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última version al 21:00 14 abr 2012
Atonement
What was The almighty doing on the cross?. It is really a search for understanding of one of the crucial events of history, perhaps the crucial event. The entire New Testament focuses on the death, burial, and resurrection, events leading up to and flowing from it, its theological significance and ethical implications. We are going to focus on the deep significance from the atonement, as explained from three perspectives: the dynamic, subjective, and objective views.
Dynamic view The dynamic view sees Christ's death and resurrection as the climax of a cosmic conflict with Satan and also the demonic forces of evil. Christ came since the Second Adam (Romans 5:18-19), winning the contest that Adam failed. He also came as the new Israel, faithfully keeping submitting to God rather than to Satan as the first Israel tried (Matthew 2:15; 4:4; etc.). Just after His baptism, the Spirit "drove" (Greek: ekballei) Him into the wilderness so that He might confront Satan (Mark 1:12). His victory there is only one of what must have been many battles, for Luke records that Satan left Him until "an opportune time" (Luke 4:13).
During His ministry Jesus offered His power to cast out demons being a demonstration that He was stronger than Satan. Although He described Satan like a "strong man," He claimed a chance to "bind" the strong man and despoil his possessions (i.e., those that were demon-possessed). His ability to cast out demons "by the finger of God" He presented as proof the arrival of God's kingdom in the world (Luke 12:20-22). Jesus got His disciples active in the warfare; their successful preaching, healing, and exorcism mission He afterward described as the fall of Satan from heaven (Luke 10:18).
Satan was behind the betrayal of Jesus by Judas (John 13:2, 27), his abandonment through the other apostles (Luke 22:31-32), in addition to his trial and murder (John 8:40-41, 44). Jesus recognized Satan as His principal enemy, as well as before His death, He was so confident of victory which he spoke of it as a fait accompli (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11, 32). As soon as before His death Christ Himself uttered the triumphant words, "It is finished" (John 19:30; compare Luke 12:50). The glorious resurrection is proof that His death was a victory and not a defeat (Revelation 3:21).
In the confrontation with false teaching at Colossae, Paul is definitely the cross and resurrection as a overcome spiritual enemies. The Colossians were in danger of being deceived by a syncretistic blend of Judaistic legalism, Hellenistic philosophy, and Eastern mysticism. Apparently the heretical teachers were not advocating a rejection of Jesus, however they denied Him the primacy and only intermediary beings. "Go beyond Jesus to greater realities," they could have taught. Paul replies that there is nothing beyond Jesus Christ, in whom God's fullness dwells. He it's Who "disarmed the powers and authorities, [making] a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross" (Colossians 2:15).
Not merely did Christ conquer Satan, demons, principalities, and powers. Also, he conquered death (Acts 2:24; Revelation 5:5-6). Paul uses militaristic terms to go over the resurrection, e.g., "destroyed" and "victory" (1 Corinthians 15:24-26, 54-56).
Because Christ has triumphed as our representative, we share with His triumph (hence the super-conquerors of Romans 8:37). In Ephesians 4:8 Paul applies Psalm 68:19 to Christ's triumph, picturing Christ as a conquering general returning to Rome for a victory parade: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in the train and gave gifts to men." The ensuing passage explains that the gifts He gave would be the offices for building up the church. The captives are bypassed, but Colossians 2:15 seems suitable commentary.
In 2 Corinthians 2:14, Paul states that "God... always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance from the knowledge of him." In this instance the apostles (see 1 Corinthians 4:9), and perhaps all Christians, are probably the type of following along behind--themselves conquered, and yet joyously sharing in the victory celebration. Our struggle against Satan and demonic forces continues (Ephesians 6:12). As they is victorious, we also can be victorious (Revelation 3:21; 1 John 2:14-15; 4:4; 5:4-5).
Subjective view It is a fact that we are the subjects of His daring rescue (Colossians 1:13-14), but we participate. This is the subjective nature of the atonement: it transforms us. When we are united with Christ through faith-repentance-baptism, God's Spirit begins the entire process of transforming us from one level of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18).
