I just spent thirty minutes exploring the blogsphere looking for something profound for today. Instead my head is spinning. I made the mistake of searching for the phrase “substitutionary atonement” only to find that this is the subject of much theological debate.
At this stage in my life, my understanding of this is best clarified by a comparison to the animal sacrifices taking place in Leviticus. My view is best informed by people like Rob Bell www.marshill.org and a Canadian, Joe Amaral www.firstcentury.tv and others who have provided lots of OT context for NT doctrine. We carry Joe’s DVDs in our store, and if you’re reading this from farther away, the ones on the Feasts and Hebraic roots are worth ordering directly. (They’re not quality productions, but the content is great.) Some of Rob’s best stuff on this is available on audio from Willow Creek sermons he did there earlier this decade. (Especially an 8-CD set called Rob Bell Teaches at Willow.)
Instead, I see nothing but debate and confusion online.
With my heart longing today to share something more simple, more elementary, I’m drawn back to something I use a lot with people, a simple spelling test.
Q. How do you spell religion?
A. D-O — Do this, do that, do the other thing. Your standing before God is/will be based on what you do.
Q. How do you spell Christianity?
A. D-O-N-E — It’s all been done for us. There is nothing we can do to earn it, it is the gift of God.
All the theological debates on the internet won’t help you understand it. It has to do with the both the grace of God and the wrath of God. It has to do with God’s justice and God’s mercy. It is truly mysterious. What matters is that know that you’ve been a partaker of it. A receiver of it.
So go ahead and Google “substitutionary atonement” and allow the concepts discussed to cause your head to swim; but at the end of the day know that the concept of God’s forgiveness and the act of Christ’s death on Calvary is intended to be simple enough that a child can understand it. Then, come as a child.
PW
