Reader had a theological question. At first, I dismissed it as borderline to this blog. But I did say I’d write about journeying into the borderlands. Reader wanted to meet people in that space between his beliefs and theirs – a borderland. So, into the borderlands I go. Buckle up. This will be quite a ride.
“If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
Thus wrote Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago.[1]
Yehiel De-Nur, an Auschwitz survivor, collapsed during his 1961 testimony in the trial of Adolf Eichmann, who was found guilty in the deaths of 5 million Jews. In a 1983 interview, De-Nur said he had had quite the revelation on the witness stand.[2] Looking at Eichmann, he realized he was no different than the Nazi. Eichmann, like him, was just a man. In that moment, De-Nur knew he too was capable of the very evil of Eichmann.
Public Domain photo: De-Nur testifying at the Eichman Trial, Jerusalem, 1961
Solzhenitsyn and De-Nur faced evil at levels of intensity and depravity few of us have. They came to the same realization – that we all have capacity for evil.
We moderns wrestle with evil on two levels. Cosmically, we ask, “Why does evil exist?” Personally, we ask, “How do we get rid of the evil in ourselves?”
As with other world religions, the Judeo-Christian scriptures speak of evil as sin. Sin is what separates us from each other and from God.
The word sin has fallen out of fashion these days – or maybe it has fallen into fashion. Either way, we’d rather not use the word in serious company. Stick with the word evil for the moment as most of us can agree that there are some very evil things in our world – abuse, racism, violence, corruption, dehumanization, hypocrisy, murder, dishonesty, gossip, the list is endless. We human beings treat one another rather badly. Even if we can’t always agree on what constitutes “bad” behavior, we can agree that it exists.
If certain actions cause us to fall out with one another, to hurt each other, what brings us back together? What brings relational healing? The Jewish and Christian scriptures have a word for eradicating the badness. Translated in English as atonement (literally, at-one-ment), it means being at one with others. Atonement erases the divide, reconciling us with each other and with God.
Jewish and Christian scriptures speak of atonement coming through the shedding of blood. Christians have traditionally believed that the atoning blood is Christ’s – shed for our sins.
Reader wanted to hear my “thoughts on Christ’s blood providing atonement vs it not being necessary for redemption/salvation.” His friends have said it wasn’t necessary for Christ to die for our sins, that his dying was man’s doing, not God’s. Given all the scriptures that speak to Christ dying for our sins, Reader believes this concept is a pillar of Christianity.
Reader adds that his friends “disdain” the idea that God the Father required a punishment involving blood and the death of His son. Reader wants to understand how he should respond.
I applaud Reader for wanting to understand the perspective of those he disagrees with and for desiring to engage those who think differently than he does about issues of faith and living out that faith.
There are things in the realm of the Christian faith – things we call theology – that are mystery. By “mystery” I mean that they are too much for our finite brains. The concept of the Trinity is the most mysterious of all. Atonement fits into this category of ideas, concepts just beyond the grasp of the human mind.
Jesus talked in parables, stories Everyday Person could relate to – planting crops, losing money, dealing with rebellious offspring. These stories were about theological concepts above paygrade for even the most learned scholars of the day. Jesus was trying to explain infinite truths to finite beings. Like explaining to an ant crawling on your counter why you don’t want it in your kitchen.
People – theologians, preachers, lay people – down through history have used word pictures (something akin to parables) to explain eternal truths like the Trinity and atonement. Anytime we explain something eternal, we come up short of capturing the full concept in a single word picture. History is riddled with such analogies that, as standalones, don’t quite stand on their own.
Take for example using the common three-leaf clover to explain the Trinity. It might be one clue in a much larger puzzle, but it is just one very small piece that doesn’t solve the whole riddle. And, by the way, did St. Patrick really explain the Trinity with a clover? Or is that just Irish advertising?
It doesn’t mean we mere mortals cannot understand God, or concepts like the Trinity and atonement, at least at some level, but we will spend an eternity getting to know God and never reach the end of our exploration. To close this vast divide between the infinite and the finite, God has chosen to reveal Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ, who is at once fully God and fully human.
Ah, another mystery. The God-human nature of Christ. Add incarnation to Trinity and atonement and you can understand why we need an eternity to grasp it all.
Because he is fully human, Jesus is much more approachable by us. Because he is fully God, we really do meet God through Jesus. I can smell brains melting.
According to biblical writers, God created Adam and Eve to relate to them. Kind of like The Indian in the Cupboard[3] with a higher moral intellect engaged. But Adam and Eve chose to go their own way – sin – and thus they became separated from God.
