we come to Him like the father running to the prodigal son with open arms. God’s very nature as a Trinity is relational and loving and so He desires to love His creation and have a relationship with them. From the very beginning, God has always been for us and for our good. The death of Jesus on the cross was a means to communicate His goodness, love, and desire for relationship to us. He did it to prove His love to us so that we would be thoroughly convinced and so the division in our relationship could be mended. What we need to realize is that the only barrier separating us from God is our unbelief in His love and goodness and free access to Him. It is unbelief that keeps us from God and bound to sin. Fear and shame may largely be responsible for that because those things lead to unbelief. So, if we were to break off fear and shame through believing in God’s perfect love for us, then we can be freed and restored. Since God is all about love and relationship, He will forgive us if we come to Him in full faith. Our sin, fear, and shame have been enough of a punishment in themselves. We do not need to be punished more because forgiveness releases us from all punishment. Love covers a multitude of sins. Perfect love casts out all fear. We don’t need to attain a perfect standard to be forgiven and accepted because we are God’s children. He made us. He formed us. We are His. He just wants us to dwell in His loving arms and accept His love and forgiveness. But if we decide to go the other way, He will respect our free choice. We can choose this destitute world over Him if that’s what we want. If we do, then we shall reap the consequences of what we sow. Spiritual and physical death forever will be the result.

In The Gospel of the Kingdom and Restored-Icon Model, salvation is more than just being forgiven of sin. Salvation is the restoration of the whole person: body, soul, and spirit. This requires obedience to God after belief and repentance through the gospel. Continual turning from sin is absolutely essential for our humanity to be healed and restored, and for us to be set free from the power and influence of the devil. We must be purposeful in living for God and aligning with God’s heavenly will for our lives if we want to be victorious, live free from sin, stay strong in faith, and exercise our spiritual authority and dominion over the earth. This dominion is both natural and spiritual and it’s what we were created for, what our manufacturer design is programmed for. It’s when we live out of sync with our purpose that our body, soul, and spirit also get out of sync and begin breaking down. In addition to the restoration of humanity, the Gospel of the Kingdom is about the restoration of all things, and God’s kingdom coming down one day to this earth to transform it and make all things new. Our purpose and responsibility is to look forward to this blessed hope and to bring about its coming through bringing glimmers of God’s kingdom down into people’s bodies, souls, and spirits, and advancing His kingdom everywhere throughout the earth. However, to do this, we have to recognize and live in alignment with our true authority and identity as sons of Adam and sons of God. We must recognize that our identity is in Christ and not in anything of this world that is passing away. Putting our identity in all those other things leads to our own brokenness and weakness into sin. Since God’s kingdom is coming soon, we must live spiritually sober in this world, continually fighting against sin, and not making a continual practice of evil things if we are to have an inheritance in the Kingdom of God and be considered worthy to enter into His eternal kingdom. Forgiveness and salvation are through faith in Jesus and repentance. In this model of the atonement, Jesus died and rose from the grave to bring His kingdom down to earth so that we can rule and reign with Him as we were originally intended to and so that He can restore all things and do away with all that is wicked, evil, and vile. This view has God’s governmental justice to purge the world from evil and bring in His everlasting kingdom. This view can also have God’s retributional justice as well to punish people in accordance with what they deserve. The reason I added the Restored-Icon Model to this atonement series is because it is absolutely necessary for us to come into alignment with our true identity so that we can reap the full benefits and healing of Christ’s work on the cross. The reason I added The Gospel of the Kingdom to this atonement series is because the message of turning from sin is very important and needs to be clearly emphasized because it’s what the Bible teaches in connection with the gospel.

