What Did the Cross Accomplish?: A Conversation about the Atonement

by N.T. Wright

We should specifically note that in this narrative, which fits together snugly and satisfyingly, the elements that are normally played off against one another actually depend on one another for their overall meaning. These elements, as is well known, include (1) the Christus Victor theme, which has often been played off against (2) “substitution”; (3) the notion of Jesus as the “representative,” as “incorporating” his people, which again is often taken as an either/or with “substitution”; and (4) the notion of Jesus’ death as a moral example, a sign communicating, “That’s what love will do,” which has been played off against all the above. Get the story right, however, and all these four models will fit. It all depends, as I have argued more fully in the book, on the nature of idolatry and sin, with idolatry recognized as the root of sin. Paul’s charge against the human race in Romans 1:18 concerns asebeia, “false worship,” meaning idolatry; and then adikia, “injustice,” meaning the fracturing of God’s world and of human beings and their relationships. When we humans worship idols, we behave in subhuman ways, missing the mark of genuine humanness: “missing the mark” is hamartia, which we normally translate as “sin.” That sin then constitutes the means by which the idols enslave us. Victory over the powers is thus achieved through sin being dealt with in substitution, which in turn depends on Jesus’ representative messiahship.