Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine by Gregg Allison

Author:Gregg Allison [Allison, Gregg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780310410416
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2011-04-18T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

THE ATONEMENT

How has the church come to understand the nature and benefits of the atonement?

STATEMENT OF BELIEF

The church has historically explained the atonement—”the work Christ did in his life and death to earn our salvation” — in various ways.1 At times, it has viewed the death of Christ as a payment to Satan; at other times, Christ’s death has been considered to be a tribute offered to God to restore his honor lost through humanity’s sin. Some in the church have focused on the great example of Christ’s life as his chief accomplishment; others have underscored how much the death of Christ demonstrates the love of God and prompts humanity to love in return. The number of different views is quite extensive.

Unlike many important doctrines, the atonement has never been the subject of an ecumenical, or general, church council to determine its official doctrinal formulation. The prevalent view among Protestants is called the penal substitutionary view: “Christ’s death was ‘penal’ in that he bore a penalty when he died. His death was also a ‘substitution’ in that he was a substitute for us when he died.”2 The question “For whom did Christ die?”—a question of the extent of the atonement—has been an important debate among Protestants. Evangelicals have generally held to the penal substitutionary model of the atonement while also highlighting other aspects that Christ’s death accomplished. Recently, this view, or the emphasis placed on penal substitution so as to elevate it above other theories of the atonement, has come under strong attack.3

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.