In the Scapegoat theory, the death of Jesus on the cross was the death of the scapegoat (Lev 16). Jesus lived an unblemished life, completely innocent of all sin and guilt. The sins of humanity were then placed upon him through their insults and violence. He bore all the evil of humanity against Him, carried it away to Golgotha, and was unlawfully killed on a cross. In the suffering and death of Jesus, He carried all our sins away both symbolically and also being a first-hand victim of them, nailed our sins to the cross, and released us from our sin debt and guilt. In this way, He has forgiven us, having buried our sins into the grave where they will be remembered no more and having thrown our sins into the sea of forgetfulness. The default view of the scapegoat theory does not hold to the doctrine of double-imputation that PSA advocates hold to and so it is an alternative understanding to what it means for our sins to be placed on Jesus and for Him to bear them. That is, it’s not a legal substitution but a symbolic action of forgiveness through Jesus being the scapegoat. However, it also goes further than that with the scapegoat mechanism. This mechanism was to satisfy humanity’s need for violence, blame, and death, not God’s need for it. And so, Jesus didn’t die to satisfy God’s wrath but man’s wrath. It is after the realization that Jesus was perfect and innocent the whole time, and He was also God, that He was the ultimate and last scapegoat sacrifice to end all scapegoating, violence, and blame-shifting. It revealed that we were the problem all along and so we are forced to face the darkness within our own hearts, seeing ourselves as utterly exposed and bare in the presence of God’s perfect love and light. And we let the light in because we recognize our completely depraved state of sin and violence and question how we could ever hate such a good God and put Him to death. We realized that we were the ones that needed to be changed, not God. And we recognize that after having crucified perfect innocence and divine beauty, we are completely deserving and worthy of death. But even in His last dying breath, He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do…” Then there was a great earthquake and it was then we recognized that this man was not worthy of death. He was innocent. And so, the soldiers who put had nailed Him to that cross, trembled and said, “what have we done… Truly, this was the Son of God…” And so we realized how wrong we were, repented of our sin, and asked for His forgiveness, and He forgave us.

In Moral Exemplar, Jesus shows us the way back to God through His perfect life and sacrificial and selfless death. Sin is what causes death and so the reversal of death would be the reversal of sin. If we live in sin, then we abide in death but if we live in Jesus, we abide in life. This could be one mechanism of Moral Exemplar. The other mechanism is that the example of Jesus inspires us to live for God, and so His example transforms our hearts away from sin and into a continual state of repentance so that our sins are forgiven. But Jesus’ example is more powerful to pursuing obedience to God than many might give it credit for. Jesus’ example showed us an obedience that was not only possible but actualized. His life and death are the picture for us to imitate. This inspiration to live like Jesus is a much more powerful motivator than a list of “do’s” and “don’ts.” It activates something deeper within us. The third mechanism of Moral Exemplar is when our hearts become overwhelmed with the goodness and moral purity of Jesus so that we see the darkness of our own hearts and are led to repentance. But it’s different than merely being confronted with our own sin. Oftentimes when people have evil or faults pointed out within them, they are disgusted with themselves or disgusted by the person who pointed out those things. But to look at Jesus’ perfect love and goodness has a much different feel while also showing us how far we lack in that goodness. We look at His love and realize that the evils within us are not worthy of us and are not worthy of God and so they must leave. However, there are other times where people can come face to face with the pure love of God in His holiness that it is a painful experience and they become undone in God’s presence. They are laid bare and naked against God’s perfection and so their unworthiness and imperfections are seen for everything they are. God’s love becomes to them as a fire to burn away their impurities and cleanse them if they choose to let it in and believe. In this way, preaching God’s love, goodness, and Christ’s moral perfections can reveal to people the sin in their own hearts so that they are convicted and led to faith and repentance. This is a gracious way to convict people of sin that they might be led to Christ by showing them Christ as the law—perfect love as the standard. Instead of placing laws upon them to shame them, the standard and goodness of Christ’s love enters within them and pushes out all desire for evil. And evil is seen for what it truly is: worthless, unworthy, and vile. But since the focus in ultimately not on self but on Jesus Christ and His love for us, all these lesser things fade away and begin to dissolve by the light and love of Jesus. However, for this to really be effective, one must believe in Jesus and believe that God is perfectly good and just in all that He does. This is why apologetics and theodicy are important works. They enable faith to become active and full. Most of the things I have written on my website are basically one big and systematic defense for the goodness of God.

