When talking about Jesus, many people seem to think that his death
is a quasi-mechanical payment for people’s moral debts of people. As if
God would kep an account for every person’s deeds and it needs to be in
balance in order to go heaven … and as if Jesus would’ve come to pay
the debts by his death, for all these accounts.
What is embarassing here is the idea that God, as an infinite person
with emotions, would retract to numerical accounting when it comes to
determining people’s righteousness. Instead, I currently think about an
alternative analogy, and would appreciate every thought about its
validity:
Might it be that Jesus’ death is in no way a mechanical payment, but
rather an expression of emotion. Namely, an expression of God’s
infinite love for people. Just as Jesus said: “Greater love has no one
than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” (John
15:13 ESV). As an expression, it is no payment for debts, but
something symbolic, something that has a meaning and wants to say
something. Namely, that God invites all people to come back to him and
be forgiven all their moral debts. God will not even count them.
Numbers do not matter for a character filled with love and grace … .
Start date: 2007-11-11
Post date: 2007-11-11
Version date: 2007-11-11 (for last meaningful change)
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