Baptism is a renunciation of Satan, sin, and the evil powers at work in our hearts and minds. But many Christians have a thin view of what this renunciation looks like—we tend to think of it as an act of willpower, as simply resisting cravings and temptations. This perspective is symptomatic of the Protestant focus on piety; however, the Christus Victor frame we’ve explored in earlier chapters shows that the problem is much deeper and more pervasive. Sin, in this view, is less about hedonic craving than it is about our slavery and bondage. The issue isn’t temptation as much as it is identity
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