‘How does Jesus save?’ part 2, by Claire Lynch, 24 March 2024

Continuing from part 1.

Jesus died on the cross and rose again, but why? Can the way this makes a difference to people be summed up in one simple, shareable idea? Claire Lynch continues her talk about the different ways this is described in the Bible, and why focusing on only one of them can distort our views of God and each other. The ideas of sacrifice and covenant are rich in meaning and hard to grasp in full, but can growing our understanding of them help to grow our sense of God’s love for us and what God wants to do with us?

Transcript

Introduction

So this morning, I’m going to be doing part 2 of what I began last week on the subject of "How does Jesus Save?”Part 2

If you haven’t managed to listen to my talk from last week, I will summarise it to help today make sense to you but I’d really recommend you do go back and have a listen to fully understand the thought process and reasoning behind what I was saying.

So in summary:

We looked at the importance of imagery and metaphor in helping us to describe something that is difficult to explain. And how the Bible is full of them.

I talked about the fact that we have 4 gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, each writer bringing their own perspective and communicating in a way unique to them, depending on the point they making and what was most helpful to the people they were speaking to in the contexts they were in.

We clarified the term - doctrine of Atonement. Atonement meaning to be made ‘at-one’ with God, and ‘doctrine’ meaning what we believe about HOW. So ‘how’ Jesus saves us, ‘how’ the incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, brings us into relationship with God.

What we think about this, what our theology is about HOW Jesus saves us, is really important because it affects what we understand God to be like, his character and his nature. And consequently what we believe about God, affects everything else - how we relate to him, to each other, ourselves and our world.

For example, If we believe God to be fundamentally judgemental, we will likely feel the need to prove ourselves and be more judgemental to others just like he is. However, if we believe God to be fundamentally gracious and kind, then we will feel more able to approach God and also extend this same attitude to others. And so on - what we think about God affects everything else.

And so we talked about the fact that the Bible is full of different metaphors and analogies and models to help us understand about ‘how’ Jesus saves - like different facets of a beautiful diamond or a golf bag, full of golf clubs, where each club is different and has something to offer, but no one club covers the whole game.

Over the last 500 years, in Western Evangelical Christianity, there is a particular metaphor that has been portrayed as the only or the predominant way of explaining the atonement - this metaphor or model is known as Penal Substitutionary Atonement - PSA for short.

Penal Substitutionary Atonement starts from the idea of God as a Heavenly Judge and us as sinners - or law-breakers - guilty in the Heavenly Court. For justice to be done, God must punish those who sin, the punishment being death. But because God is also loving, he chose to send Jesus, to take the punishment for our sins instead, through his death on the cross, so that we could be forgiven and be acceptable to God and welcomed into his family.

So penal meaning punishment and substitutionary meaning Jesus was the substitute for us - on the cross he “took our place” - he “took our punishment”.

We discussed how when that metaphor was first introduced about 500 years ago, at the time of the Reformation the standard punishment for crimes, in that justice system, was inflicting physical violence or even death. However, today in Western society we punish people through prison sentences instead, and we believe in restorative justice and rehabilitation for offenders. Consequently, this metaphor doesn’t work as well for people, as it did in the past, in picturing ‘how Jesus saves’.

Penal substitution is hard to explain to people because it portrays God as a violent Father who physically tortures and even kills his own son, in order to forgive, which is completely contrary to the character and nature of God that we see in Jesus.

We saw how fortunately we don’t need to be limited to just one way of explaining ‘how Jesus saves, because the Bible actually explains it and pictures it in lots of ways. We looked at a couple of the other metaphors in the Bible, that don’t involve crime and punishment or an angry God, those of the Slave Market and the Battlefield.

As I said, please do listen to the talk from last week, to more fully understand what we are talking about here.

And so today, I said we would explore another couple of the Biblical metaphors, which similarly do not involve seeing atonement through the lens of crime and punishment.

But first, just for fun - I thought I would share with you a few more amusing metaphors that I came across this week. These are actual metaphors students have used in exams!:

• The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

• She had him, like a toenail stuck in a shag carpet.

• He was like a magnet. Attractive from the back, repulsive from the front.

Apostles’ Creed

One of the reasons why I had, for the majority of my life, until a few years ago, liked the PSA way of looking at things, was because I had everything sewn up through it, it was logical and made sense. I believed, as long as I said I was sorry to God, then Jesus had taken my punishment, price had been paid, job done, I’m forgiven. I felt safe, no loose ends, all sorted. Maybe you can identify with that?

