For Whom Did Christ Die?

In our discussion of Faith and Works, we noticed a passing statement from Paul in Rom. 2:4: "Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" That statement suggests that God is working on all people with influences that lead toward salvation, influences that will actually save everyone who responds to them. We also found strong support for this idea in Jesus' words recorded in John 6. 44, 65. We have now seen from Paul that God gave Christ to die so that the justification of believers would be consistent with His own justice. This means that without the death of Christ, salvation — and therefore these divine influences leading toward salvation — would have been impossible. If that is true, then these influences, and the salvation that comes through them to all who believe the Gospel, were part of the purpose for which God gave His Son to die. In other words, the purpose of Christ's death included the entire human race.

There is much more teaching in the New Testament that confirms this universal purpose in the death of Christ.

The Rationale of the Atonement

We have already established, on solid historical grounds, that Jesus of Nazareth taught that His death on the cross has a unique relation to human salvation. Through that death, God receives into His favor, in spite of their past sins, all who believe the good news Christ proclaimed. Christ chose to die for this purpose, and the need for so costly a means of salvation arose from human sin. Paul drew from Christ's teaching the further conclusion that this necessity rested in the justice of God, and we have found that this conclusion best explains the teaching reflected throughout the New Testament. In the future, we shall consider historical evidence that the Crucified One claimed to be, in a sense shared by no other, the Son of God, the eternal companion of the Father's glory, the possessor of divine attributes, and the Creator and Judge of the world. And further, we shall consider historical evidence that this Savior of the world rose from the dead. Teaching about His own death, coming from such a Teacher and supported by such credentials, carries an authority we cannot dismiss. When our argument is complete, it will yield a settled conclusion to our theological inquiry.

Other New Testament Teaching on the Death of Christ

Now that we’ve looked at what Paul and the Epistle to the Hebrews say about the death of Christ, it’s time to compare that with what Christ Himself says about His death in the four Gospels.

One of the most striking moments in the Synoptic Gospels appears in the account found in Matthew 16:13–28, Mark 8:27–9:1, and Luke 9:18–27. Jesus takes His disciples away from the busy centers of life — to the remote regions near Hermon — so He can share deeper truths with them. But before introducing anything new, He checks what they’ve already understood. He asks, “ Whom do men say that I am?” Peter speaks for the group: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Redemption and Propitiation

After stating in Romans 3:21–22 that the gospel reveals a righteousness from God available to all who believe, Paul goes on in verse 24 to say that we “are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” That word — redemption — deserves careful attention.

The same term (ἀπολύτρωσις) appears in a wide range of biblical contexts. In Daniel 4:32 (Septuagint), it refers to Nebuchadnezzar’s restoration. Elsewhere it is used in Romans 8:23; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Ephesians 1:7, 14, and 4:30; Colossians 1:14; Hebrews 9:15 and 11:35; and Luke 21:28. A related verb appears in the Septuagint — for example, in Exodus 21:8, “he shall let her go free for a ransom,” and in Zephaniah 3:1 — but not in the New Testament. A simpler related noun appears in passages such as Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45, where Christ says that He came “to give His life as a ransom for many.” It also appears in Proverbs 13:8 (“a man’s wealth is the ransom of his life,” meaning money can sometimes save someone from death) and Proverbs 6:35 (“he will not accept any ransom,” meaning no amount of money will pacify an offended husband).

The Teaching of Paul on the Death of Christ

Another major strand of New Testament teaching — one that Paul closely connects with his central doctrine of justification by faith — now calls for our attention. This teaching helps address a serious moral problem: how God can pardon guilty people while remaining righteous. Both Christ and His apostles proclaim forgiveness, but Paul presses us to see how this forgiveness is grounded in something much deeper.

After announcing in Romans 3:21–22 a “righteousness … through faith in Christ for all who believe,” Paul continues in verse 24 by saying that believers are “justified … through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” He immediately expands on this idea of redemption by adding that God put Christ forward “as a propitiation through faith, in His blood.” These words clearly highlight the violent death of Christ as a central element of the redemption accomplished in Him.
Paul explains the ultimate purpose of this act: it served as a demonstration of God’s righteousness, so that God might remain righteous while also justifying those who have faith in Jesus. In short, God gave Christ over to death in order to bring human justification into harmony with His own righteous character.