It was my very first missions trip. I landed in a Muslim majority country armed with one year of Bible School and a rudimentary knowledge of Islam. Eagerly, I learned the Arabic word for justice. I wanted to contextualize Christianity and the doctrine of the Atonement for my audience.
Surely, I thought, this is what has been missing in Gospel presentations to followers of Islam. This is the key!
We met a man who spoke English and I knew my moment had come to use my newfound wisdom.
I talked to him about the character of God and his justice. I proposed that God would not be “just” if he did not punish our sin. Only in Jesus did God’s justice make sense. Jesus came and satisfied God’s justice.
“If God is a good judge, A good judge has to punish sin,” I said, “he cannot just forgive you without justice being satisfied.”
I was growing so confident until my new friend looked at me in confusion.
He said, “But that’s not justice either. That isn’t justice. That doesn’t make God a good judge.”
Ego crushed.
What happened?
The Problem: Our “Hooks” Don’t Work
I made the mistake in thinking substituting Arabic words for English words I could reach a person’s heart. I mistook language substitution for an understanding of his worldview. Consequently, he really didn’t hear my Gospel presentation. It wasn’t contextual to his culture and worldview.
Many Global Workers live and work amongst people who have a different worldview. We find that the “hooks” of the gospel and the gospel frameworks we used in our passport country doesn’t really seem to work.
It all goes back to the questions of contextualization. Contextualization is the process that the local church does to filter out cultural baggage of theology and reintroduce that theology back into the host culture in ways that can be easily understood. This process is done with an eye to Scripture and to the Global Church. The goal of this process is to have an understanding of God that is both biblical and understandable without compromising truth.
Contextualization is the process that the local church does to filter out cultural baggage of theology and reintroduce that theology back into the host culture in ways that can be easily understood.
In this article, I want to ask a question in order to facilitate a conversation.
How do we contextualize the Atonement?
How can we talk about the cross and what happened 2,000 years ago? And do so in a way that answers the longing questions of the people we serve? What does the Good News mean for the pre-Christian people in our host cultures?
What are Fear Cultures?
First, let’s start off by defining terms.
What is a “Fear Culture”?
In his book, The 3D Gospel, Jayson Georges lays out three common worldviews; guilt, shame, and fear. These worldviews are not exclusive. In other words, one ethnic group can have a combination of two or three of these worldviews.
These three worldviews seek, respectively: justice, honor, and power to alleviate their concerns. These ideas build the framework of their worldview.
Guilt cultures are those cultures that have an inherent knowledge that they are guilty so they gravitate towards justice. They have sophisticated law courts and generally cling to their “rights”.
Shame cultures value group harmony and so they seek honor. They define morality as something that is not good for the community. A person only experiences inner “guilt” for a wrong if it becomes known and brings shame (think David and Bathsheba). Brad Vaughn has written quite a lot about contextualizing the Atonement in these types of environments that emphasize shame/honor.
Finally, fear cultures see the physical and spiritual world intimately connected. Demons and various spirits are very real and have very real power. They live in fear and so they seek power to combat the powers around them. This protective power is found in power-objects (amulets, talismans, etc.), power-places (a shrine, a holy place, a place of religious pilgrimage), and power-people (witch-doctors or medicine men).
In fear/power cultures, people take extraordinary measures to avoid any trouble with the sprits. They will honk their car horn at the bridge to request permission from the spirits. Some might go to the witch-doctor to take care of their infertility. Every life stage and event is dealt with from a posture of fear in order to appease the spirits (i.e. marriage, pregnancy, new home, circumcision, etc.). This is the type of worldview that I would like to engage here.
But before we can engage culture, we must first engage scripture.
What is your model of Atonement?
Now, what happened at the cross?
Every generation of Christians has had to put to words what is, in some ways, indescribable.
Before that fateful Friday things were one way and now, somehow, they are different. The Church has not always agreed on how that change has taken place.
Many Christians have developed different models of atonement throughout the centuries. These models have different emphasis which largely reflect their cultural context.
Penal-Substitutionary Atonement
Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA) is the main model of atonement for Evangelicals and Pentecostals today in the West. We see it in Anselm of Canterbury in the 11th century, Augustine of Hippo, John Calvin, and Billy Graham.
The PSA Model Defined
You are probably familiar with this model of atonement:
- You were born a sinner and thus unable to save yourself. God is righteous and humanity is not. Humanity’s sin is deserving of God’s punishment and wrath.
- Jesus came and died for your sins. He took your punishment (penal) for you (substitutionary). Your sin is placed on Christ. As a famous song says, “The wrath of God was satisfied.” Justice was done in Christ.
- Through faith in Christ, the righteousness of Christ is placed on you and you become justified before God.
Most evangelicals can affirm most, if not all, of these statements.
This model rings very true for a person from a guilt worldview. After all, this model was largely developed in the Western church. It finds its resonance forcefully from people in a guilt/justice culture.
This isn’t to say that this model is not true. I am saying that the emphasis of the model and the cultural frameworks it assumes finds a great hearing in a guilt/justice cultures.
