What is Easter All About?

Have you ever held Jello in your hand and squeezed? It's a great illustration of how some things can be difficult for us to grasp, and the more effort we put into squeezing, the bigger the mess. So, as a veteran youth pastor, I can say yes! Yes, I have placed Jello in my hand and squeezed, literally and metaphorically. With Easter just around the corner, I thought it would be a fun exercise (and an answer to the question of a thoughtful friend) to wrap my hand around the atonement and squeeze.

Let's begin with wrapping our hands (and our heads) around the atonement. In Christianity, the atonement refers to the reconciliation between humanity and God through the finished work of Jesus Christ. The atonement addresses three colossal nagging questions: How can I be saved from my sins? How can I be reconnected to God?  How can I go to heaven? These are big questions. Volume upon volume has been written about the atonement over the last two millennia, each attempting to provide answers to these questions. A handful of different theories have emerged (pun intended).

A theory is an attempt to help people understand how something complex works. You can think of a theory as the box of instant Jello—a few instructions and steps, and presto…you have Jello ready to squeeze through your fingers. Or, you can set the Jello aside and consider Gravity, for example. Every object pulls on every other object. A classic example is when you drop something, it falls to the Earth. Yet, I remember high school physics, and there was a lot of math that I have since forgotten, used to explain the theory of Gravity. Theories are great for helping us understand how something works. But theories can oversimplify and over-emphasize. Theories oversimplify it as if Gravity is a bowl of Jello falling to the Earth. But Gravity isn't just an Earth thing; it's a universal theory! Oversimplification isn't wrong, but it leaves out parts of the truth and can lead to overemphasizing the importance of different causes and outcomes.  Using our example, we can over-focus on the bowl of Jello. It seems silly, but it happens. Especially in theology…so, we have five different theories for the atonement.

While I have seen a list of at least nine different theories, here is the handful we will discuss…and squeeze.

1. The Penal Substitutionary Atonement theory claims that Jesus Christ died to satisfy God's wrath against human sin. Jesus is punished (penal) in the place of sinners (substitution). Jesus' punishment on the cross satisfies the justice of God and the legal demand of God to punish sin. Because of Jesus' punishment in our place, the penalty for sin is removed, and God can now forgive the sinners. "My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20, NLT).

2. The Scapegoat theory has its roots back in the book of Exodus and the Passover feast. Then, in Numbers and Leviticus, we find that God provides a sacrifice and a scapegoat. The sins of the entire nation are placed on the scapegoat, and the scapegoat takes the people's sins far away. Unfortunately, the scapegoat theory order emphasizes the taking away of sins and misses other essential elements of the atonement. "Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit" (1 Peter 3:18, NLT).

3. The Christus Victor theory of Jesus' death on the cross defeated the powers of sin, death, and darkness. Here again, as we squeeze the atonement Jello out from in between two fingers, we see an emphasis on what Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and ascension accomplished while overlooking the "how" of what Jesus accomplished. We overlook humanity's sinful rebellion, God's justice, and Jesus' sacrificial death in our place. "You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross" (Colossians 2:13-15, NLT).

4. The Moral Influence theory was the primary theory taught by Augustine in the 4th century and focuses on Christ's death occurring for the betterment of humanity. The purpose of Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and ascension was to demonstrate God's love, moving humanity to accept Him as their God. Moral Influence theory holds threads (or glops of Jello) of truth, but the overemphasis on God's love overlooks the price for humanity's sinful rebellion and the satisfaction of God's justice. "For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death" (Ephesians 2:14-16).

5. The Ransom theory is a sidecar theory to the Moral Influence theory and attempts to address the effect of Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and ascension on humanity. The Ransom theory suggests that a price was owed either to God (somewhat biblical) or Satan (unbiblical) resulting from humanity's sinful rebellion against God. I call this a sidecar theory because its narrow focus requires input from other theories of atonement. "Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you at a high price. So you must honor God with your body" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, NLT).

The gospel is God's loving and relentless pursuit of rebellious and sinful humanity to restore and redeem humanity to Himself. The gospel, or God's redemptive story, begins in Genesis and will run through Revelation. In essence, the gospel is the whole bowl of Jello. As we reach into the bowl to understand the atonement, grabbing a handful…we squeeze. Did Jesus experience the entire wrath of God for human sin? Yes, so Penal Substitutionary Atonement must be true (Galatians 2:20). Jesus also died in our place (1 Peter 3:18), reinforcing the substitution in Penal Substitutionary Atonement and supporting aspects of the Scapegoat theory. Did Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and ascension win a victory over sin, death, and darkness (Colossians 2:13-15)—Yes! We cannot deny that the Christus Victor theory holds to biblical truth. Is Jesus alone life? Yes! And does life with Jesus make life better (John 10:10)? Yes! From hospitals, schools, orphanages, food banks, and museums, Christianity works to better society, so there is room and truth in the Moral Influence theory. "You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father" (Matthew 5:14-16, NLT). And we cannot overlook the glops of truth in the Ransom theory. "For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins" (Colossians 1:13-14, NLT).

In God's redemptive story, through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus bore the wrath of God in our place, took upon himself and carried away our sins, satisfied God's wrath and justice, won a victory over sin, death, and darkness, modeled and empowers us to work toward the betterment of human society, and rescued (ransomed) us from the kingdom of darkness and brought us into His kingdom. And yes, that means in God's redemptive story, Jesus is crowned king, and we are adopted into His family as coheirs with Christ (Romans 8).

And smack dab in the middle of it all is an empty tomb, declaring all of this is true!

How are you preparing for Easter this year?

What is your favorite part of the atonement?

Who will you invite to join you in God's redemptive story?