This is a sample chapter from my Systematic Theology project "Theology for Thriving". 📎MORE TO THE STORY notes are not part of the main text of the book, but additional resources, charts, or other materials from Biblical Theology class resources.
Colossians 1.15-20 [15] Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; [16] for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. [17] He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. [18] He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. [19] For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, [20] and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
🗝️ Key Concept: Atonement
We have now mapped the great drama of the Incarnation: the breathtaking story of how God entered our world, becoming one of us to heal us from the inside out. This leads us to the central question of salvation: How exactly does this work? How does the life, death, and resurrection of a first-century Jewish peasant from Nazareth heal the deep alienation between God and humanity? The theological term for this great work of healing is Atonement.
The word itself is a beautiful roadmap. It’s a term coined by the English Bible translator William Tyndale, who needed a word to describe the work of reconciliation. He simply smashed three words together: at-one-ment. The work of Christ is to make God and humanity “at one.” It is the ultimate act of reconciliation, bridging the chasm of sin that separates us from our Source.
Atonement is our salvation, our healing from the sickness of Sin. It is our liberation from the powers of death and evil that hold us captive. Ultimately, it is the path to theosis: Our journey into full participation in the divine life. Jesus is the living bridge between God and humanity, and atonement is the process of walking across that bridge into a healed and whole relationship with God, ourselves, and all of creation.
Different theologies try to focus on just one aspect of Jesus Christ as what made "at-one-ment" possible. Some focus on his life as a moral example, and say that he made atonement primarily by showing us a new way to live. Others focus on his death and say he made atonement primarily by dying on the cross for our sins. Still others focus on his resurrection and say atonement is mainly about his victory over the grave. There is truth in all of these images and perspectives. Rather than adopting an "either/or" view of atonement, we will do what we have been doing across most of this book and adopt a "both-and" approach. Atonement is NOT found "either his life or his death", but rather found in "both his life and his death".
🔎 How does Christ's life and ministry make Atonement?
The work of atonement did not begin on the cross; it began in the womb. The Incarnation itself is the primary act of at-one-ment. From the moment the eternal Word took on flesh in Mary’s womb, God was already uniting our human nature to the divine. The early Church Father St. Irenaeus described this as recapitulation: God's process of restarting humanity by going through all the stages of development we went through so that we all may be healed "from the inside out". He saw Jesus as the new Adam who lives through every stage of human life— infancy, childhood, adulthood— perfectly, re-heading and redirecting our human story back toward God.
C.S. Lewis offered a more modern analogy, describing Christ’s life as a “good infection.” In a world sick with the disease of Sin, the Incarnation is the moment the Great Physician injects the divine medicine— His own life— into the bloodstream of humanity. This divine life then begins to spread, healing us from within. As St. Athanasius famously declared, “God became human that humans might become divine.” In the great exchange, Jesus takes on our broken, mortal humanity so that we might take on his whole, eternal divinity. This doesn't mean we become God, but that we are invited to share fully in the life and love of the Trinity. As St. Gregory of Nazianzus explained, “What has not been assumed [in Christ] has not been healed... He took the worst upon himself to make us a gift of the best.”
Jesus's public ministry was a living demonstration of this at-one-ment. Through his teaching and his example, he provided the perfect Archetype of what a thriving human life, lived in perfect union with God, looks like. When he told his followers, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life," (John 14.6) he wasn't just giving them a new set of rules to follow; he was inviting them to participate in his own life of at-one-ment with the Father. Jesus himself underlines this by saying later in the same conversation: "the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father" (John 14.12). In doing this, Jesus makes at-one-ment through his powerful "moral influence" as we seek to imitate him in our actions and attitudes (1 Corinthians 11:1). By the power of Christ's Spirit powerfully at work in us, we are invited by Christ himself to share in his work of at-one-ment!
🔎 How does Christ's death and resurrection make Atonement?