But that’s a modern worldview way of thinking, a scientific way of thinking, where we need to find the answer to a question, very much like solving a maths equation. A modern worldview is where we have reasoned rational arguments based on proof and evidence, this worldview began in the 1500’s and continued to develop with the Enlightenment and the Age of Science , the Age of Reason and the Age of the Machine.

We are accustomed to thinking scientifically and mechanistically about things and it was within this time frame that PSA was born and flourished.

But this is not how the writers of the Bible would have thought, they had an ancient worldview which was very different. They were much more comfortable with mystery and allegory and not needing an absolute answer for everything - very much like the postmodern worldview of our day.

You may have heard of the Apostles’ Creed - Creed coming from the latin word Credo, meaning “I believe”. It was a set of beliefs developed in the Early Church to clarify the very short and simple basics of what people needed to believe, to call themselves Christians.

Let’s take a look at them:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
 creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
 who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
 and born of the virgin Mary.
 He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
 was crucified, died, and was buried;
 he descended to hell.
 The third day he rose again from the dead.
 He ascended to heaven
 and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
 the holy catholic* church,
 the communion of saints,
 the forgiveness of sins,
 the resurrection of the body,
 and the life everlasting. Amen.

Notice how simple and short that is.

Notice how light it is on the details.

It makes no mention of the atonement, the HOW that Jesus saves.

Is talks about forgiveness , but it’s silent about how it comes about.

It talks about the incarnation and Jesus’ suffering and his death and resurrection but again it’s silent on what role each of those played.

So why is that? Well, we don’t know. Maybe several reasons.

One reason may be that they thought it was so obvious at the time that no-one needed to write it down.

Another possible reason is because there was never any controversy about it -no wrong ideas doing the rounds that they felt the need to correct.

And another is that, unlike a modern world view way of thinking, they didn’t feel the need to nail it down to one mechanistic way of understanding the HOW. That they could happily hold in tension all the different ways of explaining what Jesus has done for us, that we find in the New Testament. They understood the value that all of the metaphors brought.

Whatever the reason the creeds are silent on the HOW, the upshot is that we are not required to believe or teach one particular way of understanding it.

Conflating metaphors

One final note before we look at a couple more metaphors.

For me, because I had held the view that PSA was the mechanism by which Jesus saves us, it meant that when I read references to other metaphors in the Bible, I couldn’t see them.

I couldn’t see the wood for the trees - would be a good metaphor in this case!

I couldn’t see the distinction between the different metaphors, I though they were all talking about the same thing - penal substitution. So when I read things like Jesus paid the price, I assumed that referred to him being punished, I didn’t realise it simply referred to being set free, like a ransom price, that we talked about last week. Similarly, when I saw the word sacrifice, again, I thought it referred to Jesus being punished, I didn’t realise that sacrifice meant something else.

There are some verses about penal substitution in the Bible, but when you take out all the verses about redeeming and ransoming and paying the price and sacrifice, there’s actually not a great deal left referring to atonement.

And it’s worth noting that Jesus did not refer to himself as being punished. The only two metaphors that Jesus is recorded to having used in relation to his death are that of ‘being a ransom for many’ relating to the Slave Market and secondly, ’as a sign of the new covenant’. Neither of these being about the law court or punishment.

So, we’re going to briefly look at both sacrifice and covenant today.

Sacrifice

So first of all sacrifice.

Sacrifice would have been a very helpful image and framework to understand Jesus’ death for the first century Jewish believer for whom sacrifice played a central part in their worship and in fact not only Jews but also non-Jews.

In the NT period any religion without the practice of sacrifice would have been inconceivable. Pagan sacrifice was widely practised too, often accompanied in Roman cities by idol worship and excessively indulgent behaviour. Sacrifice was embedded in the culture and the psyche. Sacrifice was as normal to that society as cleaning our teeth is to us. Everyone did, it was an everyday part of life. Difficult to get our head round not being from the ancient world!

The ancient world concept of a sacrifice was as a gift to God. It was not as we understand the word today - meaning generous self giving for the sake of others. Jesus did of course do that, but that is not what it meant in Ancient World thinking. It meant gift.

Jewish sacrifices were of a wide variety of types and made for a wide variety of reasons, it was not only about sacrifices for sin, which Christians often assume.

