I'm interested in your comments about Jesus's death not being a substitution or atonement but a wrongful death that leads to repentance. I believe the writer of Luke says this but I also think Paul believed Jesus's death was a substitute. Here's a quote from Bart Ehrman's book, "Peter, Paul and Mary Magdaline."
"Finally, there is an important theological contrast between this sermon in Acts and Paul’s own writings. It has to do with one of the most fundamental questions of Christian doctrine. How is it that Christ’s death brings salvation? Paul had a definite view of the matter; so did Luke, the author of Acts. What careful readers have realized over the years is that Paul and Luke express their doctrines of salvation quite differently. According to Paul, Christ’s death provides an atonement for sins; according to Luke, Christ’s death leads to forgiveness of sins. These are not the same thing.
The idea of “atonement” is that something needs to be done in order to deal with sins. A sacrifice has to be made that can make up for the fact that someone has transgressed the divine law. The sacrifice satisfies the just demands of God, whose Law has been broken and who requires a penalty. In Paul’s view, Jesus’ death brought about an atonement: it was a sacrifice made for the sake of others, so that they would not have to pay for their sins themselves. This atonement purchased a right standing before God.
The idea of “forgiveness” is that someone lets you off the hook for something that you’ve done wrong, without any requirement of payment. If you forgive a debt, it means you don’t make the other person pay. That’s quite different from accepting the payment of your debt from someone else (which would be the basic idea of atonement). In Paul’s own way of looking at salvation, Christ had to be sacrificed to pay the debt of others; in Luke’s way of looking at it, God forgives the debt without requiring a sacrifice.
Why then, for Luke, did Jesus have to die, if not as a sacrifice for sins? When you read through the speeches in Acts the answer becomes quite clear. And it doesn’t matter whether you look at Paul’s speeches or Peter’s, since, if you’ll recall, all these speeches sound pretty much alike (since they were, after all, written by Luke). Jesus was wrongly put to death. This was a gross miscarriage of justice. When people realize what they (or their compatriots) did to Jesus, they are overcome by guilt, which leads them to repent and ask for forgiveness. And God forgives them.
Thus Jesus’ death, for Luke, is not an atonement for sins; it is an occasion for repentance. And it is the repentance that leads to the forgiveness of sins, and thus a restored relationship with God (see, for example, Peter’s first speech in Acts 2:37-39). This is fundamentally different from a doctrine of atonement such as you find in Paul."
Thank you for these Sunday School lessons. I'm enjoying them and learning a lot.
Translating sacrifice as to make sacred- very helpful, as is the comment on certainty as confidence or conviction. Jesus is the one who makes all things and all people sacred, nothing less.
I'm interested in your comments about Jesus's death not being a substitution or atonement but a wrongful death that leads to repentance. I believe the writer of Luke says this but I also think Paul believed Jesus's death was a substitute. Here's a quote from Bart Ehrman's book, "Peter, Paul and Mary Magdaline."
"Finally, there is an important theological contrast between this sermon in Acts and Paul’s own writings. It has to do with one of the most fundamental questions of Christian doctrine. How is it that Christ’s death brings salvation? Paul had a definite view of the matter; so did Luke, the author of Acts. What careful readers have realized over the years is that Paul and Luke express their doctrines of salvation quite differently. According to Paul, Christ’s death provides an atonement for sins; according to Luke, Christ’s death leads to forgiveness of sins. These are not the same thing.
The idea of “atonement” is that something needs to be done in order to deal with sins. A sacrifice has to be made that can make up for the fact that someone has transgressed the divine law. The sacrifice satisfies the just demands of God, whose Law has been broken and who requires a penalty. In Paul’s view, Jesus’ death brought about an atonement: it was a sacrifice made for the sake of others, so that they would not have to pay for their sins themselves. This atonement purchased a right standing before God.
The idea of “forgiveness” is that someone lets you off the hook for something that you’ve done wrong, without any requirement of payment. If you forgive a debt, it means you don’t make the other person pay. That’s quite different from accepting the payment of your debt from someone else (which would be the basic idea of atonement). In Paul’s own way of looking at salvation, Christ had to be sacrificed to pay the debt of others; in Luke’s way of looking at it, God forgives the debt without requiring a sacrifice.
Why then, for Luke, did Jesus have to die, if not as a sacrifice for sins? When you read through the speeches in Acts the answer becomes quite clear. And it doesn’t matter whether you look at Paul’s speeches or Peter’s, since, if you’ll recall, all these speeches sound pretty much alike (since they were, after all, written by Luke). Jesus was wrongly put to death. This was a gross miscarriage of justice. When people realize what they (or their compatriots) did to Jesus, they are overcome by guilt, which leads them to repent and ask for forgiveness. And God forgives them.
Thus Jesus’ death, for Luke, is not an atonement for sins; it is an occasion for repentance. And it is the repentance that leads to the forgiveness of sins, and thus a restored relationship with God (see, for example, Peter’s first speech in Acts 2:37-39). This is fundamentally different from a doctrine of atonement such as you find in Paul."
Thank you for these Sunday School lessons. I'm enjoying them and learning a lot.
Translating sacrifice as to make sacred- very helpful, as is the comment on certainty as confidence or conviction. Jesus is the one who makes all things and all people sacred, nothing less.