the essay begins with a critique of the satisfaction model of atonement, which was first propounded by anselm, bishop of canterbury, in the 11th century, then further developed by luther, calvin and others until today it is the most popular understanding of the atonement in western theology. here are a few paragraphs:
Denny Weaver [in The Nonviolent Atonement, p.203] argues that "satisfaction atonement in any form depends on divinely sanctioned violence that follows from the assumption that doing justice means to punish." This not only paints a picture of God as a violent and vengeful deity, but it also shows God acting in ways that contradict the non-violent Christ of the gospel.personally, i've been dissatisfied (boom boom) with the 'satisfaction model' for a number of years. apart from the issues quoted above (and others in the essay), i think it promotes, because of it's abstractness and a-historicity, a wrong view of christian life in which, once someone 'becomes a christian', what they do for the rest of their life is basically irrelevant (except to try and persuade others to become christians as well). in other words, just as the act of atonement is basically divorced from the rest of jesus' life and ministry according to the satisfaction model, partaking in the benefits of atonement is, for all intents and purposes, divorced from the day to day life of a believer, other than providing the hope of eternal life after we die. whether or not this is stated explicitly in evangelical circles, i think the truth of it can be seen in the lives of christians, which for the most part are indistinguishable from generally moral, clean-living non-christians. of course christians aren’t supposed to be criminals, but the radical, subversive, counter-cultural kingdom lifestyle that jesus taught and demonstrated is almost impossible to find, because christians generally believe that getting to heaven is the important thing, not how we live now. if we think that when we die we'll be perfected instantly anyway, there's not a huge amount of incentive to put any effort into real personal change other than to gain some sense of personal satisfaction (there's that word again). a further outcome is that christians often develop an arrogant and superior attitude, believing they are somehow better because they’ve been ‘saved’ and expect to spend eternity in heaven, instead of being one of the condemned who will suffer for eternity.
Moreover, it is pastorally irresponsible as it discourages resistance to violent oppression. This has been a major complaint of black theologians and feminists. Anselm’s model makes a positive virtue out of innocent suffering and passive submission to an abusive authority. It is historically true that such an approach has been used to stifle the complaints of slaves and to silence the cries of abused spouses. It has sanctioned ill-treatment of the marginalized and placed incontestable power in the hands of ungodly oppressors.
Additionally, the satisfaction model is ahistorical and consequently devoid of ethical content. It conceives of atonement as something that takes place outside of actual history. It depends on some “spiritual” (read, ‘abstract’) transaction between God the Father and the Son that removes human guilt and restores God's honour but fails to address the actual structures of oppression.
Satisfaction atonement also takes place outside the particular history of Jesus' earthly ministry. His life and teachings are somehow divorced from his death. In fact, it reduces the meaning of Jesus' life to some elongated preface – a demonstration that the lamb was spotless and apt to die in our place. It might even be said that the best thing about Jesus' life is that it came to an end!
jesus did not die to satisfy god’s requirement for blood or payment for crimes committed. any victim knows that justice is not served by punishment. punishment is the poor alternative we resort to because we cannot achieve true justice, but god is just and he is able to accomplish justice without resorting to punishment. we live with the consequences of our sins constantly, in the pain we experience, in our broken relationships, and ultimately in our death. god doesn't require any more punishment for us than this punishment we inflict on ourselves. there is no way that condemning a sinner to eternal torment satisfies any true notion of justice, or could conceivably make recompense for the wrongs that were committed. it runs completely counter to all notions of god as loving, righteous and just.
jesus was sinless and so did not have to endure pain or death, but he chose to live amongst us and experience the pain caused by the sins of others against him, and ultimately to die because of those sins. it was literally our sin that put him to death, and if you or i had been there we would have done the same. the only reason he died is because we killed him. if sin had not entered the world through adam, jesus would still have come, but it would have been a joyous, triumphant coming capped off with the crowning of the King of Kings and a reign that never ends. this is going to happen, but it’s going to be the second time round because the first time we were still lost in our sins and hell-bent on destruction.
jesus had to die because he chose to be born into the line of adam, who was condemned along with his descendents by the promise of god that if you eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil you will surely die. but god raised jesus, vindicating him as righteous, and so he became the new adam, the firstborn of the new creation. it is to this renewed, resurrected, line of humanity that we can be joined by the grace of god, who through his sheer mercy justifies us and remembers our sin no more, cancelling our identity in adam and replacing it with a new identity in christ. this is a present reality, not just a future hope, though we still live in a world ruled by sin. by living according to our new identity we actively bring the kingom of god into being here and now, bringing blessing to everyone around us, so how we live as christians is incredibly important. and we have the assurance that one day we will be resurrected into the finally and perfectly realised kingdom of jesus that will last forever.
this really is good news!
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