Penal Substitution vs. Christus Victor

This really helped me understand the atonement and gospel and God so much better than I ever have my whole life. I hope it blesses someone else too as God used it to bless me. Penal Substitution vs. Christus Victor Understanding the Cross from the perspective of grace rather than legalism, by Derek Flood Excerpt: As a Christian I had always understood the cross on a heart level—I understood deep down in my guts that the cross screamed out how much God loved me. It was something beautiful that spoke of how valued I was in the eyes of God as expressed in the simple and profound statement “Jesus died for me.” Moreover, I experienced in the depths of who I am the power of the cross working in my life—the love of God opened up to me, bringing life into the dark and broken places. Yet while I knew this saving power and reality of the cross as an experiential reality in my life, at the same time I didn't understand in my head how it worked. I was unable to communicate to others the radical love that I saw and experienced there at the foot of the cross, and found myself dissatisfied with the legalistic explanations I heard. Why did God need the cross to save us? How does it make anything better? These were the questions I asked myself.