In Moral Influence, Jesus died on the cross to prove His love towards us. The mechanism of Moral Influence is the cleansing love of God accepted through faith to purify our hearts from evil and fill our hearts with His love and glory and Spirit. People had previously been saved through faith in the Old Testament and even before Jesus died, He was declaring that people’s sins were forgiven. Therefore, Jesus didn’t need to die on the cross in order to forgive us. He died on the cross to prove His all-consuming love for us, to convince us that God has always been for us, has always wanted to help us, and give us life. The problem was our unbelief and ever since the garden, humanity has looked upon God with suspicion and doubt. Fear, shame, guilt, and suffering have filled our hearts and have turned us away from God. Sin corrupted our hearts and bent us towards evil. Sin also deprived our hearts from the love and glory of God that we once had in the garden that made us whole. And so, we became broken and fragmented. We could not overcome the corruption within and were left in a hopeless state. And then the love of God appeared and He dwelt among us and revealed to us the heart of the Father since He was the exact representation of His glory. We may have had cruel thoughts about the Father, someone always filled with rage, anger, and wrath, but Jesus showed us the Father’s heart through all that He said and did. He showed us that the Father was slow to anger but abounding in lovingkindness. He showed us that the Father was for us, not against us. Through the life of Jesus, He suffered many cruel and evil things, and in so doing, He showed the sympathy God had for us. People always ask, “why does God allow evil things to happen if He is an all-powerful and all-loving God?” And so, Jesus as the eternal, all-powerful God, came down to earth and suffered alongside us; He let evil happen to Himself from people—from us. The roles were reversed and it was God who was suffering under the rulership of mankind now. All this, He did to show us that He is God with us. He is for us. He loves us. Through the selfless life and death of Jesus, He convinced us to believe in God again and to never doubt God’s goodness. The sending of His only Son Jesus to suffer and die at the hands of evil men to be a sacrifice on the cross was the Father’s love overflowing into this world. It was God’s gift to us. He did not withhold His very best, His only Son, but gave His very best offering to the world. Though we were absolutely undeserving of such love and grace, He told us that God loves us as much as the Son loves the Father and the Father loves the Son. This abundant love of God removed our doubt, fear, shame, and unbelief. It activated our faith in God and His perfect love. This faith allowed the love of God to be poured out into our hearts to cleanse our consciences and remove the evil and corruption. Now our hearts have been cleansed, purified by fire, and made whole through the presence of the Holy Spirit where God Himself lives in us and with us. This is deeper than a set of facts upon the intellect—deeper than our psychology—it’s spiritual and supernatural.

A wholistic view of the atonement needs to answer these things:

The problem of offending God and breaking His law
The problem of natural and spiritual death
The problem of broken relationship
The problem of unbelief
The problem of sin

The conceptual understanding of atonement theories is an attempt to resolve one or more of these problems.

Many people who have a Penal Substitution understanding generally think that once the issue of God’s law is dealt with and faith in Jesus is exercised and people understand that, then everything else just takes care of itself by a supernatural act of God. All pieces of the puzzle just fall into place after that. For this reason, their primary concern is with addressing God’s wrath and God’s law in their gospel message and make diligent efforts on making their message clear and sometimes forceful. It is when we see our wicked and sinful state in having offended God that we are then led to repentance to be saved. We must come humble and to the end of ourselves, seeing our sin for what it truly is, an infinite offense against an infinitely holy God so that we cry out to God for mercy since only by God’s grace can we be saved and God’s grace alone. It is through Jesus paying the penalty for our sins and dying in our place that we are saved when we put our trust in Him.

For those who have a Moral Government understanding, they generally have a softer understanding of God’s retributional wrath as something that doesn’t need to be satisfied. Their teachings emphasize God’s governmental wrath more than retributional wrath. In this way, God’s love is often seen more clearly through His wrath than it being retributional alone. Therefore, an example of justice was performed on the cross to meet the need to show forth justice and uphold order. Yet, it wasn’t necessarily an equal for equal justice. Unless, one rejects the doctrine of eternal conscious torment. Otherwise, it was more like commutative justice. That is, restitution and restored relationship is prioritized over equal for equal payment/punishment and is considered acceptable. The emphasis then is on remedial justice. Therefore, a restored relationship with God is what brings peace and averts God’s wrath. Those who hold to Moral Government as a primary atonement theory will emphasize the need for God’s law and how we have all broken His law and deserve punishment but if we put our faith in Jesus and repent of our sins, God forgives us in His grace and mercy and because of the restored relationship and remedial state that we enter into. In this way, forgiveness is a release of one’s debt rather than a payment of one’s debt like in PSA.

