The Atonement

Since this is the week leading up to Easter, I thought I would perhaps try my hand at another series of posts...this time on the atonement. As I have mentioned in previous posts, the traditional view of the atonement (penal substitution) has never seemed right to me. Even as a new Christian, I found myself questioning it and seeking the guidance of other more mature Christians. After all, I was just a milk drinking baby Christian...and I turned to all those who had graduated to the real meat of things to explain it to me. I sought out several pastors I respected but their explanations rang hollow to me. It just did not feel right. My first glimmer of truth came from an article I happened upon by John Gavazonni called The Great Misrepresentation. In it, he said:

True divine justice does not take an obstinate stance of condemnation until it gets its pound of flesh. True divine justice justifies the ungodly (Rom. 4:5). Why? Because at the heart of the message of the cross of Christ is the truth that God takes responsibility for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6). "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" (II Cor. 5:19). God in human form permitted us to murder Him to convince us that He is resolute and steadfast in His love for us. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the ultimate friend of sinners.
In the old covenant, we begin to see the meaning of the blood when Jehovah says to the Israelites, "I have given you the blood upon the altar" (Lev. 17:11). We need the blood, not God! The Lord spoke these words to me as He unfolded the meaning of reconciliation. he said, "I am not the god who demands blood. I am the God who gives blood" Oh, precious words!

There are ways of understanding the atonement other than what is often referred to as penal substitution. There is Christus Victor, Moral Influence, the Governmental view, Recapitualation. Rene' Girard's anthropology of the cross. There are bits and pieces of truth in all the different views….it is just that modern Christianity has adopted Anselm's view of the atonement almost exclusively. To disregard that view casts one into the "not Christian" category in the view of most believers. As a universalist, I know so well that just because "everyone" believes something that does not necessarily make it so.

In my next post, I am going to talk about a writing by Stephen Jones that declares the penal substitutionary view of the atonement is the core of Christianity. I could not disagree more. In the Great Misrepresentation, John Gavazonni goes on to

"emphatically declare my allegiance to the great cardinal tenets of the historic Christian faith. I have held them and will continue to hold them dear to my heart. I hold nothing more precious than the Christ of whom they speak. I am one in conviction with you if you affirm the true deity and humanity of our Lord; His virgin birth; the necessity of His sacrificial death for the reconciling of the world; His bodily resurrection from the dead; His glorious appearing to judge the living and the dead and to the God-breathed normative record of this good news given to us in holy scripture!"

I agree with the sentiments expressed. I do not discount the blood of Christ in any way. It is all the more precious to me because "God was in Christ" and willingly endured the worst that humanity had to dish out. Was that a payment to himself? Does that make sense? Did the atonement change God's mind so that he was able to finally forgive us? Was it God who needed the OT sacrificial system…or was it mankind who needed it? These are just a few questions to ponder when considering the atonement.

Bloody sacrifice is in OUR heart….as proven by the history of human sacrifice. The Mayans, the Aztecs, the worshippers of Baal and Molech. The children of Israel sacrificed their own children in a sick, perverted ritual to Baal. The need for blood sacrifice…the need to appease an angry deity is in the heart of man…NOT the heart of God. God makes that declaration in many places throughout the OT. He did not desire sacrifice…nor did he require it and he says he abhors it. He did not feed a bigger, better sacrifice into the sacrificial machinery to end sacrifice once and for all. Blood sacrifice is the antithesis of what God desires from us.

It is not possible to even scratch the surface of the atonement in a single post, It is something that needs prayerfully explored and studied. John Gavazzoni has written several short writings on the crucifixion and the meaning of the atonement. They can be found on Serious Seminal Samplings on the Greater Emmanuel website. I suggest you begin with The Great Misrepresentation. Among others that you might want to check out are:

My Dad, God

A Legal Mentality

The Necessity of Christ's Death

The Atonement