‘God reconciled the world with himself, without its assistance, apart from it, without the world contributing anything to it.’

The work of the Lord Jesus Christ is, likewise, a work of reconciliation.

Jesus’ death, an act of extreme violence, was a necessary act of service to his people — taking the form of ‘a ransom’ (Greek lytron; Matt 20:28; Mark 10:45).

Our redemption in Christ does not involve the literal exchange of money.

What was the death of Jesus for? That question keeps pressing.

Care must be taken in the wording of Christian songs and preaching to avoid — and indeed to repudiate — any sense that in the God-forsakenness and dereliction of the cross (Matt 27:46; Mark 15:34) the Father punishes the Son.

Christ is the Lamb of God — the one to whom every lamb offered at Israel’s altar pointed forward.

'The concept of substitution may be said … to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation.’

Closely connected to Christ’s obedience, though bringing out the meaning of his death in its own distinctive way, is the category of sacrifice.

The category of obedience helps us grasp what Jesus was doing in his life and death.

In the last article we identified five ways the victory of Christ reaches out and embraces us:

The fatal blow struck against the serpent is foretold as early as Genesis 3:15.