There are different aspects of the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Think of the Atonement as a multi-faceted diamond; depending on which facet we look through, we can see the diamond from different perspectives. From our finite perspective, I do not think we can ever fully comprehend what transpired on the cross. However, there are some different aspects of the atonement that have been suggested through the history of the church:

• Moral Influence
• Ransom
• Satisfaction (Anselm)
• Penal Substitutionary (the Reformation view)
• Christus Victor

I want to focus on the Christus Victor aspect of the Atonement. Christus Victor is the theological undertanding in Christianity that Christ’s death and resurrection represents his victory over sin, death, and evil. In 1930, the Swedish theologian Gustav Aulen penned Christus Victor wherein he offered what he terms “the classic view of the Atonement”—defined as “a strong delineation of the view of the Atonement which is summed up in such phrases as ‘Christus Victor,’ and ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.’ This is the view that sets the Incarnation in direct connection with the Atonement, and proclaims that it is God Himself who in Christ has delivered mankind from the power of evil. The church father Irenaeus wrote that Christ came because God was resolved to “destroy death.”

Both Christus Victor and the Vicarious Substitutionary Atonement are correct understandings of the Atonement from differing perspectives where Christ’s death and resurrection is the final, decisive battle against evil, resulting in deliverance from evil for those who willingly follow him. Ambrose argues that Christ died “to deliver us from this evil world.” The death and resurrection of Christ represent both Vicarious Substitution and Christus Victor. Aulen echoes the “already but not yet” theology of inaugurated eschatology. The kingdom is inaugurated but awaits consummation at the eschaton with the return of Christ. Evil is defeated with the back of sin broken, but final judgment and vindication await the end of the age.

What about Scriptural support for the doctrine of Christus Victor? Col 2:15 speaks of the triumph of Christ over evil at the cross—”He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”

John Stott bemoans the “neglected truth” of Christus Victor as articulated by Aulen, writing in his book “The Cross Of Christ”, “Gustav Aulén was right to draw the church’s attention to the cross as victory, and to show that by his death Jesus saved us not only from sin and guilt but from death and the devil, in fact all evil powers as well. His thesis was relevant too in a century torn apart by two world wars and in a European culture aware of demonic forces. He was also correct in pointing out that “the note of triumph,” which “sounds like a trumpet-call through the teaching of the early church,” was largely absent from the cool logic of Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo. Luther, on the other hand, struck this note again.”

We ignore the perspective of Christus Victor to our deteriment.