THE MEANING OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST

THE MEANING OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST

How shall we interpret the death of Christ?

He died. That is an historic fact. But what did His death mean?

The Bible unfolds the meaning of Christ's death in various terms and ideas. The following analysis is based on an article by Roger Nicole entitled, "The Nature of Redemption," in Christian Faith and Modern Theology (ed. Carl F. H. Henry, N.Y.: Channel Press, 1964), pp. 193ff.

Reconciliation (katalasso)

Rom. 5:10, 11 "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement."
 You and I were in the mind of Jesus Christ the night he was betrayed. Isn't it a shame that He is so little in our minds?

Rom. 11:15 "For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?"

2 Cor. 5:18-21 "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

Eph. 2:16 "And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:"

Col. 1:20 "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven."

"Reconciliation implies the laying aside of opposition and enmity. The question follows, then, "Whose enmity is removed? Is it God's enmity against man, or is it man's enmity against God?" In view of the biblical data, the answer in our judgment should be not one or the other, but both and primarily the former, that is, God's enmity against man. We especially wish to dispute the frequent allegation that God needs no reconciliation, and that the only enmity to be removed therefore is that of man against God." (p. 195)

Propitiation (hilasterion)

Rom. 3:25 "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;"

Heb. 2:17 "Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people."

1 John 2:2, 4:10 "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."
"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
These are the only occurrences (in addition to Romans 3:25) of this particular word. It is used in the sense of a substitutionary sacrifice to exactly satisfy both God’s justice and love.

"This word, both in Greek and in English, connotes appeasement, averting of wrath by means of an appropriate transaction or sacrifice. Meanwhile, it is important to remember that in the Bible the thought of propitiation is related to a most lofty conception of God, and therefore free of any and all the superstitious, crude, or revolting features that commonly burdened pagan concepts. Propitiation is the gracious provision made by God Himself, whereby the effects of His righteous anger against sin may be averted and the sinner may receive the blessings of His paternal love without infringement on His holiness and moral government." (pp. 197f.)

The Language of Sacrifice and Ritual

Matt. 26:28 "For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."

1 Cor. 5:7 "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:"

Eph. 5:2 "And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor."

1 Peter 1:18,19 "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:"

"The sacrificial terminology is a most pervasive feature of the totality of Holy Writ. It is one of the great connecting features between the two Testaments, perhaps most emphatically articulated in the Epistle to the Hebrews, . .To the texts listed above may be added a multitude of others where Christ is referred to as a priest, or as the Lamb, or where the emphasis is placed on His blood, or yet where the deliverance from sin is presented as a purification or cleansing," (p. 198)

The Language of the Court of Law

Isa. 53:11,12 "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."

Rom. 8:1 "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

2 Cor. 5:21 "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

Eph. 1:7 "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;"

1 Peter 2:24 "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed."

"See further many texts which speak of law and judgment and of God as the judge; of condemnation and punishment; and inversely of justification and forgiveness or remission. The frequency of this type of terminology indi­cates that here again we are facing one of the basic representations of Scripture, one which goes to the very essence of the relationship between God and man. It is in these terms that the nature of sin as the trans­gression of the divine law can best be set forth. It is in these terms also that the remedy of sin as a satisfaction of the proper demands of justice can be suitably portrayed. This is the fundamental prerequisite for a due recognition of the nature of grace. Those thinkers in the history of Christian dogma who have had a strong theology of grace, whether Paul, Augustine, Anselm, Luther or Calvin, are the ones who have sensed deeply the gravity of sin and the plight of sinful man before the judgment seat of God. It is here that the chief weakness of so-called subjective views of the atonement resides: to ignore the judicial factor leads one to reduce the whole work of redemption to an only moderately successful program of reha­bilitation of man, in which Christianity is only one of a number of valuable approaches entitled to an equal measure of consideration." (p. 200)

The Language of the Market-place

Matt. 6:12 "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."

Matt. 20:28 "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."

Acts 20:28 "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood."

Rom. 3:24 "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:"

1 Cor. 6:20 "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

1 Peter 1:18 "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;"

"Some authors have urged that the word redemption is used in the general sense of 'deliverance', without any reference to the payment of a price. This interpretation is simply incompatible with the express statements of a number of texts (see above) where the price is specifically mentioned, not to speak of other passages where the same terms are used with respect to purchases made in everyday life. Leon Morris is quite right in saying: 'When the New Testament speaks of redemption. . .it means that Christ has paid the price of our redemption" (The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, p. 58).

