A Multifaceted View of Christ’s Atonement
The atonement is a multifaceted reality that cannot be reduced to a single theory, since different models capture distinct aspects of the biblical narrative, including substitution, victory, participation, and restoration. Humanity faces a twofold problem: corruption resulting from sin and the penalty of death. This requires a twofold solution: Christ both restores humanity to incorruption and bears the penalty of sin. Early Christian sources, especially Athanasius and other church fathers, contain both forensic and participatory language rather than supporting a strict division between them, showing that later theological traditions often flatten or selectively emphasize certain themes. Examination of patristic writings, liturgical texts, and theological arguments reveals recurring elements of substitutionary atonement alongside themes of deification and victory over death, indicating that these concepts are historically intertwined rather than mutually exclusive.
Did the Father turn his face away? (The Crucifixion and Psalm 22)
Psalm 22 challenges the idea that the Father “turned his face away” from the Son at the cross. When read Christologically, David’s cry of forsakenness (“Why have you forsaken me?”) is resolved within the psalm itself: God did not hide his face. The Gospels follow this pattern. Jesus truly experiences anguish, yet Luke highlights trust and communion—“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”—as the temple curtain tears, revealing open access to God. The three hours of darkness are not evidence of divine rejection but a cosmic sign: the old-covenant veil gives way to new-covenant access as heaven opens.
This truth has pastoral weight. How we think the Father viewed the Son in his suffering shapes how we think the Father views us in ours. Scripture teaches that the Son bore our sins, not the Father’s rejection. So when believers feel forsaken, they can rest assured that God has not turned his face away. Psalm 22 moves from lament to praise and to mission—nations turning to the Lord—and the church is called to live and worship in that reality. It finds its culmination at the Lord’s Table, where communion with God and his people anticipates the day every tribe and tongue will worship the Lamb.