Theology Thursday
Welcome to ‘Theology Thursdays’ on the Church Society blog. Here we will serve up some of the best articles from the Church Society archives because we think theology matters:
• To educate ourselves about the contemporary challenges to biblical faith;
• To equip us to proclaim God’s word faithfully and relevantly;
• To enrich our relationship with our Triune God.
We realise time is scarce, so we will limit ourselves to one article each fortnight. We aim to introduce the article and highlight its relevance to busy gospel workers. Our first article is by Mike Ovey, Principal of Oak Hill College.
Ten years ago, a doctrine that evangelicals have long held as central to the gospel, ‘penal substitutionary atonement,’ was publicly criticised as basically ‘cosmic child abuse.’ This was not a new argument, and those involved in the debates were quick to draw on sources such as Gustaf Aulén’s Christus Victor.
Aulén’s argument was summarised as ‘You don’t need to worry about God’s justice and God’s wrath; the cross is all about Jesus’ victory over evil.’ But is that really what Aulén said and meant? And was he right?
One response would be to write off Aulén as obviously wrong and leave it at that. But as Mike Ovey argues in the article for this week, a restored focus on Jesus’ victory is ‘very welcome, not least because it supports the assurance and security of salvation, and encourages Christians in present difficulties.’
So can evangelicals uncritically adopt Aulén’s view as one of many ‘models of atonement’? Again, Ovey warns us that ‘an exclusion of justice values for the sake of excluding penal substitution will alter the character of Christ’s victory, and change our worship from veneration of a just and loving God to adoration of amoral force.’
This is a model article in many ways. Ovey demonstrates how to learn from non-evangelicals without losing our evangelical theology. And this article takes us to the heart of the gospel: a Saviour, the Incarnate Son of God, who chose to go to the cross out of love, so that there he might win the victory over evil not by brute force, but by satisfying the justice of God.
In preparation for preaching over Easter, read this article with a question in mind: How do we best preach Christ’s victory over evil on the cross?