Great Doctrines of the Bible—God the Father, God the Son/ Martyn Lloyd Jones

28. The Atonement 

The death of Jesus Christ was not an accident. Jesus came into the world in order to die. He told us that thing was planned in eternity (1 Peter 1:20) (Acts 2:23). He knew he was going to die, and He knew the exact time. 

There are some false theories pertaining to the death of our Lord: 

1. Ransom theory: Jesus was “paying a ransom price to the devil in order that He might liberate those who were held captive” (313). 

2. Anselm’s theory, the satisfaction or commercial theory: “when man sinned, the honour . . . of God had been wounded . . . So the teaching was that our Lord had come to pay tribute to the honour of God” (313).

3. The moral influence theory: “God forgives even without the cross, but the cross of the proof of God’s love” (314). 

4. The death of Christ is just an example: “we still have save ourselves and we save ourselves by imitating His examples” (314).

5. The governmental theory: “He chose to do it in this way because, in order to preserve moral life in this world . . . in order that mankind might realise that sin is serious and forbidden” (315). 

6. The mystical theory: “the human nature that Christ had was sinful, but He kept it without sin by the power of the Spirit. Not only that, but by dying upon the cross He purged sin out of it” (315). 

7. The vicarious repentance: “our Lord was really doing on the cross was offering repentance on behalf of mankind. Man has no true conception of sin and therefore he cannot repent truly” (316). But without “having our sensation and feeling and experience of being in sin, our Lord could not repent on our behalf” (316).