For the past year the city of Seattle has hosted, “Titanic: The Exhibition.” It’s a traveling museum about the ship and its occupants.[1] Part of this museum includes a wall that lists the names of people that died when the boat sank. The list categorizes people under groups of men, women, and children. If we attended that museum and looked at the list we would notice something surprisingly absent: the names of children and women. The list of the deceased says 1,352 men died while only 109 women and 52 children died.[2]
As you probably know, there were not enough lifeboats to save all the passengers from the sinking Titanic. As a result, women and children were given first priority to get in lifeboats. When the Titanic was sinking into the deep icy Atlantic waters, husbands and fathers gave their lives to save women and children. What an amazing example of sacrificial love.
The Titanic is an example of how some died so that others may live. This week we remember the same act not by men on a boat but by a man on earth in the first century. Jesus Christ gave his life so that we may live. We call this the substitutionary atonement of Christ. In other words, Christ died for sinners.
The doctrine of the substitutionary atonement is based on the Greek word, anti, which is a preposition that often means “in the place of” or “for.” This preposition is used in Matthew 20:28 when Jesus says, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for [anti] many.”[3] Christ’s sacrifice was a substitution for sinners. His death would take the place of many deaths because only Christ could atone for our sins (Jn 1:29; Rom 5:8; 1 Pet 2:24; 3:18). Christ was the perfect sacrifice.
The doctrine of substitutionary atonement is also based on another Greek word, huper, which is also a preposition. It often means “for the benefit of” or “in the place of.” This word is used by Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on [huper] our behalf [huper], so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” This verse describes the heart of the gospel: The sinless Savior took our sins so that we may have God’s righteousness. The preposition huper is also used in 1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for [huper] the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.” This verse from 1 Peter is often seen as one of the shortest, simplest, and richest summaries of the meaning of Jesus’s death on the cross.
One of the most basic ways to explain what Jesus did during Easter week is that he gave his life for us so that we may live. Christ took our sins and died in our place. Jesus was the supreme example of love. His life was given as a substitute.
Mrs. Marvin was on the Titanic enjoying her honeymoon with Daniel Marvin. She retells the last memories of her husband, “I was put in the boat, he [Mr. Daniel Marvin] cried to me, ‘It’s all right, little girl. You go. I will stay.’ As our boat shoved off he threw me a kiss, and that was the last I saw of him.”[4] Like those husbands and fathers on the Titanic that died so that women and children could live, Jesus died for us so that we may live.
—–
Christopher L. Scott is a pastor and author of the book, Walking Straight When Life Goes Sideways: Essential Christian Truths for Enduring Life’s Trials (Wipf and Stock). He provides hundreds of free articles, videos, and Bible study resources at his website ChristopherLynnScott.com.
[1] The traveling museum was in Seattle from July 2024 through April 2025.
[2] “Titanic Disaster: Official Casualty Figures and Commentary,” Church Anesi, accessed April 7, 2025, https://anesi.com/titanic.htm.
[3] Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.
[4] Simon Adams, Eyewitness Titanic (New York, NY: DK Publishing, 2014), 34.