Quotes About Atonement

Quotes about atonement from throughout Christian History.

Ignatius of Antioch, A.D. 110

Let my spirit be counted as nothing for the sake of the cross, which is a stumbling block to those that do not believe, but to us salvation and life eternal. (Letter to the Ephesians 18)

Since you are subject to the bishop as to Jesus Christ, you appear to me to live not after the ways of men, but according to Jesus Christ, who died for us in order that by believing in his death, you might escape from death. (Letter to the Trallians 2)

I have observed that you are perfected in an immoveable faith, as if you were nailed to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, both in the flesh and in the spirit, and are established in love through the blood of Christ, being fully persuaded with respect to our Lord, that he was truly [born] of the seed of David according to the flesh and the Son of God according to the will and power of God; that he was truly born of a virgin, was baptized by John, in order that all righteousness might be fulfilled by him; and was truly, under Pontius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch, nailed [to the cross] for us in His flesh. Of this fruit we exist by his divinely-blessed passion, that he might set up a standard for all ages through his resurrection to all his holy and faithful, whether among Jews or Gentiles, in the one body of His Church. (Letter to the Smyrneans 1)

Let no man deceive himself. Both the things which are in heaven and the glorious angels and rulers, both visible and invisible, if they do not believe in the blood of Christ, shall, in consequence, incur condemnation. "He that is able to receive it, let him receive it."
     Do not let status puff any one up, for that which is worth all is faith and love, to which nothing is to be preferred. But consider those who are of a different opinion with respect to the grace of Christ which has come unto us, how opposed they are to the will of God. They have no regard for love; no care for the widow, or the orphan, or the oppressed; of the bond, or of the free; of the hungry, or of the thirsty.(Letter to the Smyrneans 2)

I trust in the grace of Jesus Christ, who shall free you from every bond. And I exhort you to do nothing out of strife, but according to the doctrine of Christ. I heard some saying, "If I do not find it in the ancient Scriptures, I will not believe the Gospel." On my saying to them, "It is written," they answered me, "That remains to be proved." But to me Jesus Christ is in the place of all that is ancient: His cross, death, resurrection, and the faith which is by him, are undefiled monuments of antiquity by which I desire, through your prayers, to be justified. (Letter to the Philadelphians 8)

Ignatius answered, "There is but one God, who made heaven, earth, and the sea, and all that are in them; and one Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, whose kingdom may I enjoy."
     Trajan said, "Do you mean the one who was crucified under Pontius Pilate?"
     Ignatius replied, "I mean the one who crucified my sin, along with him who was the inventor of it, and who has condemned all the deceit and malice of the devil under the feet of those who carry him in their heart."
     Trajan said, "Do you then carry within you the one that was crucified?"
     Ignatius replied, "Truly so, for it is written, 'I will dwell in them, and walk in them.'" (Martyrdom of Ignatius 2)

Pseudo-Barnabas, A.D. 120 - 130

For this purpose the Lord endured to deliver his flesh to death, so that we might be sanctified through the remission of sins, which is brought about by his blood of sprinkling. ...
     If the Lord endured to suffer for our soul, he being Lord of all the world ... understand how it was that he endured to suffer at the hand of men ... that he might abolish death and reveal the resurrection from the dead, endured in order that he might fulfil the promise made to the fathers. By preparing a new people for himself, he wanted to show—while he dwelt on earth—that he, when he has raised mankind, will also judge them. (Letter of Barnabas 5)

Letter to Diognetus, A.D. 80 - 200

He himself took on the burden of our iniquities, He gave his own Son as a ransom for us, the Holy One for transgressors, the Blameless One for the wicked, the Righteous One for the unrighteous, the Incorruptible One for the corruptible, the Immortal One for them that are mortal. For what other thing was capable of covering our sins than his righteousness? By what other one was it possible that we, the wicked and ungodly, could be justified, other than by the only Son of God? Oh, sweet exchange! Oh, unsearchable operation! Oh, benefits surpassing all expectation! That the wickedness of many should be hid in a single Righteous One, and that the righteousness of One should justify many transgressors! (ch. 9)

Justin Martyr, c. A.D. 150

Our Saviour Jesus Christ … being the Word of God, inseparable from Him in power, having assumed [the form of] man, who had been made in the image and likeness of God, restored to us the knowledge of the religion of our ancient forefathers. (Hortatory Address to the Greeks 38)

"Our Lord Jesus Christ prescribed this celebration [Eucharist, communion, or Lord's Supper] in memory of the suffering which he endured on behalf of those who are purified in soul from all iniquity, in order that we may … thank [reference to Eucharist, which means thanksgiving] God … for delivering us from the evil we were in, and for utterly overthrowing principalities and powers by him who suffered according to his will." (Dialogue with Trypho 41)

Since we find it recorded in the memoirs of the apostles that he is the Son of God, and since we call him the Son, we have understood that he proceeded before all creatures from the Father by his power and his will ... and that he became man by the virgin, in order that the disobedience which proceeded from the serpent might receive its destruction in the same way in which it derived its origin. For Eve, who was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived by the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death. But the virgin Mary received faith and joy when the angel Gabriel announced the good news to her that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her and the power of the Highest would overshadow her. Therefore, also, that which was begotten by her is the Son of God. ... By her has he been born ... by whom God destroys both the serpent and those angels and men who are like him, but works deliverance from death to those who repent of their wickedness and believe in him. (Dialogue with Trypho 100)

Irenaeus, A.D. 183 - 186

The following quote needs a context. Irenaeus argues that Jesus lived to nearly fifty years old and ministered for 15 to 20 years. His view is unique to all of Christian history, as far as I know, though he refers to elders from the apostolic age who agreed with him. The fact that Irenaeus provides an argument at all is an indication that he knew that what he was saying was not a universal, nor perhaps even common, belief in the early churches. Part of his argument, however, is something that other early writers say, which is that everything Jesus did purified or sanctified that part of life. Thus, even his baptism sanctified all future baptisms. This relates to the atonement, so it is included on this page.

