In my blog, I have been very critical of what is called “Penal Substitutionary Atonement theory.” (See the articles “The Death of Jesus: Penal Substitutionary Atonement” and “Demons: Part Three.”) I will not repeat the details of my critique of the theory in this article. However, I want to share an insight from Pauline scholar Douglas A. Campbell which may benefit those who still feel bound to the idea that Jesus had to die in our place to assuage the wrath of God and secure our salvation. Such a theory basically says Jesus had to save us from God and we are saved by divine child abuse. I suggest that it is an irrational understanding of the good news of the Christ Event.
Two theological concepts unique and foundational to the Christian faith are Incarnation and Trinity. Both ideas assume that God, the Creator of the universe, came in a Jewish man named Jesus. “The Word became flesh” in the carpenter/stonemason of Nazareth. The Son of the Trinity became a part of creation in this one human being. The church maintained that Jesus was fully God and fully human. In him, “heaven and earth” were joined.
The Incarnation was understood to have a retroactive, present, and futuristic nature encompassing all of time, space, matter, and life. What we see in Jesus is what theologians call a “proleptic” event. We are graced with a picture of the “future” when heaven and earth are one and God’s Kin-dom comes in its fullness. When the church is faithful to Jesus as the Body of Christ, it too foreshadows that joyful consummation. We become colonizers of God’s “future” in our here and now.
The Early Church Fathers and Mothers realized that on Good Friday, God in Christ was on that cross. The Creator of this universe is “the Crucified God.” Jesus as “the God/man” was not trying to save us from God’s wrath. He was revealing the self-giving, unconditional, and nonviolent love of God. When he prayed, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing,” he unveiled the heart of a God whose unfathomable love is beyond human understanding or capacity.
The cross reveals the depths of God’s solidarity with every part of creation. God feels from the inside out all our pain, all the consequences of our sin and foolishness, all the suffering and injustice endured by Her creation, and all the hopes and dreams that have been dashed on the hard rocks of an imperfect and often predatory world. The significance of the cross is far deeper and more liberating than the theory of Penal Substitutionary Atonement could ever find the courage or ability to discover. Jesus did not die to save us from the fires of an eternal, punitive hell. He lived, died, and rose again to reveal the nature, depths, and destiny of God’s love for Her creation.
The Early Church Fathers and Mothers in Eastern Christianity had a very different understanding and appreciation of the Incarnation and the Trinity from that of much Western Christianity. Two quotes reflect that distinct emphasis:
“God became what we are so that we could become what God is.” Athanasius
“That which is not assumed is not healed. That which is united to God will be saved. If half of Adam fell, also half will be taken up and saved. But if all of Adam, all of his nature will be united to God, and all of it will be saved.” Gregory the Theologian
What these early theologians believed was that God in Christ had taken into the divine self all Her creation including every part of our human nature—the good, the bad, and the ugly. And this assumption of creation was and is for all eternity. With that assumption, God through self-giving love heals, saves, emancipates, transfigures, and glorifies Her creation, including every human life. God takes all the brokenness, all the evil and sin, all the suffering, all the hopes and dreams, all the beauty and ugliness, all the tragedy of history and nature and commits the Divine Self not only to its healing but to its infinite growth and flourishing. The Ascension, which is so woefully misunderstood in wooden terms by many Christians, is about Jesus taking with him all of history, creation, and humanity into God. God in Christ has assumed creation and is stubbornly devoted to our wellbeing and eternal transformation into the unique children of God we were created to become.
God takes all the brokenness, all the evil and sin, all the suffering, all the hopes and dreams, all the beauty and ugliness, all the tragedy of history and nature and commits the Divine Self not only to its healing but to its infinite growth and flourishing.
As Douglas A Campbell wisely observes, God in Christ takes responsibility for us and all creation. The cross reveals how committed God is to such an undertaking. Through the unconditional, indiscriminate, self-giving, nonviolent, and everlasting love and compassion of God, we and all creation are destined for an eternal communion of love and joy. In the words of II Peter, we will become “partakers of the divine nature.” Only God’s love which assumes compassionate responsibility for Her creation is capable of such ultimate redemption, healing, and emancipation. God in Christ has come into Her creation, has identified the Divine Self with that creation, and has taken it all into Her healing heart. As George MacDonald reminds us, God not an abandoning Deity. In Christ, we and all creation are kept forever in the heart of God. In our chaotic, insane, and self-centered world, such stubborn and divine devotion is good news indeed.