"It may be wise to advert briefly to the expression 'commercial theory' used sometimes to stigmatize those who take seriously the biblical terminology of redemption. This mode of speech is calculated to suggest that such people are lowering the saving work of Christ to the level of a mere business transaction. Nothing could be further from the truth: along such lines one might as well accuse our Lord or the Apostle Paul of promoting an 'agri­cultural theory' because they compared their own relationship of Christ to His own with that of a tree to its branches (John 15:1-6; Rom. 6:5)! The Scripture itself does use the language of purchase, but this does not imply that a correspondence in value or methods is established between business and Jesus Christ." (pp. 201ff.)

The Language of the Battlefield

1 Cor. 15:54 "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."

Col. 1:13 "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:"

Col. 2:15 "And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it."

Heb. 2:10 "For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."
Heb. 2:14,15 "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."

"One should also take into consideration numerous passages where Satan is represented as the adversary (this is the meaning of the name Satan), where the struggle occurs between the forces of good and evil, where Christ appears as humanity's champion, and where Christians themselves are enlisted in the battle royal against demonic powers. It is probably in this universe of discourse that Genesis 3:15, 'He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel,' finds its meaning as the protevangelion." (pp. 203f.)

A Substitutionary Sacrifice

This exact term is not found in the Bible, but the idea is found everywhere.

Substitution is Taught by Direct Statements

Isa. 53:6 "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."

2 Cor. 5:21 "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

Gal. 3:13 "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:"
The reference was to a man who for sin had been put to death, and whose body had been impaled on a tree or a stake, and thus exposed as a warning to other evil-doers. The command was that such exposure was not to outlast the day. By night the body must be buried, and so the whole fact of his sin, now expiated as to human society, put completely away. This parenthetical statement-for such it is-gives the reason for the burial. The man was not accursed of God because he was hanged on a tree. He was hanged on the tree because he was accursed of God. The hanging was the outward sign of the curse upon him, the curse of death for sin. When that curse was accomplished and witnessed, the sign was to cease; then let the man be buried, and that burial be the sign that the curse was sufficient. The understanding of this helps us when the mind travels on in solemn thought to the One Who hung upon the Tree on Calvary. He was there because He was "made sin," and so accursed of God. Such blunt statement gives the soul a shock; but it is the very shock we need, if we are ever to come to anything like a true apprehension of the way of our saving. In His case this law was fulfilled. He did not remain on the Tree through the night. The curse on sin was carried out, and witnessed, the sin was expiated before God, because the One Who suffered its penalty was sinless. His burial was the sign that sin was put away. His resurrection was the beginning of a new life for Himself, as Redeemer; and for us, as redeemed.

1 Peter 2:24 "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed."

1 Peter 3:18 "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:"

Substitution is Taught by the Greek Preposition "anti"

Matt. 20:28 - "anti" - "in the stead of". "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."
Proof of meaning see Luke 11:11 and Matt. 2:22.
Problems in Matt. 17:27 and Heb. 12:2.
See Leon Morris, Apostolic Preaching, p. 31.

Substitution is Taught Indirectly in Certain Passages

Isa. 53:9-10 - "It pleased Jehovah to bruise Him"

Why? Does God like to injure innocent men?
Only one explanation.
Matt. 27:46 - "Why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
Does God forsake good men when they die?
Only one answer possible.

Substitution is Taught by the O.T. Sacrifices Which Were Typical of  Christ's Death.

The animal died in the stead of the sinner. Lev. 4:22-26; Heb. 10:1.
"When a ruler hath sinned, and done somewhat through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD his God concerning things which should not be done, and is guilty; Or if his sin, wherein he hath sinned, come to his knowledge; he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a male without blemish: And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the goat, and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before the LORD: it is a sin offering. And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out his blood at the bottom of the altar of burnt offering. And he shall burn all his fat upon the altar, as the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings: and the priest shall make an atonement for him as concerning his sin, and it shall be forgiven him."
"For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect."
Every year, for nearly one and a half millenniums, 1,273 animals died on the altar in Jerusalem on behalf of the nation, plus countless thousands of additional animals for individual Israelites (Num. 28-29; Lev. 1-5) in order to illustrate the need for an innocent substitute  for human sin! In the light of this, consider Acts 6:7 - ". . .and a great company of priests were obedient to the faith."
If we had nothing else than this it would be sufficient to prove this doctrine.