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The Atonement Of Christ 's Death Essay

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The atonement of Christ, or the bringing about of our salvation by Jesus on the Cross, is a dividing issue for various theological traditions. The end goal of each theory is to conclude how Christ’s death brings salvation, and what exactly Christ’s death saved Christians from. Each view reaches their own conclusions as to what the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus accomplished. When comparing and contrasting the details of the Christus Victor and the Penal Substitution theories of the atonement a major difference at the heart of the debate is whether or not Christ needed to die primarily to be an expiation, the Christus Victor model, or a propitiation, the Penal Substitution model. In general, the expiation theory focuses on sin and death as the problem that Jesus comes to solve. In contrast, the propitiation model of atonement focuses on Jesus as the solution to God’s wrath and inability to forgive us for our sins. While the expiation and propitiation theories are two different ways of looking at the atonement, the Christus Victor and Penal Substitution views are held within those broader contextual categories. The expiation view of atonement states that the problem that plagues humanity is sin and death, rather than the view that forgiveness from sin is not available. In other words, the issue keeping Christians from God and from salvation is sin, death, and the devil, rather than God’s wrath. The view of expiation is one that is common among Eastern Orthodoxy,

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