An understanding of the cross
The Love That Changes Us
Paul says God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This understanding lingers on what the cross reveals: a love so complete it melts the hardened heart. Seeing God give himself for us, we are moved to turn, to trust, to love in return. The cross does not only pay, it persuades.
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”Romans 5:8
What this understanding says
This understanding, often called moral influence, claims that the cross saves in part by transforming us through the sight of God's love. Paul says God proves his love by Christ dying for us while we were still sinners. Something happens in the human heart when it truly beholds such love: fear and rebellion give way, and we are drawn back to God in trust and gratitude. The cross is God's clearest word that he is not our enemy but our lover, willing to suffer rather than lose us. What it accomplishes is a real change in us, cold hearts warmed, prodigals turned homeward, lives reshaped by love received. It takes seriously that salvation is not only a change in our status but a change in us, the birth of answering love.
Its Scripture and its history
Scripture everywhere ties the cross to love that awakens love. We love, John writes, because he first loved us. Paul prays that we would grasp the height and depth of the love of Christ. In the twelfth century Peter Abelard is often associated with emphasizing this, that the cross kindles love in us and so draws us back to God. He was read by some as making it the whole story, and Bernard of Clairvaux and others pushed back, fearing it left out how sin is dealt with. Later teachers, especially in the modern era, revived the theme. Held on its own it has been criticized as incomplete, yet understood as one true effect of the cross, its insight is undeniable, since Scripture plainly says the cross moves the heart.
One cross, many facets
The love that changes us is one facet of the one cross, and it needs the others to keep from becoming thin. If the cross only shows love without also doing something about our sin and the powers, we are left asking what exactly it demonstrates love by accomplishing. Love that costs nothing real teaches little. So this facet leans on the rest: the cross moves us precisely because in it Christ truly bears our sin, defeats our enemies, brings us home. Yet without this facet the others can turn mechanical, as if the heart were untouched. Christians have argued over whether it can stand alone, and most conclude it cannot. But none should deny it, for a gospel that changes our standing without changing our heart would not be the whole gospel.
Questions people ask
What is the moral influence view of the atonement?
It is the understanding that the cross saves partly by revealing God's love so powerfully that it transforms us. Seeing Christ die for us while we were sinners melts our resistance and draws us back to God in love and trust. It stresses the change worked in the human heart. Most Christians treasure this truth while holding it together with the other facets.
Is the moral influence view enough by itself?
Most Christians say no, and history agrees. If the cross only sets an example of love without also dealing with sin, guilt, and the powers, it is hard to say what the love actually accomplishes. Yet the view names something real and biblical: the cross truly changes hearts. Held with the other facets, it keeps salvation from becoming merely legal and cold.