Those who hold to a Recapitulation understanding also emphasize relationship and reconciliation to God as what brings us out of our current and future spiritual state of death that will be our fate unless we are saved by the life of God poured out into us and united to us. Those who hold this view mainly emphasize God’s consequential wrath over a retributional wrath. That is, our natural inherent consequence for sin is death and the reaping of that which we sow. As Athanasius mentions, all people are due to die and have an account with death. The solution to this was the life and death of Jesus to be our natural and metaphysical solution to the corruption of death as we become united to Him. Therefore, we are saved by His life in us. This is the solution but how we get into that solution can be understood differently by various Christian groups. Some say it’s by faith. Others say it’s by faith, the Eucharist, and repentance. In some of the more Protestant circles who may hold to this theory without fully realizing it, their evangelism may emphasize the need to pray and ask Jesus into your heart to be saved, since Jesus Himself is viewed as salvation rather than the “action” of believing or the “action” of repentance. In this way, salvation is less of a methodical process and more of a relational process or experience.

In Moral Influence theory, God’s wrath isn’t really the emphasis. God’s love is the emphasis. However, God’s wrath can be taught in such a way to convince people that God is pure, good, and loving in all that He does. The overall goal is to bring people out of a state of unbelief and to convince them, and woo them into the love that God has for them. Unbelief is the main hinderance to faith and salvation and so that is overcome by the love of God. The problem is not so much God’s wrath or God’s law but our own corrupted hearts stained by sin and the damage that this world has done to us. Free access to God was accessible even before any laws were written by Moses. This access is achieved through faith. But our hearts had become so fragmented and prone to believe lies, and we became so preoccupied with this world and entrenched in fear and shame that such faith was very hard to attain. That’s why Jesus died, to prove God’s love for us so that we would believe Him and the barriers of our hearts and the things that once kept us bound in unbelief would break free from us. Once full faith is attained, God’s love enters into our hearts and cleanses us from all evil so that we are made to live in a right relationship with Him. In this way, the problem of us is dealt with and God’s wrath is averted. Moral Influence may focus mostly on God’s governmental and consequential wrath, if it does. There’s a sense in which we can be convicted by sin by seeing the purity and holiness of God’s love because we see all that we are not. In this way, preaching on God’s wrath, the law, and sin are not always necessary for someone to come to Christ.

The way that I have explained Moral Influence here, it would also include what I have termed, Reconciliation theory. But in Reconciliation, the main focus is on God wanting to have a relationship with us and receiving us in whatever broken and humble condition that we are in. It’s less about God loving us and more about God wanting us and lavishing His grace upon us. Though, of course, these two things are not mutually exclusive. But some people can feel a lot of fear and shame, being not fully convinced that God actually wants them. This then results in unbelief which results in eternal separation from God. These people may not need to be taught God’s law and God’s wrath to convince them that they’re bad—they already believe it. They may even hate themselves. They may already be at the end of themselves. This is a kind of gospel message of hope and healing more similar to when Jesus gave forgave the woman who was caught in the act of adultery, the forgiveness that was granted to the thief on the cross, or the salvation that was given to the man who cried out, “be merciful to me, a sinner!” It’s the story of the prodigal son coming home to his father, being received with no conditions attached and grace being lavished upon Him. God created us for relationship—not for wrath. Whatever wrath we experience in the end is the result of our own sin and unbelief. It is what we have done to ourselves.

In Moral Exemplar, the problem is also us. This theory focuses more on repentance for getting right with God and aligning ourselves into the life of God. As I have mentioned before, there are various mechanisms for this. Essentially though, Christ’s life and death is an inspiring example for us that makes us want more, to believe in Him, live for Him, and to live a repentant life of denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following after Jesus. Jesus showed us the way to God. It is through coming into this state of a reconciled relationship that we are saved and only through continually living in that state of repentance that we shall be saved unto the end. This is because righteousness, holiness, and faith are seen as abiding in the life of God. This might be seen as some kind of energy or frequency of love that must be maintained to escape natural and spiritual death or as continual right actions whereby remedial justice is satisfied so that one is forgiven and God’s wrath is averted. Maybe I have made this theory into more than what it originally was but without these other aspects to address the issues at hand, can we even call Moral Exemplar an atonement theory? Having said that, this version of Moral Exemplar that I have espoused has flavors of the teachings of Jesus, the teachings of the Apostle John, the Essenes, and the Anabaptists.