If Christ’s life shows us the path to at-one-ment, his death and resurrection are the events that make that path possible for all of us. The cross is the climax of God's solidarity with a broken world. Many popular Christian views see the cross through the lens of penal substitution: The idea that God's wrath required a violent, bloody payment for our sins as a legal payment of infinite debt on our behalf. To use an image popular in this kind of theology: God is a judge who judges us guilty and deserving of torture and death, but then God takes off the judges robes and takes the torture and death for us, satisfying his own verdict. Thus, Jesus was punished in our place by a Father who demanded our punishment and suffering. But this often paints a picture of a monstrous God who requires retribution instead of rehabilitation, on the basis of capricious and arbitrary judgments.
A more biblically and theologically coherent view sees the cross not as God punishing Jesus, but as God in Christ taking responsibility for the consequences of a free creation. God takes our sin, suffering, and death fully into the divine self. This is a relational substitution (instead of a "penal" substitution). In this kind of substitution, God lovingly enters our place not to satisfy an abstract legal requirement, but to heal our broken relationship from the inside. This aligns with our experience of forgiveness. When someone forgives another person, they take the consequences of the bad decision into themselves, without visiting wrath and punishment on the other person, so that the relationship can be healed. In Christ, God takes our consequences into Godself so we may be healed and reconciled.
The prophet Isaiah envisioned this when he wrote of the Suffering Servant: "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows... he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the suffering that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:4-5). On the cross, God does not exempt Godself from our pain but experiences the full weight of it, demonstrating a love that will go to the very depths of hell to rescue His children. From the womb, to the tomb, and beyond, Christ takes all of humanity— the good, the bad, the joyous and the painful— fully into Godself so that we all may be healed.
But if Jesus had stayed dead, he would simply be another great martyr in a long line of inspiring figures who gave their lives for a cause, like Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, or the early Christian martyr St. Perpetua. They are powerful examples, but they are only examples. Jesus is more. The resurrection is the definitive event that turns a tragic execution into a cosmic victory. As Saint Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians: "Death has been swallowed up in victory! Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? ...Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" The resurrection is the moment of Christus Victor: Christ the Victor, Christ the Champion, Christ the King! It is God’s thunderous declaration that:
Love is stronger than hate.
Life is stronger than death.
Light is stronger than darkness.
The resurrection proves that God's Word has the last word, and that word is at-one-ment.
📎MORE TO THE STORY: See this chart to better understand the Models of Atonement embodied in Christ's life, death, and resurrection.
📖 Scriptural Reflection: Colossians 1:15-20
This ancient Christian hymn, quoted by the Apostle Paul, is one of the most magnificent and comprehensive portraits of atonement in the entire Bible. It beautifully weaves together all the themes we have been exploring. The hymn begins by establishing Christ’s role in creation: he is the “image of the invisible God,” the one in whom and through whom “all things in heaven and on earth were created.” This sets the stage for a cosmic atonement; the one who made all things is the one who will remake all things.
The hymn then moves from creation to the new creation, describing Christ as the “head of the body, the church” and the “firstborn from the dead.” This directly connects his life, death, and resurrection to the ongoing work of atonement in the community of his followers. His victory over death is not just for himself, but for the entire body that he leads.
Finally, the hymn reaches its stunning climax, declaring that through Christ, God was pleased “to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.” This is the ultimate scope of at-one-ment. It is not just about saving individual human souls; it is about the healing and reconciliation of the entire cosmos. Every broken piece of creation is brought back into harmony through the self-giving Love of God revealed on the cross.
🔎 How does Christ's Atonement work through Community and Cosmos?
The work of at-one-ment did not end when Jesus ascended into heaven; it is an ongoing project that continues now through his Body on earth, the Church. Those called to ministry are meant to be living icons of this reality, acting in persona Christi: In the person of Christ. The eternal Christ is operative through them by the power of the Spirit, even when they themselves are often flawed and unworthy vessels. This isn't a magical power reserved for a special class, but a profound responsibility to make the reconciling love of Christ tangible in the world through acts of service, teaching, and sacramental grace.
