Episode 142 - Christus Victor And The Tyrants

The cross can look like many things depending on where you stand, and we’re trying to learn how to read its direction without shrinking the Bible’s own images.

We take up Gustav Aulén’s Christus Victor vision of atonement, where Christ is the divine warrior who steps into hostile territory and breaks the grip of the cosmic enemies that enslave humanity. That shift changes the emotional centre of the gospel: not a distant legal settlement, but a liberation that happens from the inside of the prison.

We start with a blunt question: what is sin? Aulén argues that sin is a tyrant that rules through a network of powers, including death and even “the law” in a Lutheran sense.

We slow down to clarify what “law” might mean across traditions, why condemnation matters, and how Jesus can be said to exhaust the law’s power by bearing its curse while remaining innocent. Along the way we touch on the devil’s influence through fear of death, and why the resurrection functions as the victory announcement that the worst weapons did not work.

Then we press the model: is “sin as a cosmic force” the Bible’s main account, or just one important metaphor among many?

We explore hamartia as missing the mark and falling short of the glory of God, plus other scriptural categories like lawlessness, impiety and transgression, so our theology of sin stays as wide as Scripture.

If you care about atonement theology, Christian salvation, the meaning of the cross and resurrection, and what reconciliation really entails, you’ll find plenty to wrestle with here.

Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave us a review, then tell us: which picture of sin best explains the human problem?

