Study Guide: Models of the Atonement

The Atonement is the reconciliation of sinners to God through Christ’s sacrificial Passion. We have been told since the earliest days of our childhood, that Christ saved us by dying on the cross; we accept this as truth, but we may wonder how exactly Jesus’s Passion accomplished this. Ultimately, we cannot know for certain why this is the way God chose to welcome humanity back into his grace, but the Church approves a few different explanations that may offer us understanding on the matter.

Theme: Christ conquers sin, Satan, and death.

The Christus Victor Theory was the most prominently accepted explanation in the early Church. This view claims that after the fall of humanity, we became enslaved to the devil. Jesus, then, offers himself as a ransom to free us from this evil authority and in doing so, also sets up a trap to defeat Satan. The cross serves as a symbol of the Lord’s total victory over sin and death.

“The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8)

Theme: Christ satisfies the debt humanity could never repay.

This was the view formulated by St. Anselm. It states that a repayment had to be made to God for the grave offense we caused to him through our sin. As the offenders, human beings are responsible for paying back this debt, but it is far too big of an issue for any man to undertake. The solution then, comes through the Incarnation; God has the power to take on this burden and as a human, he is able to make the appropriate sacrifice.

“Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.” (Hebrews 2:14)

Theme: Christ's sacrificial love transforms hearts and inspires holy living.

The Moral Influence Model takes the stance that the moral beauty of Christ’s sacrifice influences humanity to be better and more virtuous. Peter Abelard suggests that the purpose of the atonement was not to appease God's anger, but to change human attitudes. The power of the cross awakens in us the capacity to repent and accept God’s love.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:12-13)

Theme: Jesus bears the penalty of sin on behalf of humanity.

This theory states that because God is perfectly just, sin requires a penalty, that being death, but because God is also perfectly loving, he provided Jesus as a substitute to absorb that punishment in our place.

“And when you were dead in trespasses…God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands.” (Colossians 2:13-14)

According to St. Anselm, what makes Jesus uniquely qualified to accomplish our salvation?

What change does Peter Abelard believe the atonement brings about in people?

Why did humanity need to be reconciled to God?