We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

WhyJesusWhy

Why Did Jesus Die on the Cross?

If asked why Jesus had to die on the cross, most Christians today would immediately answer, “To pay for my sins.” Jesus certainly paid the price for our sins, but it might surprise some reader to learn that this wasn’t the way Christians would answer this question for the first thousand years of Church history. The main reason Jesus died on the cross, according to this earlier view, was to defeat Satan and set us free from his oppressive rule. Everything else that Jesus accomplished, including paying for our sins, was to be understood as an aspect and consequence of this victory.

This earlier understanding of why Jesus had to die is called the Christus Victor (Latin for “Christ is Victorious”) view of the atonement. In my estimation it captures the profound beauty of the New Testament account better than the view that focuses exclusively on what Jesus did for us.

The Christus Victor motif is strongly emphasized throughout the New Testament. Scripture declares that Jesus came into this world to “drive out the ruler of this world” (Jn 12:31), to “destroy the works of the devil” (I Jn 3:8), to “destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14-15) and to ultimately “put all his enemies under his feet” (I Cor 15:25). Jesus came to overpower the “strong man” (Satan) who holds the world in bondage and to work with his children to “plunder his house” (Lk 11:21-22). He came to end the reign of the cosmic “thief” who seized the world to “steal and kill and destroy” the life God intended for us (Jn 10:10). Jesus came to earth and died on the cross to disarm “the rulers and authorities” and make a “public spectacle of them” by “triumphing over them on the cross” (Col 2:15).

Beyond these explicit statements, there are many other passages that express the Christus Victor motif as well. For example, the first prophecy in the Bible foretells that a descendent of Eve (Jesus) would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). The first Christian sermon ever preached proclaims that Jesus in principle conquered all God’s enemies (Ac 2:32-36). And the single most frequently quoted Old Testament passage by New Testament authors is Psalm 110:1 which predicts that Christ would conquer all God’s opponents. (Pslams.110 is quoted or alluded to Mt 22:41-45; 26:64; Mk 12:35-37; 14:62; Lk 20:41-44; 22:69; Ac 5:31; 7:55-56; Rom 8:34; I Cor 15:22-25; Eph 1:20; Heb 1:3; 1:13; 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:11, 15,17,21; 8:1; 10:12-13; I Pet 3:22; and Rev. 3:21) According to the great New Testament scholar Oscar Cullman, the frequency with which New Testament authors cite this Psalm is the greatest proof that Christ’s “victory over the angel powers stands at the very center of early Christian thought.”

The Incarnation of the Son of God fulfilled God’s original dream of uniting himself to humanity to acquire a bride and co-ruler. But it’s clear from the Christus Victor motif we’ve just examined that, because of our rebellion, the Incarnation also involved a rescue mission that included a strategy for vanquishing the powers of darkness.

Related Reading

Podcast: Did Evil Exist Before Lucifer’s Revolt?

Greg talks about evil and the goodness of creation, then considers some speculative inferences about the existence of creation for all eternity.   http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0416.mp3

Tags: ,

Lighten Up: Jesus VS The World

 

The Nature of Human Rebellion

God placed Adam in the Garden and instructed him to “protect” it (Gen. 2:15). The word is often translated “till” or “keep,” implying that Adam’s main responsibility was to protect the pristine Garden from weeds. This is certainly a possible interpretation of this word, but in light of the cunning serpent that shows up in…

Who Rules Governments? God or Satan? Part 2

In the previous post, I raised the question of how we reconcile the fact that the Bible depicts both God and Satan as the ruler of nations, and I discussed some classical ways this has been understood. In this post I want to offer a cross-centered approach to this classical conundrum that provides us with…

Reflecting on Henry and the Heart of God

Several years ago Jessica and Ian had their theology revolutionized by coming in contact with the vision of God and the warfare worldview that ReKnew ministries stands for. Tragically, this last September this wonderful couple learned that their precious 4-year-old son Henry had a massive brain tumor and that he had only months to live.…

Why Bart Ehrman Doesn’t Have to Ruin Your Christmas (Or Your Faith) Part 6

This is the sixth of several videos Greg put together to refute Bart Ehrman’s claims published in the article What Do We Really Know About Jesus? In this segment, Greg addresses the apparent discrepancies in the genealogies of Luke and Matthew and the implausibility of the idea that they were simply fabricated. We’ve been hearing that people are using…