Christ As High Priest
Turretinfan:
Sometimes it is hard to explain to people why the sacrificial nature of Christ’s death is relevant to the question of the scope of the atonement: i.e. whether the atonement was made for all, hypothetically all, or particularly the elect. One way to explain this is by reference to the fact that Christ is not just the lamb of God, whose death takes away the sins of the world, but that Christ is also the High Priest who makes the offering
Read his entire explanation of the Christ as High Priest argument for definite atonement.
Christ As Ransom
Jared Wilson:
In C.S. Lewis’s classic work of “supposal,” The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, we see where Aslan makes the payment of his life for Edmund’s liberation in response to the White Witch’s demands. It’s a powerful scene and not without biblical resonance, but if we draw the lines to directly, we may make a theological mistake of some importance. Aslan is clearly Christ in the story, and the Witch is clearly the stand-in for our accuser Satan. But while Satan is often called the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4), he is still subservient to the sovereign Lord of all the cosmos. So we have to be careful in how we speak of ransom, lest we lend too much power to the enemy and deflect too much glory away from God.
Read the rest for the answer to the question of to whom Christ’s ransom was paid. (Hint: It wasn’t Satan.)
Christ Made Sin
Kendall Easely: “Jesus is the only human who ‘did not know sin,’” yet “God made him ‘to be sin’” for us. What should our reponse be?