[Music] [Music] hello its Alister McGrath again talking to you about my textbook Christian theology and introduction so I now come to the second of two chapters dealing with the Christian understanding of the significance of Jesus Christ chapter 10 which we considered in the previous presentation concerns the identity of Christ Christology chapter 11 deals with the work of Christ focusing on two main questions first how is salvation linked to the death and resurrection of Christ and second what is salvation anyway so we begin but they are with a reflection on the relationship between the identity and the function of Jesus Christ and traditional Christian theologies we saw on the previous presentation holds that Christ is both human and divine and the words the idea of the two nature's of Christ and there's a very important distinction here between functional and ontological Christology how is christ's function linked with his identity how his identity relate to his function in what way is the ability of Jesus Christ to reveal God and redeem humanity determined by his identity so that's an important point to think about now the phrase theories of the atonement again theories of the atonement is often used to refer to ways of understanding how Christ's death changes the human situation and these often interpret the divinity of Christ as the ground of his ability to bring about salvation and his humanity as the means by which he is able to bring God's saving power into contact with fallen human nature now we find this approach for example and atthenes has classic treatise of the fourth century entitled on the Incarnation a major section of this chapter deals with four main types of theories of the atonement the cross as a sacrifice the cross as a victory the cross as forgiveness and the cross is a demonstration of girls love and in each case we look at the foundations of these approaches and we followed this through the careful examination of how this idea was explored by Christian theologians down the centuries this is followed by a substantial section which deals with our salvation itself is understood as a transformation of the human situation and examples of the concept of salvation include being made divine being made or being pronounced to be righteous in the sight of God the achievement of authentic human existence and spiritual liberation so we look at a range of models of salvation noting their strengths and weaknesses before we move on to consider our salvation is appropriate by individual believers and by the community of faith so that's a very short overview of the chapter let's go into things in more detail the chapter looks at two questions first how salvation as possible and second how it is grounded in the history of Jesus Christ so it puts another way what is the basis of salvation according to Christianity and how is salvation to be understood one of the first points made in this chapter is that the language of salvation does not necessarily have any specifically Christian reference the word salvation can be used Nath's thoroughly secular manner for example Soviet writers during the 1920s would often speak of Lenin as the savior of the Russian people or again military crews in African states during the 1980s frequently resulted in the setting up of councils of salvation aimed at restoring political and economic stability so it's important to understand the quite distinct meaning of salvation in a Christian context we need to be clear we are talking about Christian understandings of society of salvation so the opening section of this chapter is entitled Chris approaches to salvation and it looks at a range of issues for example the way in which salvation is linked of Jesus Christ and the way in which salvation is shaped by Jesus Christ and also includes discussion of the eschatological aspect of salvation so let's look at that in a little more detail the Christian understanding of salvation has past present and future elements it's not simply a future hope and it's not simply a past achievement it is a past event which secures the foundation of salvation but it's also the present-day assurance that something transformative has happened and it's also something that remains to be achieved fully in the future so the Christian understanding of salvation is about something that has happened something that is now happening and something that has yet still to fully happen to believe us whenever involved look at Christian interpretations of the death of Christ on the cross and as I mentioned we often use the phrase theories of the atonement to refer to these and these theories are the center are really and feel like and centered on for controlling themes or images and these are not mutually exclusive and many theologians adopt approaches which weave together elements drawn from more than one of these categories the first group approaches build on elements of the Old Testaments cultic worship above all sacrifice sacrifice is about enabling people to enter into the presence of God in the same way the death of Christ is a means by which enables us to enter God's presence we find this approach particularly in the letter to the Hebrews in New Testament and Christian theologians who draw on this imagery often present Christ as both the sinless high priest and the perfect sacrificial offering a lying human impurities to be cleansed so that Christians can draw close to God so the key theme here is a Christ removes a barrier which prevents sinful humanity from approaching to God a second approach interprets to the death and resurrection of Christ as a victory over sin death and Satan liberating believers from their influence and presence an esteem is very often expressed nowadays using the Latin phrase Christus Victoire Christ the victor and the image of victory over the devil has been enormous ly popular to Korea during the Middle Ages the medieval idea of the herring of Hell is a very good example of this approach this way of thinking holds an after dying on the cross and Good Friday Christ descended to hell and broke down its gates in order that the imprisoned souls might go free and he might like to look at is 1500 and 9 would cut by the German artist Albrecht Durer which depicts Christ as the one who breaks down the gates