Rushing through the entire Old Testament in one sentence, all those books from Genesis to Malachai are about God reaching out to humankind, revealing Himself to people, and drawing them back to Himself. As writers in the New Testament explain, God had a plan from the very beginning and that involved the second person of that mysterious Trinity. Jesus the Christ (the title means “Messiah” or “Anointed One”) came as a human being to be God-Approachable, meaning approachable enough that even passing skeptics like Jesus’ disciple, Thomas, could physically touch him.
The New Testament and the Church have taught that Jesus also came to die for our sins – the biblical passages are infused with the teaching. To bridge the gap between God and humanity, Jesus had to die and be resurrected – those two experiences go together for this gap-bridging.
Therein lies the crux of Reader’s question – the word crux rooted in the word cross. The cross is at the core, the heart of the gospel. What are we to make of Jesus dying on the cross? Is it simply a human-driven tragedy? Is it symbolic of some greater meaning? Did something change in the universe because Jesus died?
Various theories of atonement have been developed over the past two millennia. Remember, these theories are attempts to make sense of a theological mystery, how the death of Jesus closed the gap between us and God.
Theologians explain Jesus’ death by saying “yes” to that last question: something did change in the universe because Jesus died. And that change was that people were now reconcilable to God because God had bridged the gap sin had caused.
I understand why atonement is off-putting to the modern mind. It strikes contemporary thinkers as barbaric. Some aspects of atonement are more off-putting than others, especially the idea that God paid a ransom in the form of His Son’s death to the Devil, of all creatures. When we get into such confusing and awkward landscape, it is best to take our theology one step at a time.
- Can we agree that evil exists in our world?
By that I mean, can we acknowledge that we humans do great harm to each other and to the world (including other creatures) around us? We may think some people more evil than others, but evil does seem fairly endemic among us humans. You don’t have to agree with the idea that we are born in sin to acknowledge that sin is universal. If we are not born into sin, we sure lose our innocence very quickly – says any parent of a toddler. In any case, however sin got started, it has ruined everything.
When I was in junior high school, I had just one pair of gray slacks to wear to school for the entire year. Early in the school year, a pen in my pants pocket leaked, causing an ink stain. There was no way to get rid of the stain and no way to hide it. And my parents had no money to buy me a new pair. Being 14 is awkward enough, let alone having to wear stained pants.
Just like that ink leak, evil – or sin – has a way of ruining everything.
- Can we agree that God the Creator experiences the pain of this harm very deeply, at the least because of how it affects all of us?
I know, some readers are already asking how an omnipotent (all powerful) God could allow evil to exist in the first place, but let’s take these mega-issues one at a time. I also get that others may have a hard time accepting a God who has feelings for creation. They may believe God is nonpersonal or distant.
The atonement concept is based on the idea that God is both moral and loving and thus deeply concerned about human sin. Sin separates us from each other and from God.
- Does it make sense that God would wish to get rid of the evil plaguing His beloved humans?
I think it does if you can accept the idea of a moral, personal, and loving God. If so, atonement is the process whereby God has removed the evil – or sin – problem.
When I was that struggling 14-year-old with the ruined pants, I became forever indebted to Darlene, a young adult who sensed I could do with a new outfit. When she offered, I asked for black slacks and an orange shirt – this was the late ‘60s. I sure dressed up nicely in them.
In that hour, Darlene was my redeemer. She removed my stain, my shame. I could walk into school with my head held high.
God’s act of atonement takes a lot of word pictures to explain to us finites. While no one word picture does it all, atonement is available to all of us.
This summer a hymn – new to me – has become one of my favorites. I discovered it was a favorite of Eric Liddell’s as well. I invite you to listen to “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” and let its delightful words soak in:
There is no place where earth’s sorrows
Are more felt than up in Heaven;
There is no place where earth’s failings
Have such kindly judgment given.
Want to dig deeper into the various atonement word pictures or theories? I invite you to read a summation I’ve written, which I’ll send out in pdf format with my next newsletter, available via a free subscription. Have a question? Ask it in the comments section of a post or on the contact page of my website.
[1] Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), a Soviet dissident, raised global awareness of political repression through his non-fiction work, The Gulag Archipelago. He spent time in the Gulag for criticizing Stalin.
[2] I hesitate to share stories for which I can’t find sources to ensure accuracy. But the core of what Yehiel De-Nur told Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes has been corroborated.
[3] Family fantasy film (1995) about a cupboard which brings toy figures to life.