Salvation, Redemption, Atonement

General

100

The Divine Economy

• God’s ‘plan’ of salvation, as a result of the fallen state of man
• Initiated by the Father out of love, completed through Christ’s saving work
• St. Paul talks about this plan hidden, and foreshadowed throughout the entirety of the OT
• The plan is created out of love, and out of the will of God, to make right, beautiful, and just the world, from the evil and its consequences that has sparked in the world from free will.

200

Christ as Teacher and Illuminator

• The incarnation, death, and resurrection, imparted on us knowledge about God, man, the world, and human destiny.
• Christ justified man’s perfect obedience to God, and God’s love for man.
• Christ’s life and teachings are a perfect illumination of overcoming darkness resulting from sin, for HE is the way truth and life.

1st Century Church

100

The Scandal of the Cross

Rom. 1:16, Col. 1:21-25 Why?

Deuteronomy 21:22-23 Answer.

200

The Cross: A Trinitarian Work

The Trinity worked in both creation, and salvation

• The cross can be
  • Atonement
    • Sacrifice
    • Sin offering
    • guilt offering
    • Expiation
    • Substitution
  • Victory
    • Overcoming; power, bondage, slavery and oppression
    • New exodus
    • Harrowing of hell
    • Christus Victor
• The cross was not a metaphor, but we use metaphors to aid in understanding the theology behind the event.

300

Expiation and Propitiation 

Hint: (Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2, 4:10)

Propitiation means that there is a barrier between us and God, that is only breakable by us drawing near to Him.

• Christ isn’t for us and the Father against us. That cannot be true, God is completely for us, where judgement of sin is, mercy and love are always preceding it.
• God is jealous without ill will, angry without upsetness, pities without grieving, sorry without correcting fault, patient without suffering.
• These emotions are written in ways that we understand how much God wants us to come to Him but we are failing to countlessly
  • “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Matt 23:37)

Christ's Role

100

Christ the Victor

Hint: (Ephesians 6:12, Colossians 2:15, Matt 12:22-29)

• Ephesians 6:12, Colossians 2:15. Apocalyptic (revelation) view of salvation, where there is a war between the Lord God of Sabaoth, and the Enemy
• Sin, death, and satan are dethroned, and are subjected to Christ. Matt. 12:22-29. Satans territory is invaded, Christ went down to hades to break the chains, Gods salvation is not stopped by the domain of death and the devil.
• In the rite of exorcism, there is a notion of a transference from one dominion to another. (Heb. 2:14-15)

200

Christ the Archpriest

• Christ came to Earth to make the final and perfect once and for all sacrifice becoming the mediator become God and Man. Christ is both the victim and the Priest.

Typology

100

The Divine Exchange

Hint:(Friday Theotokia, Philippians 2:8, 2 Corinthians 6:10, Phil 2:15, 2 Pet. 3:14)

• Christ took on the form of humanity
• We become able to partake in the divine nature (while not becoming divine)
• Before the fall of man, humanity had access to the divine nature, like immortality, the fruit of the tree of life would allow them to live forever. But sin brought forth death, Christ took death to restore us, gave us His Body and Blood, so that we might live forever
• The Eternal Entered time so we can enter eternity, the glorified became humble so we who are low may be brought high (Philippians 2:8) The rich became poor so that we who are poor can become rich (2 Corinthians 6:10) The blameless took on all the blame so that we who deserve blame might appear blameless (Phil 2:15, 2 Pet. 3:14, Col. 1:22) The king became a servant so that we who became slaves become co-heirs with Christ and the Sons of God.

200

Recapitulation

Hint: (Ephesians 1:10, Romans 5:12)

• Recapitulation means to sum up or restate
• Christ ‘takes the reigns’ as it were, and becomes man, ‘the second Adam’ and is able to pave the way to salvation for humanity. Just as all men acquired the consequence of sin through Adam, all men unjustly acquire the ability to be granted salvation through the second Adam, Christ.
  • Basically the idea that where Adam failed, Christ succeeded, He took on the formation of man, kill sin, deprived death of its power, and gave life to man.
• Christ allowed us to live for God and others, rather than for ourselves like Adam,
• Recapitulation covers a broader understanding of salvation, focused on the incarnation, and a true transformation in believers. Christ does not invite us into the divine life, he has made it an objective reality for us.

Old Testament

100

The Passover and Exodus

Hint: (1 Corinthians 5:7)

• 1 Cor 5:7, The events of the Exodus and the passing over of egypt, were noted as very key moments of our own salvation, the pachal lamb needed to save them from the death in Egypt was mirrored when on the Jewish holiday that remembers the Exodus from Egypt and the Passover, Christ was delivered up to save all of humanity.
• The blood that was spilt in the old passover was not a means of atonement for their sins, but it was God’s designation of preservation from death. It pointed to God’s future reign, and our own participation in it.

200

The Blood Sacrifice

Hint: (Acts 20:28, Col. 1:19-20, 1 Pet. 1:18-19, Heb. 13:11-12 Rom. 5:9-10)

• Early Christians, did not have these scriptures to understand that Christ’s death and the spilling of His blood had meaning. They had the old testament which emphasized the cost of sin, it can’t be just set aside, it has a cost to be paid. The larger than sin, the larger the value of the sacrifice needed. Christ came as a once for all sacrifice, a sacrifice that no sin can match its offering. He took on this debt, and paid it off in through and with Himself.
• The motif of the lamb of God appears in John’s writings, and was foreshadowed with the binding of Isaac. The sacrifice was not offered by the Father, but both the Father and the Son enacted their will as the Triune God. Enacting the eternal plan that the Son would offer Himself for the “Life of the World.”

300

Redemption and Ransom

Hint: (Psalm 73:2, Micah 6:4, Mark 10:45)

• Christ refers to Himself as the ransom for many, and is referred to as our redemption in the OT
• These words in original greek mean that there was a debt to be paid. Early church fathers were struggling with this concept and assumed either the debt was to be paid to the devil or to the father, but St. Gregory the Theologian confirms that it is shameful to suggest that the ransom was paid to the Devil or to the Father.