But this mission is not limited to clergy. Every follower of Jesus is a vital part of his Body. If clergy are the "bones" that give the Body structure, then the rest of us are the muscles, limbs, eyes, and hands. Christ is present and active in anyone who reaches out in love to another, continuing the "good infection" of divine life. Furthermore, Christ is spiritually present in those we are called to serve. As Jesus teaches in Matthew 25, when we care for the "least of these"— the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick— we are not just performing a good deed; we are encountering and caring for Christ himself.
This is possible because, as the Colossians hymn reveals, the entire cosmos is a sacrament of Christ's presence. He is the one in whom "all things hold together." This is a vision of Christ-centered panentheism, where all of reality exists within the loving embrace of the Cosmic Christ. The at-one-ment that began in the Incarnation will be consummated when Christ returns to complete the healing of all things. This will not just be the return of an individual, but the full manifestation of a universal Self, a cosmic Body of Christ made up of all of us, finally and forever at-one with God.
📚 Topical Scriptures
Here are some Scripture passages which explore and elaborate on the themes of this chapter. As you look them up and study them, think about how they relate to the Key Concept and Guiding Questions.
Isaiah 53:3-12
This is the great prophecy of the Suffering Servant, which Christians see fulfilled in Jesus. It paints a radical picture of one who enters into suffering, bearing the griefs and sorrows of others to bring about their healing and justification.
Matthew 25:31-46
In the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, Jesus identifies himself with the "least of these": The hungry, the stranger, the sick, and the imprisoned. This passage reveals that our acts of love and service are direct encounters with Christ, showing the ongoing, communal nature of atonement.
John 14:6-12
Jesus declares himself to be the exclusive path to the Father, the embodiment of the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Look for how this union is not just for him alone, but is an invitation for his followers to participate in his work, even promising they will do "greater works."
Romans 3:21-26
In this dense and powerful passage, Paul explains that our righteousness comes not from law-keeping but as a gift through faith in Jesus. He describes Christ as the one whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement, demonstrating God's justice by dealing with sin in a way that simultaneously justifies the sinner.
Romans 5:6-11
Paul emphasizes that Christ's death was a profound act of love for us while we were still helpless sinners and enemies of God. This passage highlights the proactive, relational nature of atonement as an act of divine reconciliation, not a payment to appease wrath.
2 Corinthians 5:14-21
This passage contains the powerful declaration that in Christ, we become a "new creation." It describes the "ministry of reconciliation" given to all believers, showing that atonement is not just a past event but a present mission.
Ephesians 2:11-22
Paul describes Christ's work on the cross as breaking down the "dividing wall of hostility" between different groups of people. This text shows that atonement has a profound social and communal dimension, creating one new humanity out of divided factions.
Colossians 1:15-20
This early Christian hymn describes Christ as the agent, sustainer, and goal of all creation, both visible and invisible. It presents a stunning vision of the cosmic Christ, in whom all the fragmented pieces of the universe hold together and find their ultimate reconciliation.
Hebrews 9:11-28
The author uses the imagery of the old covenant's sacrificial system to explain the finality and superiority of Christ's self-offering. This passage contrasts the repeated, imperfect sacrifices of animals with the once-for-all, perfect sacrifice of Christ that truly cleanses the conscience.
1 John 1:5-2:2
This passage connects walking in God's light with fellowship and cleansing from sin through the blood of Jesus. It presents Christ as our advocate and the "atoning sacrifice," not just for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world, emphasizing the universal scope of his reconciling work.
1 Peter 2:21-25
This passage holds up Christ's suffering as the ultimate example for believers, emphasizing that he bore our sins in his own body on the cross. It beautifully illustrates the healing dimension of atonement, declaring that "by his wounds you have been healed."
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