Sacrifices were made for other purposes like sealing a covenant, thanksgiving, remembering God’s great deeds in the past, communion with God or simply a gift to God in response to God’s goodness. It might have involved sacrificing an animal like a bull or a goat or a sheep, or it might have involved bringing grain or money.

Even when sacrifices were for sin, the animal was not being punished. The point was never to make it suffer. Jewish sacrifices and offerings ranged from daily, weekly, monthly and annually on the Day of Atonement. Poor people were not expected to sacrifice an animal - bringing agricultural produce was if they couldn’t afford it.

Day of atonement

On the day of Atonement, which was the highest holy day of the Jewish Calendar, also called Yom Kippur. On that day, several sacrifices were involved, to do with atoning and cleansing the people and the temple.

The culmination of the day was the High Priest placing his hands on the head of a live goat and confessing the sins of the people - symbolically “transferring them” onto the goat’s head.

The goat was then sent out into the wilderness - taking those sins away, taking them “outside the camp”, so that they were removed from the people. Leviticus 16:22 says that “As the goat goes into the wilderness, it will carry all the people’s sins upon itself…”

This goat was called “the scapegoat."

The two key things to notice here are:

1. There is no punishment here and the goat is not even killed - Leviticus actually calls it “the goat that lives” and,

2. The imagery is of taking sins away, removing them from the people.

Psalm 103:12 says: “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."

Passover

And it’s very interesting that Jesus didn’t actually die on the Day of Atonement, which you’d think might have been an appropriate day to choose if being a sacrifice for sin was the principal thing in mind, but he actually chose to die at Passover.

The tensions with the religious and political authorities were rising so much, that Jesus would have known full well, when he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (which is the day that the Christian church celebrates today) that doing so would most likely lead to his death.

Passover was not focussed on sin but on liberation. Passover celebrated the Exodus - the event that released Israel from captivity, oppression and slavery under the Egyptians to become the people of God.

To set the Israelites free from the Egyptians, a lamb had been sacrificed (not as a sin offering, as God had not even given the Law to the Israelites at this point anyway ) and the lambs blood was then sprinkled on the doorposts and lintels to mark them out as the people of God who were under his protection - quite literally, ‘covered by’ or ‘under’ the blood of the lamb.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:7 speaks of Jesus in Passover Lamb terms , “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”

Framing the cross against a backdrop of Passover, as scripture clearly does, speaks more of what we call Christus Victor. - that in Jesus’ victorious life, death, resurrection and ascension, the enemies of human life and human well being were defeated just as God had defeated Pharaoh and the Egyptians.

Expiation or propitiation

I just want to take a moment to explain one thing to do with Biblical translation that can be confusing when it comes to this topic.

The Hebrew word for atonement has two equally valid but very different meanings.

One is to “cleanse”, to “take away” or “to cover” - we call that expiation = to “cleanse”, to “take away” or “to cover”

And the other meaning is “to appease the anger” of a deity.

Making a payment, to “buy” their goodwill. To “buy” off their anger or to “placate their wrath” and “calm them down.

We call that propitiation = “buy” off their anger or to “placate” their wrath.

So when various versions of the Bible are translated, whether they choose to translate atonement as propitiation or expiation, depends on their theological understanding of what they believe is going on.

They cannot just translate the word atonement directly, as it has those two very different meanings -so they have to choose one and they choose the one that is their preferred interpretation.

So for example translating 1 John 2:2 - the NIV and the NRSV “sit on the fence”. They say:

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

But the ESV insists that-

He is the propitiation for our sins.

While the RSV says “no”

He is the expiation for our sins.

So you can see how different versions choose to translate the word differently depending on the publisher’s theological viewpoint. And it can be very confusing when we as the reader don’t understand this.

So is it expiation or propitiation?

Cleansing, taking away, covering OR appeasing God’s anger, placating his wrath and buying his goodwill?

Well feel free to choose, based on what you think fits best with the character and nature of God as you understand him.

Just an aside - next term we are hoping to rerun a course we did last year, based on the book by Steve Burnhope - “How to read the Bible well”- which helps with issues exactly this.

Covenant

And finally, to finish we’ll quickly take a look at the metaphor of Covenant.

The word covenant is found in the Bible over 300 times - the first time in Genesis and the last time in revelation.

Our English word comes from a Latin word that means to come together, to be brought together, and be made compatible. The connection between covenant and atonement is therefore obvious.

Covenants were in use throughout the Ancient World for creating and defining social and political relationships.

