Quantum & Cosmos

Humans have always understood that eating food works. You get hungry, then your body gets tired, so you swallow certain things into your stomach, and you stop dying. Universal human experience has shown food to be effective. But the science of WHY and HOW food works is a relatively recent pursuit. The biochemistry is quite complex, involving a host of metabolic processes, some of which are understood quite well and some of which are still being explored. Scientists like learning about those sorts of things, but you don't need to understand all of them to experience the benefits of eating. 

In the same way, Christians throughout history have experienced the effectiveness of The Gospel in enabling them to have a relationship with God. Somehow, Jesus' death and resurrection is effective at taking away our sin and bringing us to God. This is called the "Atonement," (an English word that was invented to try to explain this act of becoming "at one" with God). THAT Jesus' death accomplishes this is at the very heart of Christianity, but there are actually a variety of theories as to HOW and WHY it works. Christians and non-believers alike frequently ask questions like, "Why did Jesus have to die?" or "What did his death actually accomplish?" These "why" and "how" questions are examples of what essentially amounts to a kind of spiritual science.

The problem is that science can be pretty tricky. For one, a good scientific theory should account for all relevant observations and evidence. In the study of the Atonement, this would include things like the statements made in Scripture about Jesus' death, general theological truths, and observations about subjective human experience. A theory's scope and explanatory power in these categories will help determine how credible it is. 

Scripture is clear that by his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus has accomplished for us salvation from sins and union with God. There are SO many verses about this in the New Testament, but I Peter 3:18 sums it up nicely: "Christ died for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God." For almost two thousand years, Christians have been trying to understand and explain how that works and have come up with some very good and helpful theories (as well as some not-so-helpful ones). Ask any Christian why Jesus had to die and they'll likely try to explain one of these theories. 

The problem is that even once a good, scientific theory is developed, there's no guarantee it will be easy to understand. This is especially true when a theory deals with things outside of our common experience like really tiny particles or things going super fast. The best scientific theories today are accepted because they account for the realities observed, but they make some claims that are very counterintuitive. The theory of relativity says that time slows down for someone going super fast...but I don't really understand that. Quantum Mechanics says light is a particle and a wave...but that seems impossible. Apparently some guy's cat can be dead and alive at the same time. This is a mystery to me. 

And that's probably the best way to describe the Atonement. It's a mystery. 

There are lots of great and helpful theories about how the atonement works, but I think it's safe to say that no one understands it fully. The Bible even refers to it in several places as a mystery (Romans 16:25, 26; Ephesians 1:7-10, 3:8-10, 6:19; Colossians 1:26). First Peter 1 describes the good news concerning salvation as a message from heaven, revealed to the prophets by the Holy Spirit. Not only was this good news something the prophets themselves "inquired carefully about" because they didn't fully understand it, but Peter says it is about "things into which angels long to look." When angels and prophets don't get it, it's probably pretty deep. 

And should we really be surprised by that? Should I really expect that the action which enabled humans to commune with the divine would be simple? We're not dealing with something as straight-forward as quantum physics here. We're talking about an infinite, all-knowing, perfect being working out a way to create a cosmic unity with a bunch of wicked morons. Should I really expect to understand the details of how he does this? I don't even understand my cell phone. 

That this is a mystery does not mean it is totally beyond comprehension. The verses listed above refer to a mystery, but it is a mystery that God has "now revealed to his people." The Gospel is so deep, and God's love so vast, that you will never run out of beautiful things to discover in it. But you can discover things! If you like science and think the universe is an exciting place, imagine exploring the exquisite beauty and infinite majesty of the love of God. It is paradoxically possible to "know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge." (Ephesians 3:19).

You can eat without understanding nutrition, you can walk without understanding gravity, and you can be saved by Jesus without totally understanding the Atonement. But, as with anything, deeper understanding results in richer experience and opens up more opportunities. Understanding nutrition can help you make better choices about what you're eating. You don't have to understand gravity to walk, but you do need a pretty good understanding to send a rocket to Mars. In the same way, meditating on the Atonement and coming to understand just what God has done in Christ empowers us to apply Gospel Truth more effectively. 