In Satisfaction theory, God’s wrath is satisfied by the death of Jesus on the cross. The offering of Jesus satisfied God’s love and justice but ultimately, it was a pleasing sacrifice to the Father because of the Son’s selfless unconditional love. For this reason, a strictly retributional justice of a one-to-one substitutionary payment was not required. In this way, Jesus was not a substitute who endured God’s wrath on the cross but a pleasing aroma to God. He was pleasing because of His perfect life in true humanity and because of His selflessness in true divinity. This perfect and beautiful offering to God became for us on our behalf, infinitely meritorious. He paid to God the debt we couldn’t pay and forgave us our sins. We enter into His salvation by putting our faith and trust in Him and repenting of our sins. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, this is how I see Satisfaction. Though I cannot say that the Catholics are logically consistent from this atonement theory in some of the conclusions that they have in their emphasis on works and the treasury of merits. I do not see how those things are logically consistent with this theory.

In Ransom and Christus Victor, it’s really about God saving us from captivity to the devil and his world order. Jesus saves humanity by defeating the devil on the cross so that the powers of darkness are released from us. King Jesus reclaims people’s allegiance to Him by cancelling the claim the devil had over us through the blood of Jesus. We are then released from death and bondage to sin or demons because Jesus satisfied the demands of the ancient spiritual law. Forgiveness is freely bestowed upon all those who are freed from captivity and who come to Jesus and live in the kingdom of light. The focus in these theories is not about God’s wrath or God’s law but about our freedom, Christ’s victory, and Jesus dying an honorable death to abide by the law, and Him rising in triumphant victory over death to crush the devil and reclaim what is rightfully His. The reason I say, “honorable death,” is because God can do whatever He wants, right? So He could have theoretically defeated Satan and death some other way. But He was honorable in His death like a soldier who fought another soldier and operated by the rules of engagement. In this way, He outsmarted the devil or outmaneuvered the devil to win against him while still being within the confines of spiritual law. We are saved by being released from sin, death, and the devil, and entering into the life of Christ. These atonement theories explain more what happened at the cross and the mechanisms for that freedom to occur but it doesn’t really address what we have to do to be saved. It seems to be more of something that happens to us rather than a particular process or action that we do. But sometimes salvation happens that way, doesn’t it? Sometimes people are delivered and set free by merely a touch of God’s presence, an encounter with God’s love, a peace washing over them, or a demon being delivered from them. Such experiences can be strong enough to activate one’s faith in God, give them contrition and repentance over sin, and bring them into the kingdom of light. Because of Jesus dying on the cross and raising from the dead, all authority has been given to the name of Jesus to break all the powers of darkness wherever that darkness may be found. Demons must leave in the name of Jesus.

Scapegoat theory is an extension of Moral Influence. The focus is on all the evils of humanity that were afflicted on a perfect and innocent man who was also God. It’s about the contrast of God’s goodness and humanity’s evil. This contrast then highlights how absolutely evil humanity has become that they would crucify God Himself, the one who had done them no wrong, and who had only blessed them with good things. Recognizing this fatal mistake, people are forced to look at themselves that they are the problem and how cold and evil-hearted they have become. This then brings them to repentance and faith in God. To preach this theory as a gospel message, the goodness of God would need to be preached first and then all the evils that we have done to God. That is, it’s not simply about breaking God’s law or offending Him, but about our evil behavior towards Him which God does not deserve. It was this kind of gospel message that brought in thousands of people on the day of Pentecost to start the early church. But of course, it was a message preached with the power and unction of the Holy Spirit as well, not just the message. In Scapegoat theory, Jesus died on the cross, enduring all of humanity’s evil against Him and forgave them, taking their sins into the grave. Salvation is for those who have faith and repentance. God’s wrath does not necessarily need to be emphasized in this message because our evil is pointed out within us upon seeing the goodness of God.