The theme music is "Wager with Angels" by Nathan Moore

Transcript

Atonement Series And The Cross

Rev Dr PRB 0:30

Well, welcome to the Christ Center Cosmic Civilization as we continue to dive into the subject of atonement, and we're at this point where we are trying to grasp the different directions in which the cross may point. We and we're currently exploring Gustav Allen's work about Christ as the divine warrior who goes out to defeat the cosmic tyrants and enemies. And we want to begin by looking at sin. Sin, so in seeing the cross is primarily about the divine warrior actively fighting for us, and this is in contrast to the idea of Christ as passively suffering punishment for us. But if one of the things he's doing, which he is clearly defeating enemies at the cross, but we want we need to understand how that is, how that is accomplished, these cosmic enemies of sin, death, and the devil, and possibly the law also in that Lutheran sense. So let's begin with the idea of sin. What is sin? And if it is like a cosmic tyrant, and I mean, does the Bible portray sin primarily as a tyrant, as an as a kind of cosmic entity that enslaves us? Is that the predominant or the governing concept of what sin is? Like an external force outside of us that rules us and we from who from whose tyranny we must be freed. And then if that is how the Bible portrays sin, then how does the death of Jesus defeat this cosmic tyrant? So let's just listen or try to summarize anyway what how Gustav Aulan sees this sin as a cosmic tyrant, because he says in the since Anselm and certainly since the Reformation, he what he argues that sin is seen as a legal debt that must be paid. And the and with the in the concept of punishment. But he argues that in contrast to that, the what he calls the classic view, which he locates as the first 1,000 years of church history, and that that we're gonna examine that claim in a later episode to see is that is that actually a legitimate claim that there is that the people the Christians in the first thousand years of church history took the view, took this Christus Victor view. And we will examine that. For now, we'll say he argues that the classic view sees sin as a slave master, this tyrant. And because humans are under this dominion or tyranny of sin, therefore they are also subject to death and the law. So that there's the overall tyranny of sin, and then because of that overall tyranny of sin, we're also there are there are other like um tyrants underneath this mega tyrant, and death is one of those, and the law is perceived as one of those, and so sin cannot be defeated by simply forgiving it from a distance, because sin is dominion that needs to be broken, it's not merely a legal relationship that can be fixed in an abstract legal sense, that that sin is like a power structure holding humanity, and it must be broken from the inside. There must be this bursting of the of the prison, the prison cell of sin. And this is of course clearly an aspect of biblical teaching, and of course, there are lots of hymns in which that imagery comes out. The idea of our chains fell off, our heart was free, and all of that. In Gustav Allen he has this Lutheran system of theology. The law, he says, is the sting of sin. And the idea there, he says, is that the law condemns the sinner, and as long as the law has the power to condemn, sin has the power to rule. So law is the power of sin. How is it that sin is able to exercise this tyranny of condemnation and control over us? And he argues that the law, God's law gives it the power to do that, because the law condemns the sinner and therefore places it under the power, places the sinner under the power of sin. Now, just by way of a quick footnote to that, many of us who are not so obviously from the Lutheran tradition will be confused by this in a way, because the law for us will mean the law given through Moses at Mount Sinai, and it doesn't apply to humanity as a whole. It's a system of discipleship given to the church that lasted from the time of Moses until, let's say, the ascension of Jesus, or you know, or you might say the cross itself until the cross or whatever. But that sort of type, so it's a temporary arrangement that pertained to the ancient church for that period of time, and it didn't describe the nature of church life before Moses or after the cross or ascension, and and so law is a is kind of a very specific thing that's referring to the law of Moses to many of us, but within that Lutheran tradition, the concept of law is bigger than that, it's something that kind of means God's moral character in general, and that there is in general a kind of God's law imposed upon humanity in general, and uh in the Reformed tradition, there's a way of kind of extrapolating the concept of a of a kind of covenant of works in Eden, even though it's not explicitly mentioned that such a thing, covenant of works in the Bible. The idea is that it's a legitimate extrapolation or or speculation or that kind of idea, that there's a kind of demand, a legal demand placed upon humanity, like if you fulfill these legal demands, you receive the payment of life kind of thing, and and then that becomes part of this bigger cut category of law. And as far as I can, I think Gustav Allen's operating with something like that, that there's a kind of con there's like almost a universal concept of divine law that operates outside of the specific law of Moses, and you know that the when the word law, the law is used, though to many of us it kind of specifically means the law of Moses, there are those who would say no, it's a wider category of a like a general moral law that is universal. Okay, so we'll just accept that framework for now, because then it's this idea then of this a general divine legal requirement against humanity, and because of a failure to do to live up to that law, covenant of works, however it's described, therefore sin has this kind of legal or a structural authority and a power. And so Gustav Aulan argues that in his death, Christ, who is God in the