Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: hedrick@geneva.rutgers.edu Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: a Christian motif that doesn't make sense to me Message-ID: Date: 29 May 90 09:49:35 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 48 Approved: christian@geneva.rutgers.edu In a posting a week or so ago, Quowong Peter Liu asked how it can be that Jesus' death allow our sins to be forgiven. Oddly enough, this is one area in which there is no official doctrine. It's sort of surprising in a way, since it's so basic. The Church has agreed on doctrines about the Incarnation, the Trinity, and many other areas, but there is no single official doctrine of the atonement (the technical word describing this question). I find many of the common answers close, but not quite sufficient. Most theories of the atonement are based on the concept that someone has to be punished for our sins, and so God took the punishment on himself. But this makes God sound rather arbitrary. Why does he have to insist on punishment? And if he does, how can he take it on himself? I think we have to start with the concept that sin creates a barrier between us and God. This would be true in any relationship. If one person offends another, it is going to create a barrier in their relationship. If the offense is a serious one between people who are deeply involved with each other, the other party can't just say "That's OK. I'll ignore it." Ultimately both parties are going to have to share with each other the consequences of the offense, including whatever guilt and anger it has produced, in order to come back into relationship. There is no way to undo the offense, but once the consequences are voluntarily shared, it no longer separates. In my opinion, Christ's death was God's way of sharing the consequences of our sin. By experiencing all of human life, including suffering and death, these things can no longer separate us from God. However Christ's death is not all there is to Christianity. It's only one aspect of the general conception of Christ as mediator. The idea is that God the eternal creator is too far from us to allow any kind of meaningful personal relationship. If we were to be able to see him directly, we would simply be overwhelmed. The Hebrew Scriptures take it for granted that we'd die on the spot. Christ makes God visible to us in a form we can deal with. To accept Christ as savior basically means an intention to live as a disciple of Christ. This means both to try to live our lives in accordance with his teachings, and to establish a personal relationship with God through him. This relationship is carried out through regular prayer, worship, and other devotional activities. In the long run, we accept that through this relationship, God will come to lead us into living our lives the way he wants. Christ's death helps make such a relationship possible, by removing a wall between us and God that would otherwise prevent it. But it is by no means the major substance of the Christian life. I would say that living in union with Christ is.