Having examined Christian beliefs about the man Jesus Christ and his divine personhood, we now come to the question of his role in humanity's salvation. As noted earlier on, this is referred to as ‘the work of Christ’ or ‘objective redemption’.

Conceptions of objective redemption

We can begin by asking the question: how to conceive of objective redemption? Note that the question does not ask how was it achieved – that will be considered shortly – but how to conceive of whatever has been achieved? There have been various ways of conceiving it – all of which are complementary to each other rather than contradictory. They can only be mentioned briefly here.

First of all, one can conceive of objective redemption as the winning of God's forgiveness for sins. This was not the oldest but it came to be by far the most widespread way of conceiving objective redemption. Humanity had sinned against God. Christ came to win God's forgiveness through his death on the Cross.

Secondly, one can conceive of it therefore as the winning of God's grace. At this point differing conceptions between Catholics and Protestants open up regarding the nature of grace. If, as Protestants do, one thinks of grace primarily in terms of God's favour, then the winning of God's grace will be conceived of primarily in terms of the winning of God's favour. If, as Scholastic Catholic theology did, one conceives of grace primarily as something given to people (thanks to God's favour), then one will conceive of the winning of God's grace in terms of the winning of this reality that is then given by God to people.

Thirdly, one can conceive of objective salvation as the opening of heaven's gates (see for example Hebrews 9 and 1 Peter 3:18–22). This idea too became widespread in Christian theology.

Fourthly – my personal preference – one can conceive of objective salvation as the coming into being of the risen life, a situation in which a human life (in this case Jesus’ humanity) has been totally transformed through its insertion into the life of the Trinity. I believe that this fourth conception encapsulates best all the aspects stressed by the others.