For he came to save everyone by way of himself. By everyone I mean all those who are born again to God through him: infants, children, boys, youths, and old men. He therefore passed through every age, becoming an infant for infants and a child for children, thus sanctifying those who are of this age, and at the same time becoming an example of piety, righteousness, and submission for them. He was a youth for youths, becoming an example for youths and sanctifying them for the Lord. So likewise he was an old man for old men, so that he might be a perfect Master for everyone, not merely in regard to laying out the truth, but also in regard to age, sanctifying at the same time the aged as well and becoming an example to them likewise. Then, at last, he reached death itself, so that he might become "the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence" [Col. 1:18], "the Prince of Life" [Acts 3:15], existing before everyone and going before everyone. [Against Heresies II:22:4]

For all things had entered upon a new phase, the Word arranging after a new manner the advent in the flesh, that he might restore to God that human nature which had departed from God. (Against Heresies III:10:1)

It was for this reason, too, that the Lord descended into the regions beneath the earth, preaching his advent there also and the remission of sins received by those who believe in him. Now all those who believed in him, who had hope towards him—that is, those who proclaimed his advent and submitted to his dispensations; the righteous men, the prophets, and the patriarchs—to whom he remitted sins in the same way he did to us, which sins we should not lay to their charge, if we would not despise the grace of God. (Against Heresies IV:27:2)

Truly the death of the Lord became healing and remission of sins to the former [i.e., those under the old covenant], but Christ shall not die again on behalf of those who now commit sin, for death shall no more have dominion over him. (Against Heresies IV:27:2)

As far as the apostasy is concerned, he indeed redeems us from it righteously, by his own blood; but in regard to us who have been redeemed, graciously. For we have given nothing to him in advance, nor does he desire anything from us, as though he stood in need of it, but we do stand in need of fellowship with him. It was for this reason that he poured himself out, so that he might gather us into the bosom of the Father. (Against Heresies V:2:1)

Clement of Alexandria, c. A.D. 190

Man, that had been free by reason of simplicity, was found fettered to sins. The Lord then wished to release him from his bonds and, clothing himself with flesh—O divine mystery!—vanquished the serpent and enslaved the tyrant death. Most marvelous of all, man that had been deceived by pleasure and bound fast by corruption had his hands unloosed and was set free. O mystic wonder! (Exhortation to the Heathen 11)

We have as a limit the cross of the Lord, by which we are fenced and hedged about from our former sins. Therefore, being regenerated, let us fix ourselves to it in truth, and return to sobriety, and sanctify ourselves. (The Instructor III:12)

Martin Luther, c. 1520

Your sins indeed are great, but by baptism I [i.e., Christ] bestow on you my righteousness; I strip death from you and clothe you with my life. That's Christ's true regimen; his office and mission are summed up in this, that he daily strips away our sin and death and clothes us with his righteousness and life. ("First Sunday in Advent" from Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, vol. V [Grand Rapids, MI:BakerBooks, 2007])

George MacDonald, 1875

To make my meaning clearer,—some of you say we must trust in the finished work of Christ; or again, our faith must be in the merits of Christ—in the atonement he has made—in the blood he has shed: all these statements are a simple repudiation of the living Lord, in whom we are told to believe, who, by his presence with and in us, and our obedience to him, lifts us out of darkness into light, leads us from the kingdom of Satan into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. No manner or amount of belief about him is the faith of the New Testament. With such teaching I have had a lifelong acquaintance, and declare it most miserably false. (Unspoken Sermons: Series I, II, and III, p. 391; emphasis [and punctuation] in original)

When you say that to be saved a man must hold this or that, then you are forsaking the living God and his will and putting trust in some notion about him or his will. To make my meaning clearer: Some of you say that we must trust in the finished work of Christ. Or you say that our faith must be in the merits of Christ—in the atonement he has made—in the blood he has shed.
   All these statements are a simple repudiation of the living Lord in whom we are told to believe. … No manner or amount of belief about him is the faith of the New Testament.
   With such teaching I have had a lifelong acquaintance, and I declare it most miserably false. (The Truth in Jesus [Minneapolis, MN: BethanyHouse; 2007] p. 59, emphasis in original)

If you do nothing that [Jesus] says, it is no wonder that you cannot trust in him and are therefore driven to seek refuge in the atonement as if something he had done, and not he himself in his doing were the atonement. (The Truth in Jesus [Minneapolis, MN: BethanyHouse; 2007] p. 66-67)

Philip Schaff, 1882

Part of the reason for including the following quote is the remarkable audacity of this Protestant scholar and historian, for whom I otherwise have great respect, in making himself a judge of which early Christian—so much closer to the time of the apostles than he—is "soundest" in his theology and the equally amazing suggestion that the Latin church's "development" of a doctrine is something good!

Irenaeus is the first of all teachers to give a careful analysis of the work of redemption, and his view is by far the deepest and soundest we find in the first three centuries. ... Athanasius, in his early youth, at the beginning of the next period [i.e., the Nicene and Post-Nicene period], wrote the first systematic treatise on redemption and answer to the question "Cur Deus Homo?" [Why did God become man?]. But it was left for the Latin church, after the epoch-making treatise of Anselm, to develop this important doctrine in its various aspects.