Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 177:707 (Jul 2020)
Article: “Christ Died For Us”
Author: Douglas J. Moo

BSac 177:707 (July-September 2020) p. 260

“Christ Died For Us”*

Douglas J. Moo

* This is the third article in the four-part series “Salvation in Paul’s Epistles,” delivered as the W. H. Griffith Thomas lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary, February 5–8, 2019.

Douglas J. Moo is Wessner Chair of Biblical Studies, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
—Romans 5:8

In the first two lectures, I surveyed in a cursory fashion the “why” and the “what” of salvation in Paul. The grace and love of the triune God are the motive for the inauguration of the new realm, even as God’s glory is its end. This new realm is filled with spiritual blessings that people, transferred into this realm from the old realm, enjoy. We now turn to the critical question of “how” God makes it possible for these blessings to be conferred on believers.

The Breadth Of Atoning Events

Our focus is on the founding events of the new realm, particularly Christ’s death and resurrection. These events constitute for Paul the heart of the “good news,” as the famous summary in 1 Corinthians 15:1–8 makes clear:

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. ² By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

³ For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

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⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. ⁶ After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸ and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.1

Paul’s concern in this context, as the elaboration in verses 5–8 suggests, is with the third point in this summary: “he was raised.” But he sets this point in the broader context of the essential elements of the gospel he preaches: Jesus died, was buried,