Fear/Power and Shame/Honor Cultures and PSA
Many shame/honor or fear/power cultures do not readily hear this model. Especially if it is paired with a religion that denies the sinful state (guiltiness) of all humanity.
The greatest “weakness” of this model is that, while rightly emphasizing Jesus’s death and resurrection, it completely skips over the life of Jesus and the Kingdom of God images that overlays the Gospels. The Penal-Substitutionary Atonement model emphasizes the writings of Paul, but we really don’t see this model as emphasized in the Gospels. Many staunch PSA advocates hold their model of atonement to be the “Gospel” itself. However, we don’t read Jesus laying out a penal-substitutionary lens for the Gospel he is proclaiming (with the exception of maybe his discourse at the Last Supper and a few verses such as Matthew 20:28).
Can we say that Jesus’s Gospel was “Justification by Faith”? Or was it “the Kingdom of God”?
Is the atonement only about the penal-substitutionary work of Christ? Or, is there more to the story?
While penal-substitutionary atonement is a great part of the story, it is not the complete story.
Christus Victor
Another model of the atonement is Christus Victor (latin: Victorious Christ). This was the main view of the atonement amongst the Apostolic Fathers (Justin, Irenaeus, Polycarp). This theory is also very popular in the writings of Luther.
The Christus Victor Model Defined
Christus Victor says that humanity was bound by the powers. Satan had the world in his grasp. Christ came and drew out the powers while giving humanity windows to the coming Kingdom through his teaching and miracles. The exorcisms and the temptation narrative in the Gospels shows how Satan mobilized against Christ and his coming Kingdom. The Crucifixion was the powers last resort to defeat Christ but it was through this moment of sacrifice that Satan secured his defeat and Christ became King. Christ was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven as the Victorious Christ. He defeated Satan. Now we can have forgiveness of our sins and be a part of his Victorious Kingdom.
The model gained resurgence in the early 20th century with Gustaf Aulen’s work Christus Victor. However, unlike Luther and N.T Wright, Allen sat the models of Christus Victor and Penal Substitutionary Atonement against each other, rather than seeing them working together.
Christus Victor, unlike the Penal-Substitutionary model, does not really put forward a model of “how” the atonement “works”, rather it puts forward the result of the atonement. It is descriptive rather than prescriptive. A motif.
Some Christus Victor proponents (many of the early church fathers and, most notably, C.S. Lewis in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) held to a Ransom Theory of Atonement which saw the death of Christ as paying a debt to Satan and ransoming humanity. The crucifixion was seen as a cosmic deception played on the devil who unwittingly brought about his own demise by killing Christ. Not all proponents of Christus Victor hold to this view.
Fear/Power Cultures and the Christus Victor Model
This theory might not “speak” as well to those of you from guilt/justice cultures as well as Penal-Substitutionary does, however those from fear cultures are enraptured. It is interesting that this view was so common in the early days of the Church. The culture of Jesus and Paul was very much aware of demons, spirits, and cosmic battles. Polycarp and Justin ministered in places where the Roman pantheon and Caesar himself was worshiped. We read that the praxis of the early Christians was exorcisms, healings, and temple smashing as they continued the work of the Victorious Christ.
In areas of the world that are animistic, the idea of a Victorious Christ and a Victorious Church is very appealing. Pentecostal/Charismatic theology is very much attune to the power of Christ still working in and through the Church. This, I believe, is one of the reasons that Pentecostal/Charismatic theology has taken hold in majority world countries the way it has. In my own context, much of the songs sung in worship speaks of the Victory that God’s people have in Christ.
Christus Victor takes seriously the Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus. However, it really doesn’t discuss “how” the powers are defeated and the penal-substitutionary elements that run through the entire Bible.
A “Mosaic” of Atonement
In Josh McNall’s book, The Mosaic of Atonement: An Integrated Approach to Christ’s Work, McNall lays out a thesis that the different models of atonement (i.e Recapitulation, Penal-Substitution, Christus Victor, and Moral Influence) should be seen as a mosaic of different pieces that comes together to make a beautiful picture of what Christ has done on the cross. McNall would say that Christus Victor and Penal-Substitution are not disagreeing with each other, they are only emphasizing different aspects.
A problem arises when we replace the Gospel with our favorite model of atonement. The Gospel is bigger than the emphasis found in PSA or Christus Victor. It is when we take all of these aspects together that we gain a clearer picture.
The Models Converging
The picture being, which I am proposing, that Christ was victorious on the cross because his death was taken as the punishment for sin, in the place of fallen humanity, and is capable to redeem humanity. Christ has defeated sin AND he has defeated the powers through the work of the cross. The Victorious Christ still stands to liberate those enslaved by the powers today.
This type of picture has already been proposed by many theologians namely N.T. Wright and Scott McKnight.
Salvation is no less than penal-substation, but it is also greater than this one model of atonement.
Salvation is no less than penal-substation, but it is also greater than this one model of atonement.