The Spirit, Himself the guarantee that this beginning will reach its intended end (Ephesians 1:13-14), begins to produce His fruit inside our hearts (Galatians 5:22-23) as we cooperate by "walking within the Spirit" and being "led by the Spirit" (Romans 8:4, 14; Galatians 5:16). The metamorphosis isn't automatic; it takes constant mental concentration even as count ourselves dead to sin and alive to God (Romans 6:11). It also requires continual moral striving, even as refuse to let sin dominate us, yielding the people in our bodies to righteousness instead of to sin (Romans 6:12-13).
It is a battle we fight, yet Paul assures us, "[S]in may have no dominion over you" (Romans 6:14). The struggle results in holiness and the end is eternal life (Romans 6:22). When Christ returns, on the eschaton, the Spirit will have performed His operate in us: "[W]e shall be like Him, for we shall see Him while he is" (1 John 3:2).
Though this really is work that changes us from within and in which we ourselves participate, the credit still belongs to God, because it is His work being done in us and thru us. He is the one that provides it to completion on that day (Philippians 1:6). Meanwhile, we image Christ nowadays. He was our representative within the cosmic conflict; we are His representatives in the existential struggle against the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
Objective view Yet Christ's death is much more than what he did for (hyper) us (see Mark 14:24; Luke 22:19-20) and what he does in (en) us (see Colossians 1:27). Additionally, it involves what He did as opposed to (anti) us (see Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45)---the objective view of the atonement. In fact, many think that the substitutionary nature of the atonement is an essential aspect of all.
Several types of the substitutionary atonement result from Genesis. The word used in 1 John 3:12 to explain Cain's murder of his brother will be the word for "slaughter" (Greek: esphaxen), as with the offering of a sacrifice. This has led some to view the earth's first murder, recorded in Genesis 4:8, since the offering of a substitute sacrifice. In essence, Cain may have said, "So, You didn't like my vegetables as a possible offering? Let's see how You such as this! (slash)." The murder certainly involved the shedding of his brother's blood, for this cried out from the ground against the perpetrator (Genesis 4:10).
When the angel stops Abraham from stabbing Isaac to death, Abraham finds a ram caught in the nearby thicket that he can offer instead of (Septuagint: anti) his son (Genesis 22:12-13). The passage assumes that some sacrifice should be offered, and the one is replaced from the other.
abductions - More than a hundred years later, when Joseph's testing of his brothers created a crisis situation involving the enforced servitude of Benjamin, Judah stepped forward and freely offered himself as an alternative for his brother (Genesis 44:18-34, especially not the Septuagint's use of anti in v. 33). In this case also, some substitute must be provided. There was no possibility of mere escape from the demands of the master.
Yet all three of these are one-for-one substitutions, just as the "eye-for-eye" provisions of the Law. Christ's sacrifice (one for many) is more like the sin offering in behalf of all the people or the sacrifice from the goat on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 4:13-21; 16:15-19). He is the "atoning sacrifice for our sins, rather than only for ours, but also for the sins from the whole world" (1 John 2:2). He could be the "Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29).
One for your world? How can that be just? Its justice is dependent upon the identity of the Sacrifice. A single human deserves infinite punishment because of sins. Adding the punishment of another human adds no more than was there already (for infinity plus infinity equals infinity). The same holds true for "the sins of the [whole] world." The slaughter of the Infinite One for these sins beings one infinity into experience of the other--just payment.
Our sins brought us under the curse of the law, but Christ was a curse for us by hanging about the tree (Galatians 3:10-14). Because of Christ's death, God could effect what Luther called a "happy exchange": we were the subjects of God's just condemnation, the objects of His righteous wrath, but the sinless Christ became "sin" for us, to ensure that we might become God's righteousness by Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). God established Him because the propitiation, the appeasement, so that the all-consuming fire of His wrath could be diverted to Him rather than destroying the rest of us humans (Romans 3:25). As Isaiah said, "The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).
Must we choose? resurrection - Dynamic, subjective, and objective--must we choose between them? No! By its very nature the atonement is higher than any one metaphor or perspective can contain. We should always be answering, "Yes, and much more besides." Like astronomers surveying the universe, the harder we study it, the harder vast it becomes. Our wherewithal to fully comprehend its dimensions does not nullify what we can understand, nor does it rob us of the amazement we sense at that which you know was accomplished.
