The Atonement of God

Summary

Why did Jesus die?

Did Jesus die so that God could forgive us for our sins? Many believe so.

The most ancient view of the atonement teaches that Jesus did not die to appease the wrath of God or gain forgiveness for human sin, but rather to defeat sin, death, and the devil, and reveal to us the unconditional love and grace of God. This was a Non-Violent view of the atonement. Yes, the death of Jesus was violent, but the violence was not because God needed blood to pay the debt of sin. It is not God who killed Jesus to satisfy God’s wrath toward sin. Jesus died for completely different reasons. 

Due to various circumstances in church history, this view fell out of favor for much of Christian history, but Non-Violent views of the atonement are making a comeback today.

In this book, J. D. Myers presents three of the common violent views of the atonement, and then explains and defends the core ideas of the Non-Violent view, which is often referred to as the Christus Victor view.

Following this explanation of the Non-Violent view of the atonement, J. D. Myers shows how this view of the atonement sheds light on numerous other areas of theology as well, such as our view of God, Scripture, humanity, sin, forgiveness, violence, and justice. A Non-Violent view of the atonement has great ramifications on nearly every area of theology.

Listen to this book so that your life and theology will look more like Jesus Christ.

This book also includes studies on how to understand the wrath of God in Scripture and the meaning of Hebrews 9:22.