of Hell and allows its prisoners to go free it had enormous popular appeal and was incorporated into the medieval Mystery Plays and interestingly you also find it in a narrative of CS Lewis's famous novel The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe a third group of theories the opponent of determined depict Christ's death as a satisfaction something which enabled a penalty or a satisfaction to be paid for sin and thus in effect made the forgiveness of human sin to be morally and legally possible and these theories began to gain influence during the early Middle Ages and some of Canterbury for example gave a very detailed theological basis of the Incarnation which place an M on the need for a human being to pay the price of sin while noting that only God is able to pay that price so the Incarnation brings God humanity together Christ is the one who a man as a human being has the the obligation to pay but as God incarnate has the ability to pay and thus set humanity free now these approaches were developed further during the 16th century by writers like John Calvin who felt it was very important to demonstrate that God had acted justly and righteously in forgiving sin it's clearly seen one of the verses in the very well-known Good Friday him there is a green hill far away so let me read this first to you there was no other good enough to pay the price of sin he only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in then we come to a fourth group of theories of determines which foreground the theme of love the Incarnation atonement are a demonstration of God's love for Humanity God's commitment to humanity now this theme is incorporating two most theories of atonement but it was given particular emphasis by a number of writers including the medieval theologian Peter Abelard and during the 18th century age of reason many rationalist writers actually in effect reduced Christ's saving work to the demonstration of God's love Christ's death on the cross was seen simple as a human act of self giving having no transcendent reference now these four different approaches I think are probably best seen as partial and potentially complimentary accounts all the significance of the death of Christ but this chapter also looks at other questions about the meaning of the cross of Christ what about the theme of violence the stat of theological significance we look at the views of Rene Girard very illuminating at this point but also a very important question how can the death of a single person achieve universal significance I mean look at this point with particular reference the question of how a male Savior can redeem women thus far the chapters focused on the grounds of salvation but what about the nature of salvation so a long section as chapter looks at Christian understandings of what salvation is all about and opens by looking at some images of salvation we find in Paul's letters in New Testament and throughout those letters Paul uses a rich range of images to illuminate and clarify what benefits the death and resurrection of Christ secured for believers and Paul clearly assumes that his readers are familiar with both lis cultic rights of Judaism and also some contemporary cultural practices within the Roman Empire such as for example the redemption of those who sold themselves into slavery and will thus be able to grasp what those analogies were meant to convey for example redemption means securing somebody's release through a payment and Paul's basic idea in using this analogy is that the death of Christ secures the freedom of believers from slavery to the law or to death and become servants of God instead now after this move on to consider six important ways of thinking about salvation each of which is explored in dialog of leading theologians who adopt them and here are the six approaches we look at defecation that is being made divine righteousness in the sight of God personal holiness authentic human existence political liberation and spiritual freedom and then we move on to look at the question of how we benefit from this what do we need to do in order to be a affected by Christ's achievement of salvation how can we connect up with these benefits now the New Testament uses the language of faith suggesting that the faith of the individual is that channel through which these benefits are receive others though see this is referring to the faith of the church not simply that of the individual on this reading an individual believer benefits from Christ's death through the church as an intermediary now these issues are explored and discussed in the section of the chapter entitled the appropriation of salvation in Christ and this looks at four ways of thinking about this first the church has the means of salvation secondly Christ as a representative thirdly participation in Christ and fourthly Christ as a substitute let's look at one of these representation Christ is here understood as a covenant representative of humanity so was that mean it means a through faith we come to stand within covenant between God and humanity and Christ by his obedience on the cross represents God's covenant people to God when in benefits for them as their covenantal representative so by coming to faith individuals come to stand within the Covenant and thus participate in all its benefits which of course have been won by Christ finally we move on to look at the question of the scope of salvation in Christ does everyone benefit from his death or are there some kind of restrictions or conditions placed upon this and there are three main options have emerged during Christian theologies long history and we look at all of them in this closing section first universalism then you all will be saved secondly only believers will be saved and thirdly the idea of particularly them only the elect be saved so I hope you'll enjoy working through this materials see were it leads you there's a lot for you to think about and I'm sure we'll enjoy working out where you would position yourself on this very broad theological map and I've given you our next presentation deals with the theology of the Holy Spirit covered in Chapter 12 of Christian theology introduction and I look forward to speaking to you again very soon indeed thank you for listening [Music] [Music]