What is the meaning of Christus Victor?

Response

The term Christus Victor, which is Latin for “Christ is the conqueror,” originated from a book by Gustaf Aulén in 1931. The book presents a theory regarding Christ’s work of atonement.

Aulén argued that the Christus Victor model of atonement was supported by the early church fathers and is therefore more accurate than Anselm’s satisfaction (or commercial) theory, developed in the eleventh century, and the Reformers’ penal substitution theory, which was a variation of Anselm’s perspective. Christus Victor emphasizes that “the primary purpose of Christ’s work is to triumph over the forces that keep humanity in bondage: sin, death, and the devil.” In contrast, the satisfaction model suggests that Christ had to die to restore God’s honor, which had been offended by human sin; the penal substitution model states that Christ was punished for the sake of justice—God’s just punishment of sin was fulfilled by Christ to prevent humanity from facing the punishment.

Issues with the Satisfaction and Substitution Theories

Supporters of the Christus Victor model of atonement often criticize the penal substitution model for being “violent” and portraying God in a negative light. The concept of God as a Judge who was willing to sacrifice His own Son to atone for humanity’s sins is objectionable to opponents of the substitutionary theory. Those like Aulén object to the notion that God is so concerned about upholding His justice that He would opt to punish Jesus. Aulén also argued that the satisfaction and substitution models create a conflict between God and Jesus, whereas Christus Victor aligns them on the same side, battling evil together.

Challenges with Christus Victor

Christus Victor has two main drawbacks. Firstly, it is primarily based on Aulén’s rejection of the concept of atonement as a legal transaction rather than on scriptural arguments. The BThe Bible clearly presents the suffering of Christ as a propitiation, or satisfaction “and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”, (1 John 2:2). The question then is, what was satisfied? Anselm said Christ’s death satisfied God’s honor. The Reformers said Christ’s death satisfied God’s wrath and His demand for justice. As for it being God’s desire that Christ die, the prophet says, “It was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, / and . . . the LORD makes his life an offering for sin” “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.”, (Isaiah 53:10).

Second, because Christus Victor asserts that Christ’s sacrifice was not offered to satisfy God’s justice, then the Law—instead of being upheld as righteous—is placed under the heading of “evil things defeated by Christ’s sacrifice.” If God and Jesus are fighting alongside one another against the powers of darkness, they would be fighting Satan, man’s sin, and, ironically, the Law that made sin a problem in the first place.

God is fully aware that the Law puts us into a bind, legally speaking. Paul, who was himself an expert in the Law, explains that the Law exists to show us that we are sinful (Romans 7:1-12;3:20). He calls the Law holy, righteous, and good “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.”, (Romans 7:12). God upholds justice because He is perfect “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that belie

Is it true that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:5). He also understands that we cannot achieve perfection and that we will transgress justice, as it is inherent in our nature to do so (Romans 3:9-20). However, if we confess our sins and rely on God’s mercy, instead of trying to satisfy Him based on a Law we will inevitably break, we will be pardoned and covered by Christ’s blood, shed on our behalf (1 John 1:7;John 3:17-18).

Christus Victor views the penal substitution theory of the atonement as harsh and distasteful. Nevertheless, the concept of propitiation is scriptural, and the Bible does affirm that Christ bore our punishment. He became a curse for us “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree'” (Galatians 3:13), and He was made sin on our behalf “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).