Quotes About Atonement

Quotes about atonement from throughout Christian History.

Ignatius of Antioch, A.D. 110

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)

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. (Letter of Barnabas 5)

Pseudo-Barnabas, A.D. 120 - 130

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. … [He], 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)

Irenaeus, A.D. 183 - 186

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)

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)