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I’ve been listening to Romans 6 and 7 repeatedly over the past couple of weeks and it really is an interesting way of absorbing a message being able to hear, pause and replay the same content over an over again without the effort of actually paging and reading. These 2 chapters are about Sin, the Law and how believers relate to these things and are incorporated into Jesus death and resurrection. Paul draws many interesting antitheses out of these themes which, I think, shed light on what actually happened on the cross and how we tend to mix up themes which for Paul, are separate and symbolic.
I’ve been looking at what Jesus’ death means for Paul and what sense it makes today. My conclusion was that we have perhaps overemphasised one aspect of Jesus’ death, perhaps even, mutated Paul’s meaning, in thinking that Jesus death was the penalty and payment for our sins. We often hear that Jesus died the death we sinners should have died but Paul speaks a different language and we often and unfortunately read his writings through reformed spectacles designed to correct 15th century mistakes thereby systematically missing Paul’s message.
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After what was a somewhat frightening journey through the workings of substitutionary atonement and an intensive study of Romans, Galatians and Philippians I have reached the following conclusions:
- “Atonement”, in the NT, means reconciliation and not “appeasement”
- God does not demand punishment of (or on behalf of) repentant believers
- Jesus death was the final blood sacrifice for those under Mosaic law (Torah)
- The cross was where God symbolically condemned sin and ended Torah
- Jesus blood was the pledge and beginning of the new covenant
- The new covenant is in spirit not in flesh (or blood)
This is Part III of Substitutionary Atonement – How Can Jesus Pay for Our Sins?, an attempt at making sense of the cross and how reconcilliation and forgiveness works.
Making Sense of Jesus’ Bloody Death
What is the meaning of the cross? Why did Jesus die and was it the only way God could forgive us our sins? Is the blood of Jesus the means or the sign of our salvation? Does the cross have a different meaning for Jews and Gentiles?
Can we find a clear coherent answer grounded in Scripture or must this topic remain mysterious? My experience has been that most normal Christians can only offer vague simplistic answers which are based on unquestioned or incoherent assumptions (e.g. “Jesus died for my sins”). Text books and persons trained in theology tend to offer more complex answers but use words and phrases which have unclear meaning outside of the theological realm (“atonement”, “penance”) or ambiguous meaning within (e.g. “life”, “death”). Then there are radical theologies which are fairly clear and coherent but paint a horrible picture of God (e.g. “wrath”, “penal substitution”).
I want to try find a coherent, biblical doctrine which also corresponds to a loving gracious God. Paul’s explanations to a Jewish and Gentile audience made certain assumptions about their understanding and makeup. They certainly had no problem understanding blood atonement because they lived with it daily. How can atonement be explained to a modern audience?
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This is Part II of Substitutionary Atonement – How Can Jesus Pay for Our Sins?
The Rational Christian Model
Let us begin by analysing the ways in which resolution can be obtained after injustice. Our sense of justice demands a solution and we know that one cannot undo what has been done. However, two[1] paths are available so that justice is served and the conflict is resolved:
- Revenge: Punishment and Reparation followed by Forgetting
- Reconciliation: Repentance and Reparation followed by Forgiveness
The Problem
There are many things I understand about Christianity and a few (sometimes key) things I don’t. Atonement is one of the things I cannot make sense of. Why does Jesus’ death make it OK that I have sinned and will sin again? Can we really speak of justice when another person receives punishment for what I did?
For many people, this absurd notion is grounds for writing off Christianity as irrational, even inhumane. But despite this obvious problem, Christianity makes much more sense of life than any other explanation I have come across. I want a solution.
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