The Threefold Office
Christ as Prophet
The coming prophet whom Moses prefigured and prophesied will also bring about a new state of affairs through his words and deeds. There was a common expectation in Jesus’ day that Elijah would return to restore Israel, and there are explicit echoes of both Moses’ founding and Elijah’s renewal in Jesus’ ministry.
As Moses engaged in sea crossings and wilderness feedings, so did Jesus. As Elijah healed people and brought a virtually dead child back to life and multiplied food, so did Jesus.… With all these clear parallels to Moses and Elijah, it is no surprise at all when Mark relates that people generally believed Jesus was a prophetic figure—either John the Baptist raised from the dead or Elijah or “a prophet like one of the prophets of old” (6:14–16; 8:27–28)—and that Jesus refers to himself as a prophet (6:4)
Like the Old Testament prophets (especially Isaiah and Jeremiah, in their judgment of the false prophets and priests who lead Yahweh’s people astray), Jesus arraigns Israel at the heart of its identity. In the upper room, as he celebrates the Passover and institutes his Supper, Jesus assumes the role of the greater Moses leading his people in the greater exodus. “Like Ezekiel, Jesus predicts that the Temple will be abandoned by the Shekinah, left unprotected to its fate. Like Jeremiah, Jesus constantly runs the risk of being called a traitor to Israel’s national aspirations, while claiming all along that he nevertheless is the true spokesman for the covenant god.” Thus, he is tried as a false prophet
Christ as Priest
Originating in the eternal covenant of redemption between the persons of the Godhead, Christ’s priestly ministry is inseparable from his role as mediator of the p 487 elect. Chosen in Christ before time, the elect are redeemed by Christ and called into union with Christ by the Spirit
Jesus’ appointment as High Priest is attributed in the New Testament to a higher and older order already prophesied in the Old Testament: the Melchizedek priesthood, after the priest-king whom Abram recognized as his Lord in Ge 14:18–20 (cf. Ps 110:4).
Christ’s Obedience
Jesus’ entire life, however, was an extension of this trial of Adam in the garden and Israel in the wilderness. Peter’s attempt to distract Jesus from bearing his cross obediently was met with the sharpest rebuke: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man”
Not just the absence of sin, but the total positive obedience in thought, word, deed, and motivation rendered Jesus Christ both a perfect offering for sin (guilt offering) and a fragrant “living sacrifice” of praise (thank offering). He not only died for us; he lived for us, obedient even unto death but not only in his death, obedient throughout his life of service to his Father’s Word and will. On this basis he will lead his people into the consummation. But before he ascends, he must descend to the depths.
For good reason it has been suggested that the Gospels are passion narratives with long introductions. When we abstract Christ’s vicarious sacrifice from the long introduction, we lose our proper focus on that event. At the same time, none of the other important aspects of Christ’s saving work—his active obedience, conquest over the powers, vindication of his just government, and moral example—can be established unless his death is understood as a vicarious substitution of himself in the place of sinners.
The New Testament sees these Old Testament sacrifices as prefiguring Christ’s work—not only his death and resurrection but his faithful life, as shadow is related to the substance or type to fulfillment (Col 2:17; Heb 9:23–24; 10:1; 13:11–12; 2 Co 5:21; Gal 3:13; 1 Jn 1:7). The Christian claim is that Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” the scapegoat caught in the thicket (Jn 1:29), “our Passover” (1 Co 5:7; 1 Pe 1:19).
The Error
Sacrificial, judicial, and economic images of Christ’s atoning work combine with those of the battlefield. Christ’s cross is a military conquest. Christ is King not only in his resurrection and ascension but already at the cross—precisely at the place where Satan and his principalities and powers of death thought that they had triumphed. The event that in the eyes of the world appears to display God’s weakness and the failure of Jesus to establish his kingdom is actually God’s mightiest deed in all of history.
Theories of the Atonement
Recapitulation Theory
Associated especially with Irenaeus and Eastern theology, this view underscores Christ’s life as well as death as undoing humanity’s collective transgression, replacing Adam’s headship over the human race with his own. This view also emphasizes immortality as the supreme gift of Christ’s saving work.
Ranson Theory
Also known as the “classic” theory (because of its association with Origen and other early Alexandrian theologians), this view held that Christ’s death was a ransom paid to Satan for the ownership of humanity
Christus Victor
A key aspect of atonement theology especially in the East (as well as in Lutheran and Reformed teaching), this theory emphasizes Christ’s victory over the powers of death and hell at the cross.
Satisfaction Theory
Associated especially with the eleventh-century theologian Anselm, this view understands Christ’s atonement primarily as an appeasement of God’s offended dignity. Reformation theologies focus on the satisfaction of divine justice.
Moral Influence Theory
This view interprets the atonement as a demonstration of God’s love rather than as a satisfaction either of God’s dignity or his justice. The effect of the atonement is to provide a moving example of God’s love that will induce sinners to repentance. This view is associated with Abelard (1079–1142), has been held by Socinians and some Arminians, and has been the central idea in Protestant liberalism.
Moral Government Theory
According to this view, Christ’s atonement exhibits God’s just government of the world and thereby establishes repentance as the basis on which human beings approach God. It was formulated in Arminian theology, especially by Hugo Grotius (1583–1645).
The doctrine of substitution has encountered repeated objections throughout history. According to the Socinians, moral debts cannot be paid by one party on behalf of another
All of these objections share at least three assumptions that have been challenged above, namely, (1) a denial of God’s wrath and the necessity of his justice being fully satisfied by Christ’s death, (2) a rejection of the principle of substitution in this relationship between God and sinners, and (3) an emphasis on the exemplary character of Christ’s death as inciting human love and obedience rather than on its expiatory character as providing the sole basis for our acceptance before God.
However, in a therapeutic worldview, the whole purpose of religion is to improve our sense of well-being rather than to address the situation of sinners before the judgment of a holy God.
First, we can conclude on the basis of the texts we have considered that the cause of the atonement lies in God’s own pleasure (Isa 53:10) and love (Jn 3:16).
Second, sin is not represented simply as a weakness that could be reformed, but as guilt incurred, invoking sanctions (1 Jn 3:4; Ro 2:25–27).
Third, the atonement is grounded not only in God’s moral character and freedom but in the united determination of the persons of the Trinity. The covenant of redemption emphasizes this point, as we have seen.
Fourth, because his active obedience is just as essential to his redeeming work as his passive obedience, Christ’s sacrifice is not only a guilt offering but a thank offering, a whole life of representative service.
Christ’s p 513 penal substitution is not the whole of Christ’s work, but without it nothing else matters.
Thesis
Extent and Nature
Position
Christ saved every person
Unlimited in extent and effect
Universal salvation
Christ made possible the salvation of every person
Unlimited in extent, but limited in effect
Hypothetical universalism
Christ saved all the elect
Sufficient for all, efficient for the elect
Definite atonement