The "something" according to Arminianism is the heresy of Neonominism.
ARMINIAN TEACHING CONCERNING THE DEATH OF CHRISTAccording to the Arminians, the Lord God after the fall into sin established a set of conditions that man had to fulfil in order to be saved. These conditions, they said, were obedience to the laws of the Old Testament. Only through obedience to God's laws could one receive eternal life. But, said the Arminians, the Lord realised that this condition was too demanding of man; God realised He had set a threshold out of man's reach. So God found Himself 'in a corner', so to speak, for God demands justice. Man fell into sin, and God would not let man go unpunished. Since God insists on justice, justice had to be obtained. Yet man could not obtain it. So, not only was man stuck, but God also.
So God sent His only Son to earth for sin. That is: Christ came not to pay for sins, but came rather to satisfy the justice of God so that God could start again with man. If Christ could satisfy the demands of the old conditions (obey the law), then God's justice would be satisfied, and God could set new conditions for man to meet in order to be saved. Christ was successful in satisfying the justice of God, Christ's death made it possible for God to do away with the Old Testament set of conditions, and so God was free to start afresh with a set of conditions. The new condition God chose was faith. So we today need faith in order to be saved. Faith is not an unmanageable threshold for us, for fallen man is not dead in sin, but sick (see Chapter 3). Sick people are still able to believe.
According to the Arminians, then, Christ's death was not a payment for our sins. Christ's death only made it possible for God to lower considerably the threshold of His demands on man. Now that God has set a manageable threshold (faith), it is for us to do the rest if we wish salvation: we need to believe. It will be evident that with this structure, the God of the New Testament shows considerably more mercy than the God of the Old Testament.
The fathers(Synod of Dort) summarised this teaching of the Arminians in Chapter 2 under the heading 'Rejection of Errors,' as can be found in the Book of Praise, p. 548. There we read that according to the Arminians the purpose of Christ's death was "that He should acquire for the Father the mere right to establish once more with man such a covenant as He might please ..." (Rejection of Errors, no. 2). In other words, Christ died so that the Father may have opportunity to set up a new set of conditions for man. Again, Christ "acquired for the Father only the authority or the perfect will to deal again with man, and to prescribe new conditions as He might desire" (Rejection of Errors, no. 3). Here again one finds the same thought that Christ satisfied the old set of conditions so that God, no longer bound by them, could set up a new set of conditions. This new set of conditions "consists in the fact that God has revoked the demand of perfect obedience of the law and regards faith as such and the obedience of faith, though imperfect, as the perfect obedience of the law" (Rejection of Errors, no. 4).
During the early decades of the 1600s, the Arminian teaching concerning the death of Christ was being taught from the pulpit of the churches. We can appreciate that this teaching caused much unrest among the faithful. The fathers at the Synod of Dort, therefore, concerned as they were about what the people were hearing in the pew about the purpose of Christ's death, saw a need to set straight the heresy of the Arminians. Chapter two of the Canons of Dort is therefore the result of the efforts of the fathers to put in writing the scriptural truths concerning the death of Christ and the redemption of man.
For Arminians, it's Christ as "Contingency Plan A."
Wonder what "Plan B" would've looked like?
Let's consider allowing the Arminians to address that.
Christ's work is understood as the payment of ransom or satisfaction. The sinner is up to his neck in debts that can never be paid. Christ's work pays all the debts. He suffered for all humanity, bore our punishment, paid the price of our sins for us.
John Wesley's Scriptural Christianity Thomas C. Oden.
I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”
Refrain
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
Elvina Hall (1820-1889) , Monument Street Methodist Church, Baltimore, Maryland
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Arise, my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears;
The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears:
Before the throne my surety stands,
Before the throne my surety stands,
My name is written on His hands.
He ever lives above, for me to intercede;
His all redeeming love, His precious blood, to plead:
His blood atoned for all our race,
His blood atoned for all our race,
And sprinkles now the throne of grace.
Five bleeding wounds He bears; received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers; they strongly plead for me:
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”
Charles Wesley
Justification is more than pardon, though. By the life and death of Christ, the demands of Gods's law have been fully satisfied. God didn't just decide one day that mankind's rebellion doesn't matter after all. Instead, by Jesus' sinless life and obedience he fulfilled the law, satisfying its demands. In his death on the cross, Christ bore the guilt and punishment of all humanity.
James V. Heidinger II in Basic United Methodist Beliefs
That Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that His atonement is for the whole human race, and that whosoever repents and believes through faith in Him is justified and regenerated and saved from the dominion of sin.
Asbury College Statement of Purpose