When we read the Old Testament we see the story of Israel is one of divine election. Israel gives over their authority to the powers by their idolatry and sin. These powers (seen and unseen) would lead to their captivity and exile. We still experience the same result when we give our God-given authority as image bearers to the powers through our sin and idolatry. We become exiles.
The story of the Gospel is one of divine victory over those “powers”. The life of Jesus demonstrates this Victory. Jesus becomes King, forgives sin, defeats the powers, and ends the Exile. His Kingdom work now does not stop with his ascension, it continues on with his church. His death has inaugurated a new reality. Now, it is the job of the Church to invite pre-Christian peoples to come and join.
You can read more about Kingship in the Gospels here.
Victory Atonement in Animistic Cultures
People from animistic cultures might not resonate with, “You are a sinner and Jesus can forgive your sins,” but all of them can absolutely resonate when we say, “Jesus is greater than the spirits and you don’t have to live in fear.” Could it be that the emphasis we find in the Christus Victor model would be better heard in animistic cultures?
Three Levels of Religious Systems
Paul Hiebert, in his article “The Excluded Middle” lays out a paradigm that may be helpful for this conversation. Hiebert talks about three levels of “religious” systems.
The highest level is what consists of a cosmic theology. These are usually questions that the major religions seek to answer. Usually the system consists of higher beings or cosmic forces (ex. karma, kismet). Generally speaking, Western Global Workers have done a good job of trying to answer these questions.
The bottom layer is how humans develop theories and systems to explain the things that they see (ex. modern medicine or folk science). These systems are based on what you can see and observe.
The Excluded Middle
Hiebert calls the middle layer “the excluded Middle”. The excluded middle is made up of those systems that contain “beings that cannot directly be perceived, but are thought to exist on this earth.” These are earthly gods, angels, demons, fairies, jinn, and a host of other names and descriptors. Hiebert describes it as excluded because this is the level where Western Global Workers tend to not have any answers.
Western Global Workers come from a dualistic worldview that has no room for something as “archaic” as a spirit world. Generally, seminaries and other training institutions do not equip Global Workers with the theology and worldview to address these questions. The response of many in the West has been just to explain away the middle level and to rationalize its non-existence. This just ignores the real needs of those Christ has called us to serve.
The response of many in the West has been just to explain away the middle level and to rationalize its non-existence. This just ignores the real needs of those Christ has called us to serve.
The middle is as real to many cultures as science is to Western culture.
…”My wife is cursed. What do I do? Their daughter appears to have a demon, what should they do? My village wants our family to participate in this ritual ceremony, should we? A spirit is causing this disease, what should I do? Is a jinn living in that tree and do I need to be afraid of it? “
These are all real questions that many people in our host cultures are asking.
Christus Victor and the Excluded Middle
Penal-Substitution answers the questions of ultimate (i.e. eternal) importance. However, Christus Victor, while answering the questions of ultimate importance, also helps answer the questions that the excluded middle are asking.
Jesus is greater than the Spirits!
He has defeated the powers. Our faith in Christ allows us to experience that Victory. The People of God are those freed walking amongst those in chains. Because of the penal-substitutionary work on the cross, Christ and his Church are victorious.
Though Christ is King, his Kingdom is still “coming”. The powers still lash out and mobilize against the citizens of the Kingdom. Yet, because of the Victorious Christ, we overcome!
We have the answer to demonic possession. The Victorious Christ.
We have the answer to spiritual attack through sickness or drought. Christus Victor.
Because of Christ, we do not live in fear.
For most of our host-cultures, their worldview and problems resemble the people of Paul’s and Peter’s days more than our passport culture does. Like Paul’s and Peter’s day, the power of Christ has to be demonstrated and experienced so that others will submit their life to our King.
Could it be that in our evangelism we are starting with the wrong question (sin and eternal destiny) when our host culture is really asking questions about their fear and suffering under the powers?
Could the power of Christ be a better starting point to lead them to the path where they fall on their knees and declare Jesus is Lord? Maybe instead of starting with God’s justice, we start with God’s power to make right what the powers of this world have corrupted.
Could the power of Christ be a better starting point to lead them to the path where they fall on their knees and declare Jesus is Lord? Maybe instead of starting with God’s justice, we start with God’s power to make right what the powers of this world have corrupted.
Conclusion
I have been reading and studying on this question for a few months and I think I have more questions than I do answers. The idea intrigues me and I plan to study more and write more follow up posts. I am really curious as to what more of my colleagues think.
Christus Victor is an interesting conversation partner when thinking about the atonement and how to contextualize it for our host-cultures. As I have been reading more, I am finding that Christus Victor is more than just a model of Atonement, rather it is a worldview that challenges our theology, ecclesiology, and missiology. What happens at the Calvary connects to all of our theology and praxis.
I look forward to engaging this more and hopefully learning more concrete ways it can help us as we live for one more in our respected contexts.
I'm just a new Global Worker striving to live for One More in Asia! I am trying to be a better disciple, learner, reader, researcher, and writer.
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