A covenant created an exclusive relationship that didn’t previously exist. It set out commitments that each of the parties were making to the other and the benefits that would flow from that and there was almost always some ‘ritual act’ to ‘seal’ or ‘ratify’ the covenant - which was seen as essential to the fulfilment of those promises.

Typically that would be a sacrifice, with the sacrifice becoming the centrepiece of a covenant meal shared together.

Covenants typically involved a great and powerful king called the ‘suzerain’, graciously offering to enter a relationship with a weaker, lesser king called the vassal. Under the covenant relationship, the enemies of the vassal would now become the enemies of the suzerain. There was a radical exchange of status that came with being included in a covenant relationship in that the vassal would now be considered part of the suzerain’s family circle.

During the Passover festival that Jesus travelled to Jerusalem for, he had a meal with his disciples, known to us as the last supper because it was the night before Jesus was crucified. It’s traditionally remembered by Christians on Maundy Thursday each year, which is this coming Thursday.

At this meal, Jesus invites his disciples into a covenant relationship, extending family status to them. (John 15:15).

They were invited to share in a covenantal meal with him, breaking bread together, invoking the memory of the very first passover where the lamb served as a covenant sacrifice; the daubed blood of the lamb marking out those who were under God’s protection.

In Luke 22:20, Jesus took a cup of wine after the meal saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

The Apostle Paul also refers to this in 1 Cor:11:23-26

Covenant is the basis for God’s relationship with his people throughout the whole biblical story. It would therefore not be surprising for this to have been the way for Jewish Jesus followers to have most easily understood Jesus’ death on the cross - as a covenant initiating sacrifice.

This new covenant was the final iteration in a series of covenants running throughout the Bible -the ultimate ‘new’ covenant prophesied in Jeremiah 31 and sealed with the ultimate covenant sacrifice, Jesus.

Jesus reaching out to the outsiders and the outcasts, the poor and the sick and ‘life’s failures’ demonstrates God’s radical inclusiveness for all into this covenant relationship.

God in Christ as the suzerain acts on our behalf as the vassal, to rescue us and deliver us from every enemy of life that threatens, harms, and enslaves us, …his extended covenantal family.

God is a covenant making, covenant keeping, covenant faithful God.

Conclusion

One phrase that sticks with me, when I consider the different ways of understanding ‘how Jesus saves’, it’s this:

Jesus was not changing the Father’s heart towards us, but changing our heart towards the Father.

Through each of the beautiful metaphors I have described today and last week, and there are also more - each of them enables us to understand a little more of the indescribable grace, goodness, love and mercy that is who God is. Jesus, shows us who the Father really is.

So we are going to share once again in the Lords supper today as we absorb a little more of all of this.

But before we do, I want to leave you with one question to mull over….

If we are not limited to using just one metaphor to explain what Jesus has done for us,

What would be the best metaphor you could use when next speaking to your friend or family member who doesn’t yet know Jesus personally?

What’s the best metaphor, that would most help the person you are speaking to?

Would you use one of the metaphors we have explored today and last week or would you pick another that maybe fits better within our culture?

If you were to look for another, you might like to think about the difference Jesus has personally made to your life as a starting point.

Remember, we are not looking for the mechanistic HOW, but a metaphor that explains the HOW in terms of ‘in what way’ does Jesus bring you to God, what does it mean for you.

You might take one of the other expressions we see in the Bible like being lost and then found, blind and now able to see, dead and now alive, orphaned and now adopted and then apply that to your current context.

Anyway, some food for thought, I’ll leave that with you.

Last week I mentioned a couple of books that might be helpful if you would like to explore this a little more. I also mentioned a podcast by Danielle Strickland. In addition Danielle has also just released 4 new podcasts on this very subject leading up to Easter, last Friday - again we’ll put this link up on the website.

But now, I’d like to invite the band up to join me as we take a moment to share in this symbol of the covenantal meal together.

So as the band play, I’m just going to invite you to think about Jesus at the Last supper, inviting his disciples into that covenantal relationship with him. God being like the suzerain King offering to embrace, protect and provide for them, extending God’s family status to them and how God in Jesus does the same for each of us.

If you have never before accepted God’s invitation into relationship with him, but you would like to, then now would be a good time as we share in the Lords supper together. Just simply tell God quietly in your head that you accept and allow him into your heart.

Share The Lord’s Supper…..

If you have accepted God’s invitation into relationship for the first time, then do tell someone you came with, or come and tell me, I’d love to pray with you.

More in this series