As with all scientific theories, some theories of the Atonement are more right than others. The Atonement may be too vast to fit into a convenient unified theory of everything, but there are some theories that reflect the data well, and some that are way off. One idea says that Jesus was just a great moral teacher who taught people to love one another as a way to be saved. His death doesn't do anything to save us, but it gives us a beautiful example of self-sacrifice that we can emulate in order to be saved. Some parts of this theory may explain some things, but it fails to account for a lot of data such as when Jesus said that he came to "give his life as a ransom for many" (Matt 20:28) or when Paul writes: "You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross." (Colossians 2:13,14 NLT).

As you can see, the theories on the Atonement generally take the form of metaphors: Jesus' death is a ransom; people who were dead are made alive; sins are cut away; records are cancelled; etc. Scripture is so full of metaphors to describe the Atonement that it is really incomplete to try limit our understanding to just one picture. As with any scientific theory, we need the pictures and metaphors to help us understand, but the underlying reality is something that doesn't fit perfectly into any one picture. 

https://xkcd.com/895

Every Scripture-based theory of the atonement, every true metaphor, helps us approach this mystery from different angles. Multiple metaphors move us away from a flat, one-dimensional understanding of the Atonement and empower us to form a fuller picture of the reality. We see a more solid Gospel, a richer, more robust and more glorious Truth. The love of God, faint and distant as a theory, takes shape as a real and weighty thing to be experienced.

For anyone interested in exploring these beautiful pictures, I've listed a few below. Some of the best theories on the atonement are also the most commonly referenced (penal substitution, Christus Victor, ransom theory) and they often involve metaphors we are familiar with (Jesus is a sacrifice dying in our place, Jesus is the conqueror who defeated death and Satan, Jesus' death paid the price to set us free). But every metaphor has its strengths and weaknesses and all of them break down at some point. I've chosen some less common biblical metaphors to emphasize the depth and diversity of this exciting topic. 

Why did Jesus die on the cross?

- Jesus loved us so much he wanted to marry us. His death provided our bride-price so that he could propose to us. (Hosea 2:14-20, John 3:27-30; John 13:5-8, I Cor 6:15-20, Ephesians 5:25-32, Rev 19:7-9. Also, this explanation of the Last Supper: 

https://youtu.be/eOaWb7AIVVc?si=BLOV8x2cHq7lRXo

- God had an unbreakable agreement with humanity to punish evil. God had promised and he is always truthful so he was bound by his word to punish sin. This agreement was binding as long as both parties were alive so the death of both parties was the only way to be released from the agreement. (Genesis 9:5,6, Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Romans 2:6-16; Romans 7:1-6; Hebrews 9:15-17, Col 2:12-14)

- God is holy and pure, whereas wickedness is filthy and repulsive. A dirty thing cannot clean itself, but needs a clean thing to remove its filth. Jesus took our sin on himself like a clean towel takes on mud so that our sins could be done away with by God's cleansing judgment. (Ezekiel 16:4-15; Ezekiel 36:22-29, Zechariah 3:3-9, II Corinthians 5:21; I Peter 2:24; Titus 3:2-6, Hebrews 10:10-22, I John 1:7-9)

- God is transcendent and holy, far superior to us in every way, whereas we are rebellious and selfish. Because of this our natural state is enmity and separation from God who feels distant. In order to span this great distance and reach us, God needed to do all the work. The Son of God came to bridge this gap and make a way for us. By becoming human himself, God was able to reach humans. Because Jesus experienced death and separation from the Father, he can reach those who are dead and separated. He experienced ultimate death but was victorious over it, rising to ultimate life. In this way he became the bridge between life and death, heaven and earth. He is a bridge that extends to both extremes so there are none outside his reach. (John 1:49-51, John 6, 37-40, 14:2-6, Philippians 2:5-11, Colossians 1:13-22, I Peter 3:18, Hebrews 4:14-5:10, 7:22-28)