Summary:

Christus Victor is Latin for “Christ is victorious”.  In this view, the most important thing Jesus came to accomplish was to defeat Satan and destroy his work.  Through his life and death, Jesus defeated the powers of darkness and Satan.  Through his resurrection, Jesus overcame sin and death.  This meshes with the living parable of David and Goliath; Jesus is our champion.

Christus Victor has been the predominant theory of atonement for most of the history of the Christian church.  This view begins by recognizing that spiritual warfare is real and mankind is Satan’s target.  Jesus took on flesh and broke into human history in order to break Satan’s hold over humanity.  He came to overthrow the power of the Devil, destroy his works, and free mankind from bondage to sin:

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

1 John 3:8b NIV

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Hebrews 2:14-15 NIV

Christus Victor focuses on a fundamental aspect of salvation: that Jesus’ victory over Satan at Calvary has freed mankind to turn to God and join his kingdom.  God emphasized that fact when he broke into Paul’s life on the road to Damascus.  He told Paul that he was sending him to the Gentiles to “turn them from the power of Satan to God”.

I am sending you to them [the Gentiles] to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

Acts 26:17-18 NIV

To our human way of thinking, Jesus’ death on the cross doesn’t look or feel like victory.  An important perspective is to realize that the resurrected Jesus, still fully man as well as fully God, is now seated in heaven at the Father’s right hand.  Mankind is now forever joined with the Trinity, and Satan’s goal of separating mankind from God has been forever defeated.

Pastor and theologian Greg Boyd has a good summary:

“Paul believed what was needed was nothing less than God breaking into human history to destroy the power of sin and rescuing us from the cosmic powers that keep us in bondage to sin.  This is precisely what Paul and all early Christians believed happened with the advent of Jesus Christ.  And this is the essence of the Christus Victor view of the atonement.”

Greg Boyd, The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views (Author of Chapter 1)

Objections to the Christus Victor View

The two principal objections to Christus Victor are first, that it allows us to view ourselves as innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire of Satan’s rebellion, not as willing participants.  And second, it doesn’t explain how God vanquishing Satan achieved forgiveness of sin and reconciliation between God and man.