Featured The Wrath of God

So lacking any “smoking gun” of WRATH, I am leaning towards these two:

Christus Victor
Classically, the Christus Victor theory of Atonement is widely considered to be the dominant theory for most of the historical Christian Church. In this theory, Jesus Christ dies in order to defeat the powers of evil (such as sin, death, and the devil) in order to free mankind from their bondage. This is related to the Ransom view with the difference being that there is no payment to the devil or to God. Within the Christus Victor framework, the cross did not pay off anyone but defeated evil thereby setting the human race free.

Gustaf Aulen argued that this theory of the Atonement is the most consistently held theory for church history, especially in the early church up until the 12th century before Anslem’s satisfaction theory came along. He writes that “the work of Christ is first and foremost a victory over the powers which hold mankind in bondage: sin, death, and the devil.” 2 He calls this theory the “classic” theory of the Atonement. While some will say that Christus Victor is compatible with other theories of the Atonement, others argue that it is not. Though I have found that most theologians believe that Christus Victor is true, even if it is not for them the primary theory of Christ’s death.

The Satisfaction Theory (Anselm)
In the 12th century, Anselm of Canterbury proposed a satisfaction theory for the Atonement. In this theory, Jesus Christ’s death is understood as a death to satisfy the justice of God. Satisfaction here means restitution, the mending of what was broken, and the paying back of a debt. In this theory, Anselm emphasizes the justice of God and claims that sin is an injustice that must be balanced. Anselm’s satisfaction theory says essentially that Jesus Christ died in order to pay back the injustice of human sin and to satisfy the justice of God.

This theory was developed in reaction to the historical dominance of the Ransom theory, that God paid the devil with Christ’s death. Anselm saw that this theory was logically flawed, because what does God owe satan? Therefore, in contrast with the Ransom theory, Anselm taught that it is humanity who owes a debt to God, not God to satan. Our debt, in this theory, is that of injustice. Our injustices have stolen from the justice of God and therefore must be paid back. Satisfaction theory then postulates that Jesus Christ pays pack God in His death on the cross to God. This is the first Atonement theory to bring up the notion that God is acted upon by the Atonement (i.e. that Jesus satisfies God).
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What I particularly like about the “satisfaction theorem” is that it affirms the scriptural substitution, but places the motivation as one of JUSTICE rather than WRATH. This lines up with the lack of verses about the WRATH of God against Christ.

Since this thread will be closing soon, the quest for the JUSTICE of GOD paid by CHRIST will have to be another quest for another thread.

 

I hate to be pedantic, but here is 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.​

… could you underline the part of this verse where God JUDGED anything?

I do not believe that this verse supports your claim “THAT is scripture.”

 

For me it is not “one or the other”.
I acknowledge the death and resurrection of Christ as Christ the Victorious (grateful and praising what HE has accomplished). The question for me is “Is there MORE to the death and resurrection of Christ?” Not “EITHER/OR” but perhaps an “AND”.

How many things in scripture contain layers of “AND”?

 

That’s a good question.

I would need to look at scripture more closely, but my initial “gut feeling” has to do with glorification. The STUFF we are made of just isn’t good enough for the presence of God. Even Jesus was transformed into better STUFF at his death and His original flesh was sinless.

On the other hand, there is also the mercy factor … imagine being stuck alive in a fallen world until Christ returned to bring you home. 2000 years stuck behind enemy lines and hated, waiting to be recalled home.

Romans 14:7-9 [NASB95]

For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.​

 

2 Corinthians 5:20-21 [NASB95]
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

• Jesus BECAME sin … our sin … so sin was not merely “forgiven”, it was CRUCIFIED.

Romans 3:25 [NASB95] whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. [This was] to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
Hebrews 2:17 [NASB95] Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
1 John 2:2 [NASB95] and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for [those of] the whole world.
1 John 4:10 [NASB95] In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins.

Propitiation (Merriam-Webster):
1: the act of gaining or regaining the favor or goodwill of someone or something

The crucifixion (death) of our sin was the propitiation … act of gaining or regaining the favor or goodwill of God.

WRATH made sense, but lacked SCRIPTURE that actually SAID so and violates the “punish innocent” prohibition in scripture. JUSTICE also makes sense and violates no prohibition (since it is God satisfying a characteristic of God).

I have no idea if it has SCRIPTURE to support it as TRUE, only that so far it was not “anti-biblical” (which is a better start than WRATH).

It is also clear that God did more than simply FORGIVE sin. Christ forgave sin without killing anyone. Words like “became sin” and “propitiation” indicate more than … “sorry” & “you are forgiven” … happened.


PS. Less “THE reason” and more like “another reason” (if that makes sense). Christus Victor is THE REASON.