Restored-Icon & The Gospel of the Kingdom are not officially recognized atonement theories but they are related to the gospel. I would also argue that they are a necessary aspect of total healing and restoration to our humanity so that we can have abundant life and serve God. Jesus lived and died and conquered the grave to restore all things—that includes our total humanity and spirituality. He is a humble, selfless, and loving God who desires to raise people up and share His glory with them and have them reign with Him. He also wants active participants in His kingdom, not passive observers, because His blood paid for the earth and all things in it to be His inheritance. Jesus lived, died, and rose from the dead to remind us who we are and whose we are, and to give us our authority back that we relinquished into the hands of the devil. Our identity and purpose are very important. One of the reasons there are lost sheep and wayward children of the Creator is because people have lost touch with their true identity and reason for living. We were designed to work and use our gifts for God and to be made whole in Him and the purpose He has for our lives. The reason many of us are so broken is because we’re not aligning with the purposes of heaven and our identities have been fragmented. But Jesus came to remind us that we are sons and daughters of Adam and He died for us so that we could be sons and daughters of God so that we can live as victors rather than victims. Healing and restoration come as we live and walk in that identity and authority. I would argue that the sanctity and value of human life need to be emphasized not to exalt mankind over God. By no means! But to bring us out of shame and into faith, hope, and love. Because if you believe that you are a worthless, rotten, wicked piece of trash, then that shame will prevent you from faith. It will prevent you from healing. Faith is needed to believe in the goodness of God for you unto salvation but how can you have that faith if you hate or despise yourself? How can you believe that God loves you or wants you if you believe you’re worthless? Now, some people can pass that barrier to be saved without positive messages about their true identity and sometimes that overwhelming sense of sin and shame can lead them to the cross. But other times, it can push them farther away from grabbing onto faith and to the cross of Jesus. I’m certainly not advocating positive psychological thinking here. That’s not what this is about; and it's not about glorifying man over God. I’m simply saying that God sees us, knows us, loves us, and has a plan for our lives if we choose to follow Him. Our broken identity, lost purpose, and true fulfillment are found and healed in God. Salvation is about total restoration. It’s not just about fixing one issue only to leave everything else broken. It’s not just about your penalty being paid so you can get out of hell. There is much more to the good news of Jesus than that. God cares about our inward healing as well as our future destination. The true gospel is a gospel of inward transformation. Our identity and purpose are one aspect of that. A regenerated heart is the other. The way we get to both is through faith—a faith that overcomes fear, shame, and doubt so that we can live in the victory that Jesus paid for.

Conclusions:

Some of you may be able to tell which atonement theories I hold based upon how my language gravitates towards them. Here is what I believe:

Moral Influence and extended forms of Moral Influence along with Recapitulation are my main two. Scapegoat fills in the gap to replace PSA’s imputation doctrine. I might use Moral Government as simply a defense of God maintaining His justice. The Gospel of the Kingdom teaches repentance. Restored-Icon and Reconciliation keep me away from self-depreciation and shame. The Blood of the Covenant gives me assurance of God’s continued forgiveness. Those are the essentials that fill in all the necessary gaps for me but if I had to choose three, it would be: Moral Influence, The Blood of the Covenant, and Recapitulation. I also believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith. Repentance is the outflow of faith that has been actualized. It is by faith that we begin and by faith that we endure to the end.

Whatever atonement theory or combination of theories you believe, we can all agree that Jesus lived on this earth, died on the cross for our sins, rose from the dead on the third day, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. All who believe and repent will receive forgiveness of sins, salvation, and eternal life. The biggest word in this paragraph is the word “for” and what exactly that for means and that is what all our atonement theories attempt to answer.

I believe faith is absolutely essential for salvation. It is the essence of all atonement theories and should be our main focus in sharing the gospel. There are many methods to arrive at that faith but it is ultimately faith in God and His love and goodness that we are saved. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to convince people of God’s love, goodness, justice, and that God is good, loving, and just in all that He does. But in our current culture, many people don’t believe that. They have questions of apologetics and theodicy that need to be answered in a true and loving way. It is often not enough to say, “Jesus died for your sins” or “Jesus paid the penalty,” if they (1) don’t even believe in the existence of God and (2) they are unphased by the statement because they don’t truly believe God is good and (3) they do not truly know the goodness and love of God to truly know the depths of their evil heart to repent. Or vice versa: knowing their evil to be aware of their acute need for God and His salvation.

These are the issues and common denominator facing most, if not all, of the atonement theories. This is where it all converges. Therefore, the gospel is not ultimately about an atonement model but about having faith in the goodness of God through Jesus Christ.

For more information of a more thorough treatment on these atonement theories, check out my other articles where I treat each one individually, seeing what the Bible and early church fathers had to say about them.