flesh, submits to the law's condemnation, even though he is innocent, so the law's condemnation falls upon him. And in doing this, it's not that he is thereby satisfying something within God. This is dealing with the law. So here, the law is though it has divine authority, it is separate from God. And what Christ is doing on the cross is dealing with the law as a con as as a as a cosmic force, and by accepting this condemnation from the law, he exhausts the law's power. It kind of in its it's you remember when we thought about death, he he he gives himself to death, but because he is the author of life and he is the immortal god, as death tries to swallow him, it chokes on him and has to spew him back up. It can't, death cannot hold him because of who he is. And in that similar way, it's kind of as if the law tries to bring this condemnation and curse against him, but he can burr it and absorb it such that like it's as if all the power of the law's got to condemn is just expended and it has nothing left. And so the law can no longer rightfully condemn those who are in Christ, because within Christ, in this new structure, power structure of life within Christ, the law can't can't access those who are in Christ. Sin, therefore, the idea of sin as a cosmic tyrant has lost its primary weapon of execution. It like sin could order the law to keep humanity as prisoners. But now that the law has expended this power on Christ, it can no longer do that. And sin can no longer require humanity to be kept as prisoners of sin. That's the idea. So Gustav Allen describes the atonement then in this way as Christ kind of invading the territory of sin. Again, this idea of the divine warrior who goes out to conquer, and he invades the territory of sin, and it's this dominion of sin that must be invaded and overcome and defeated. And so sin and death and the devil exert their maximum power against him at the cross. But because Christ is the has the infinite life of God, he is the author of life, he has immortality, and he is pure love, and he has this utter holiness and innocence about him. So sin, the law cannot exhaust its condemnation upon him, and sin cannot taint him or corrupt him or bring him under its foul guilt and shame. It can't do that, and death cannot keep hold of him. So sin, death, the devil. The devil perhaps we'll look at the devil more in more detail separately, but in princip it well, it just in principle that the are the idea is that the devil has this power over death in that he has the power of the fear of death. That's the devil's power, the fear of death. And Jesus destroys the fear of death, partly because he faces it and shows that you know and defeats it so that those are in him do not have already, he's already beaten death on their behalf, so they do not any longer need to fear it, that death has no hold upon them. We might come back to the power of the devil, though, as a separate topic and how the cross confronts the devil. So the idea then is sin kind of is allowed to do its worst against him, and then in the resurrection, because Jesus rises from the dead, it's this declaration or celebration that sin was not able to overcome him. It gave its best shot using its weapons of death, and and then and the and the devil is also kind of coming against him or whatever to in in trying to make him fear. But he endures that, defeats that, and then the resurrection is this this declaration, his victory celebration. See, sin did used all its weapons, all its power, but it did not beat him. And here he is risen from the dead, he has defeated sin and death. So, in a way, that Christ has broken this dominion or the cycle or circle of power that exists between sin, death, the devil, the law, all of those. So the defeat of sin, this breaking of the dominion of sin, he says, Aulan says, is that is the reconciliation of the world. So what you know, in in these other uh approaches that he rejects where God is the object of the cross, the cross faces God to accomplish something for God or within God, he rejects that and says that what God is active in the cross, reconciling the world to himself, fair enough. But the what he does is he removes it's like sin is this obstacle that stands between like holding humanity in tyranny and keeping humanity away from God. Once sin is defeated and the dominion of sin is broken, and humanity can walk out of this prison of sin and death, then there is no hindrance between God and humanity. God has no problem with us at all. He simply needs to break us out of the prison of sin, really. So sin is defeated, says Owland. Not because a penalty was paid or a debt was finished or paid off or something, but because a liberator, the divine liberator, the divine warrior, the divine champion, broke the chains of the tyrant. Okay, so that that's the account of this. But what is sin? Is sin primarily in the Bible described in those terms? There is an element of that, and we're gonna see that. There is an element of sin as slay uh as an enslaving tyrant, but is that is that the typical way it's described, or is that actually quite marginal? And I think it is quite marginal, actually. It's an important image, and we'll we'll look at the that in the Bible. But it it it I I I'm I'm not at all convinced that that is a adequate account of what sin is in the Bible, as an external tyrant, a cosmic power in that way. It's far too small a view of sin to me. But and and the well, not to me, it's because I just can't see this in all the passages. It's not like it just, oh, I personally am not persuaded by it. I why not? You know, it's more that when I I I just keep reading all the Bible passages that address what this problem of sin, iniquity, transgression, uncleanness, all these concepts, and they do not appear to be exhausted by this concept of sin as a tyrant. So let's just think about some of them. I'll go through some of the Greek words, but nearly all of these have Hebrew equivalents and so on. But I don't want us to just become like tracking all these words. Uh, you can do that if you wish. I've I've certainly done that. I have a huge spreadsheet with them all on. But let's just think about that common word for sin, hemartia. And that's the one that often when people if if you are gonna focus in theology on the study of sin, it's actually called hemartology. So this is the word that is kind of almost the default word that is enshrined in theological studies for what sin is. And the here the concept is missing the mark, so that there's a standard been set, a target that must be hit. Or I think the standard is the idea. There's a standard that is required, and we fail to reach the standard, failing to live up to what is required. That is sin. So in in this idea of sin, sin is not an external tyrant, it's a an assessment of us. We do not live up to the standards of God, and we might say it the standard is holiness or the glory of God. