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Jesus - a murder mystery:
Theory
06/10/11 13:00 View entire series at: Jesus - a murder mystery | Theology
Jesus - a murder mystery is a series of strong theology and thinking for the resurrection of Christ. It is written by Tim Denne from Harbour Vineyard who in his spare time likes to read theology.
Jesus – a Murder Mystery: Theory
Paul’s letters, especially Romans 3 and 5 plus 1 Corinthians 1, and the unknown author’s letter to the Hebrews provides the background to a string of theories of what happened through Jesus’ death. If you want to read more, the late John Stott’s excellent book, The Cross of Christ, summarises this well, and my brief summary is as follows:
- Ransom theory/Satisfying the devil – since the fall, people are under the devil’s influence; the devil has rights that needed to be satisfied. Jesus death satisfied those rights but he was tricked when Jesus rose from the dead
- Satisfying the Law – God has established a law that required death as a result of sin. He must keep the law.
- Satisfying God’s honour and justice - sin dishonours and insults God. God cannot overlook this: it is not proper or possible for God to pass by sin unpunished.
- Satisfying God’s moral order - God is the supreme ruler governing with authority according to a moral order. Sin is an attack on this and there needs to be a supreme example to demonstrate God’s dissatisfaction.
- Moral influence theory – the cross is an act of love and inspires us to love (see eg lyrics to When I Survey the Wondrous Cross)
- God satisfying himself - satisfying God’s law, honour, justice and moral order make sense to the extent that these are seen as part of God’s character with which he has to act consistently. He acts for the sake of his name.
Other terms often used are: penal substitution, which is a combination of emphasis on law and justice; the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) but Jesus takes the sinners place. He bears the penalty that sinners should have borne and thus placates an angry God; and Christus victor – God achieves victory over death, sin and the devil.
Some of these will be very familiar to us from sources such as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in which Aslan does a deal with the Devil (the White Witch) in which he dies to save Edwin’s life but he tricks her through rising from the dead to bring an end to an otherwise endless winter (with no Christmas).
As Stott and others point out, all have some degree of truth in them, but if not worded carefully they can suggest that God is beholden to something outside of himself (the devil, the law), or they can set up Jesus against God, ie God is the angry one and Jesus is the loving one.
God satisfying himself makes a lot of sense and is consistent with Scriptures such as Romans 3:25-26 which explain Jesus’ death as showing God’s righteousness. But rather than make conclusions at this stage, I want to go on to look at how Jesus himself described what he was doing, and he did this most clearly at the Last Supper before his death.
Next entry: Jesus - a murder mystery: Jesus’ Explanations.
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27/09/11 11:00 View entire series at: Jesus - a murder mystery | Theology
Jesus - a murder mystery is a series of strong theology and thinking for the resurrection of Christ. It is written by Tim Denne from Harbour Vineyard who in his spare time likes to read theology.
The Living God
The question of why Jesus died has exercised minds for two millennia, and by this I mean the underlying (theological) reasons, not the proximate causes (accusations of blasphemy and/or stirring up rebellion), although they have been controversial. In this series of posts I want to briefly explore the theories (as they are still the source of debate) and look at how Jesus himself explained it in the context of the history of Israel, re-lived through the Passover meal.
My starting point is the way we hear or present the gospel. Gospel itself is a loaded term but let’s leave it be for now. Reading the book of Acts, the main biblical source for evangelistic presentations of the gospel message, I am struck by how very different these messages are from how I am otherwise used to hearing it. Typically we hear some variation on: we are separated from God because of our sins; although deserving of punishment, Jesus died in our place so that we can be reconciled to God.
In Acts, in a series of sermons preached by Peter (2:22-36; 3:12-26; 4:8-12; 5:29-32; 10:34-43), Stephen (7:1-58) and Paul (13:16-41; 17:22-31) it is very different; Jesus is placed into the story of Israel, and what is emphasised is his resurrection. His death is mentioned, but largely as a necessary first step towards resurrection. We hear preached: Jesus died, has risen and as a result has become Lord and Christ (see, eg especially Acts 2:36). These titles are laden with meaning; Lord appears to refer back to Psalms 110 (verse 1 of which is the most cited Old Testament scripture in the New) and implies that Jesus is greater than David and is the one who is now seated at the right hand side of God, ie he is equal with and one with God. Christ means Messiah or the anointed one, the one they believed would come to rescue Israel.
The preachers in Acts set out the clear message that, because he is risen, he is shown to be Lord and can forgive sins, has power to heal, is shown to be judge and is the source of unity for Jews and Gentiles. The message is: you are forgiven because Jesus is Lord; not because Jesus died. You are forgiven because Jesus is judge, and he will forgive those who appeal to him for mercy. The important thing appears to be not that he died but that he is alive. In a similar vein, Paul sets out in a number of places in Acts that the reason that he is imprisoned and on trial is because of his belief in resurrection. Recall also, Jesus’ own actions; he announced forgiveness of sins on the basis of his authority, not on the basis of appeal to his future death.
So have we got our emphasis on Jesus’ death wrong? You get the impression reading the first sermons that maybe we have. Their good news message was Jesus is the living God.
But the story doesn’t finish in Acts, and soon after Jesus’ resurrection Paul is writing and investing theological significance in Jesus’ death. In the next instalment, I will start to dig into some of the theories of what was achieved through his death.