Thoughts About The Resurrection And Atonement

THOUGHTS ABOUT THE RESURRECTION AND ATONEMENT

      I remember, when growing up, a mildly frustrating and consistent feeling at Easter that was difficult to shake or explain. I knew that my sins were forgiven through the atonement, and that I was supposed to feel glad about that; but I couldn’t FEEL much of anything. I vaguely wondered why God didn’t just forgive us, without Jesus’s having to die on the cross. If He were disposed to forgive us anyway, why wouldn’t He just do it? I knew intellectually, that sin had to be atoned for by a sinless sacrifice; but if God was the one making the rules, why couldn’t He just change this one? Similarly, I knew I was supposed to be excited about the resurrection, but I just didn’t get it. I knew His rising was proof that He was God, but I already knew that. I just didn’t get it on an emotional level, and nor even on a very clear intellectual level.

     One day it occurred to me to wonder what things would be like if Jesus hadn’t died on the cross, if there had been no atonement. I would suffer in hell, no doubt, but then what? What would my punishment do? Would it fix things? My punishment would be just, but would it change anything? Could it make things right? Would it clean up the ugliness or damage of even one sin? Every time I sin, it changes me. I become in a small or large way messed up, distorted and damaged, and I usually mess up those around me as well.

I finally came to see--once I thought about what sin actually does--that sin has to be atoned for, not because God wanted it that way, but because sin changes things for the worse and in a way only God could fix.

     When I consider how much one sin on the part of Adam and Eve changed things, it gives me pause.  Sin transformed our world from one of perfect paradise to one where death and destruction prevail—not  as a punishment, but simply because sin changes things (it is its nature).  In ways large or small sin always brings about some sort of distortion, destruction,  or theft.  It cannot be otherwise.  Eden became a place where tigers rip apart lambs, where fish eat their own young, where people plant car bombs and rape children. This transformation did not occur because God demanded it; it is simply what sin does. It is the way sin changes things. I saw that my punishment would be deserved, but could not accomplish anything beyond that.  Sin is far too enormous.  Only HIS sacrifice could change things. His sacrifice is the only one that could cleanse us from our sins in a way that we are not only forgiven but cleansed and healed.  He could do this not just because He was perfect, but also because He was God, and it would take an action on a cosmic level to undo sin and its results. He was the only one that could undo the wrongs we have done, the pains and distortions we have caused by our every sin. I do not mean that we will escape all the consequences of our sins in this life, nor will the people whom we injure. I mean that not only is the guilt of our sins washed away by Jesus (even while we are still here on earth) in a way that our own punishment could never accomplish, but also that one day we will see, as part of the consolation in heaven, the pain and injury sin has caused to be erased, undone, reversed, healed. It is because of His sacrifice that we are not only forgiven, but one day our world will be cleaned up and recreated as a "new earth," one in which there is no more disease or death, an earth where lambs and lions will sleep together, where sorrow and sighing will have fled away, and we where we will sing new songs. It is because of His death that He will be able to fulfill His promise to wipe away every tear. Our death, our eternal punishment, could never have accomplished this. His could accomplish it all. And He did it.

 --Sally McKenney Mahoney