We’ve been looking at different models of the atonement over the last couple weeks. This week we finish our discussion by turning our attention to one of the most prominent ways the New Testament describes Christ’s work in reconciling the world to himself: Christus Victor.

The lens of Christus Victor—Latin for Christ the victorious king—emphasizes Christ’s work in overcoming the Powers of Sin, Death, and Satan. Typically penal substitutionary models of the atonement only consider two actors in the drama of salvation: God and humanity. Christus Victor shows that there are actually three actors: God, humanity, and the Powers of Sin and Death that have the world enslaved.

Christ enters the hostile territory that Sin and Death have overtaken in order to rescue all creation from its grasp.

Here is the icon of the resurrection we ended with in class:

In this depiction, the resurrected Christ is emerging from the tomb and has ahold of Adam and Eve, bringing them up out of their graves. Notice the way Christ has ahold of them. Christ, the conquering King who conquers by being conquered, has by his death and resurrection defeated the Powers of Death and brought enslaved humanity up with him.

* Fleming Rutledge treats the theme of Christus Victor very thoroughly in her book The Crucifixion.

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