Expansive Approaches the Atonement

This week we’ve reflected on what Jesus’s death on the cross achieved, for example, in passages like this one:

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins. - 1 Corinthians 15:3

Traditionally, in theological language, this is called the atonement. As we wrap up this week’s devotions, let’s try to expand our understanding of the atonement. As C.S. Lets wrote, “People ate their dinners and felt better long before the theory of vitamins was ever heard of; and if the theory of vitamins is some day abandoned they will go on eating their dinners just the same. Theories about Christ's death are not Christianity: they are explanations about how it works.”

So take a few moments and sit with these three pictures of the atonement. Which stands out to you the most? What is helpful about it? How might you respond to God in prayer out of it?

• The Atonement was more than just the death of Christ - it was his whole life:

  • “The atonement began in the womb of Mary.” - Ray S. Anderson

• The Atonement can be seen in feminine imagery:

  • “God lets himself be eaten like a good mother, receiving our hungry attacks and voracious appetites. We consume this God, who nevertheless survives and remains faithful to us.” - Ann Ulanov

• The Atonement was for a collective salvation, not just individual sallvation:

  • “The concern is that when salvation reduces to avoiding the judgment of God (Jesus accepting our "death sentence") and accepting Christ's righteousness as our own (being "washed" and made "holy" for the presence of God), we can ignore the biblical teachings that suggest that salvation is communal, cosmic in scope, and is an ongoing developmental process.” - Richard Beck