Why did Jesus die?

Such is the question that the late Leon Morris set out to answer in his 1983 book The Atonement:  Its Meaning and Significance (Downers Grove:  Inter-Varsity Press, 1983).  As Morris explains in the preface The Atonement covers the same ground as his earlier The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross but geared to a wider, less specialist audience.  The Atonement examines eight biblical themes "that bring out the meaning of the cross and is thus a serious attempt to see some of the significance of Christ's atoning work" (12).  These are covenant, sacrifice, the Day of Atonement, the Passover, redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, and justification.

As to be expected from Morris this is careful, faithful scholarship, even if 28 years after its publication much of the scholarly debate has moved on (e.g. propitiation vs. expiation).  Rather than analyze each chapter in depth I will point out what I thought were some of the more helpful points.  Morris concludes several chapters by drawing out the implications of the cross for the life of the believer.

Thus for sacrifice (66-67):
     a) sin is defiling
     b) Jesus' sacrifice brings purification from sin
     c) the death of the sacrificial victim counts (in the Old Testament as well as in Jesus' case)
     d) sacrifice is at cost (ultimately for God himself)
     e) Jesus' sacrifice means the Christian life is one of spiritual sacrifice in devotion to God

Day of Atonement (87):
     a) Jesus' death brings access to God
     b) Jesus' death brings forgiveness for sins

Redemption (128-30):
     a) people are by nature slaves to sin
     b) Christ paid the price of freedom
     c) now the redeemed are free

Reconciliation (146-50):
     a) sin is the barrier between God and man
     b) sin must be dealt with
     c) there is a real hostility between God and sinners
     d) reconciliation is God's work
     e) reconciliation proceeds from the love of God
     f) the reconciliation must be received

Justification (200-202):
     a) people are guilty before God because they have broken his law
     b) this guilt merits a penalty
     c) justification is by faith

My biggest complaint against The Atonement is that Morris does not really show how all these themes fit together.  He does say that all these themes show that salvation is entirely by God's grace completely apart from human merit (204), a great point in itself.  However, on several occasions he says that the different themes bring out different aspects of Christ's atoning work, which is certainly true, yet he goes farther and says that the different themes essentially stand alone by themselves apart from the other themes.  Thus, only the theme of propitiation (Christ's death as turning away God's wrath from sinners) involves God's wrath (169).  I'm convinced that the Bible's teaching on Christ's death is complex yet ultimately unified.  I hold to what is called the penal substitutionary view of the atonement.  It means that Christ suffered and died in the place (substitution) of sinners, thus paying the penalty for human sin against God.  Penal substitution, in my view, encompasses all eight themes that Morris draws out.  All of this is to say that Morris' work tends to stay at the level of biblical analysis rather than offering a synthetic theology of the cross.

Be that as it may, this is a good book.  I'll finish with some quotes I found particularly helpful:

It is accepted today as axiomatic that God's attitude to us is one of love and that it always will be.  I wish to affirm this in the strongest of terms.  But it is love and not sentimentality that is in question.  And what we do not always see is that love is capable of very strong action.  Real love will always be resolutely opposed to evil in the beloved (147).

 It is impossible to take the Gospel's seriously and yet maintain that Jesus did not teach the reality of the wrath of God (165). 

It is the great teaching of the New Testament that we are justified, not by what we do, but by what Christ has done (196).

Great words as we approach Good Friday and Easter Sunday.