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That's an idea. This and this idea of falling short is very important because in in the modern world we we often deploy this concept of sin. It's used all the time in kind of personal productivity. We fail to be what we should be, we're not living up to all we could be. People people often will say, I've set my goals, but I haven't lived up to them. And it's not so much we it's not our goals that need to be set. It's what how has God designed us? What did what is what is the does design specification for us? What did He do what did He create us to be and to live like? And it turns out it's the glory of God. We were designed to participate in the divine nature, to share the divine glory, to be married to the living God, to be nothing less than that, to be the to be kings and queens of all creation with Christ and joined into the It's all of that that would that that's the standard. Because sometimes people reduce it to a few kind of moral things like don't lie, don't steal, don't kill, you know, be good. And you're like, oh, shut up. What utter rubbish, as if that's the divine standard. That's the standard of Stoics or just moralists or legalists. Any, I mean, almost any fool can live up to those standards. No, that's not the standard. The standard's the glory of God. The life of God. That's what we're designed to live like. And sin is failing to live that way. Failing to live in the glory of God. Failing to participate in the divine nature as we were designed to do. So that's like I find that the kind of central, powerful concept of what sin is. And it's about who we are, who we are supposed to be. And sin is failing to be that. And do all that's all that that involves. There's other concepts. There's another one that's like to do with trespass or deviation. And again, that's this idea of drifting away from what we're supposed that supposed to do. Deviating from our purpose. There's another concept that's kind of lawlessness, lawlessness, anomia, being without law, living as if there are there is no authority over us, as if we're kind of bandits or rebels. Uh that we do what we want and we don't care what how we're supposed to live. So if if Hamatia's failing to live up to the glory of God, Anomia is almost saying there I don't care, there is nothing to live up to. There is nothing. Life is utterly meaningless. There is no logos in creation. It's all meaningless, and I'll I do I decide, I'll do whatever I want to do as if there is no standard at all to live up to. Then there's this other concept that's the idea, I suppose we might say impiety, although that's a kind of old word, and we might say it's kind of a lack of reverence or respect for God, godlessness. And here sin is not so much now under this kind of aspect of what sin is, it's looking at it very specifically in relation to right worship, doxology. We are created to worship the living God, and when we do not do that, when you know fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding, it's the key to life. Whoever finds that wisdom of fearing the Lord has found life and the favor of the Lord and everything. But sin is impiety, it's a lack of reverence for God, no fear of God, no respect for God, it's a kind of hostility to God, but certainly at least an ignoring of God, a living as if you don't care about God. There's another concept of sin where it's very specifically breaking the law. Breaking the law. So the idea is God has issued commands to us, we break them, we do what he has told us not to do. So Adam and Eve is a very clear example of God said, Don't eat from that tree, do not take to yourself the knowledge of good and evil. And then they broke that command. And that is a very parabasis, like another very clear idea of sin. Sin as breaking a command. And you know, Paul examines the way that God gave that command, and then he goes, it's not until Moses that he issues more commands, and then he does issue more commands, and they are broken. So it's like the law, and this is now we're toying with the idea of the law, trying to understand the law better, that there was this kind of single law given to Adam and Eve, and then that was broken, and then on the basis of that, there's a kind of condemnation. But then when the law comes, there's loads more commands issued, and so loads more opportunities for for sin as breaking the law. We can with with over 600 commands, we can break far more laws now. There's like a huge palette of options for breaking the law if God has commanded more things. So that's this idea of sin as breaking the law, breaking the commands of God. And then there's another concept that's uh unrighteous actions, doing what's just not right. It's not just injustice, behaving in an unjust way. But I want to focus with our remaining few minutes on three concepts of sin that have a big power. Let's first of all deal with the idea of sin as slavery. Well, I want to look at sin as debt, sin as a wage or uh that involves enslavement, and then sin as uncleanness, what defiles. Actually, we'll do that in our next episode because the i I don't want to rush that. There's a lot to be said in the in these three concepts.