Given the diverse spiritual needs of people, focusing on but one aspect of saving power really amounts to confusion regarding atonement. By contrast, if there is no confidence regarding the proclamation of saving power in Jesus Christ at all, then ministry and mission live under a cloud of gloom. The heart may yearn for the proclamation of the power of the cross, but the will to do so is absent. Much of the lack of clarity and loss of nerve stems from the fear that atonement is the weak point in the Christian message because there is but one theory (namely, penal substitution) and it is flawed. Whether one openly subscribes to such a view, or quietly fears that it is true, in either case the drive to proclaim the cross is undercut. This paralysis regarding the cross, however, leads to a general shutdown of all systems: If one cannot find a way to confess the saving power of the cross, then Jesus becomes irrelevant and the church has no good news. The situation is not improved, as we shall see, by substituting the threefold outline of Gustaf Aulén. While he appears to recognize three theories rather than one, in the end the three are reduced to only one acceptable theory, i.e., Christus Victor. Against the imperialism of those who argue that atonement is but one general theory or that everything can be squeezed into three theories, this study shall present ten distinct theories, thereby demonstrating the breadth of Christian witness to the fullness of Christ.
The ten theories gathered under these four headings are:
I. Christ Died for Us: Sacrifice
II. Christ Died for Us: Justification by Grace
III. Christ Died for Us: Penal Substitution
IV. Liberation from Sin, Death, and Demonic Powers
V. The Purposes of God: The Renewal of the Creation
VI. The Purposes of God: The Restoration of the Creation
VII. The Purposes of God: Christ the Goal of the Creation
VIII. Reconciliation: Christ the Way to the Knowledge of God
IX. Reconciliation: Christ the Reconciler
X. Reconciliation: The Wondrous Love of God
Peter Schmiechen Saving Power: Theories of Atonement and Forms of the Church. Read Peter Schmiechen’s Introduction
