Christ Died To Save Us From Our Selfishness

The 2008 sculpture by Esther Augsburger of Jesus in the role of
a servant is at the International Christian School in Hong Kong.

Christians tend to agree that Christ's death saves the repentant from the consequences of their sin and gives them an undeserved pass to Paradise. However, they haven't all agreed on just what that means, or on how that happens. 

One of the church's oldest theories of atonement was that of Christ's death and resurrection being about God's ultimate victory over the effects of sin and death, a victory and deliverance we can claim and celebrate by faith.

Some, including St. Augustine in the fourth century, believed that Jesus's life of complete obedience to God, even to the point of death, was meant to  exert a moral influence us, leading us to repent of our sinning and to live that same kind of Christ-like life by the grace and power of God. 

Some later theologians believed Christ's death represented a kind of ransom paid, either to the devil or to God, one that paid the debt we owed and the guilt we incurred because of our transgressions, and which granted us our full pardon and deliverance. Or according to other scholars, that Jesus became our substitute, taking the just punishment we deserved, suffering and dying on our behalf, so we wouldn't have to bear the eternal consequence of our sins.

I'm inclined toward a view of Christ's life and death that doesn't have him saving us from a wrathful God, but that the same God who "so loved the world" entered a hostile, God-hating world in order to save us from ourselves and from the consequences of the world's self-centered way of life--and to enable us to live and love in the way Jesus did and the way God does. 

As an example, here is one of my favorite passages: 

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.  Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
Though he was God,
    he did not think of equality with God
    as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
    he took the humble position of a slave
    and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
    he humbled himself in obedience to God
    and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
    and gave him the name above all other names,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:3-11 (New Living Translation)

Here we see God demonstrating, in Jesus, the kind of love that knows no limits, that is able and willing to love God's worst enemies, even those who hate him and crucify him. This salvation is revolutionary, transformative and life-giving, resulting in God not only saving us from the consequences of our sins, but frees us from the grip of selfishness that causes us to seek our own way instead of following the way of Christ's cross and resurrection.