Atonement In Religion

Incarnation plus Atonement equals Satisfaction The relationship between incarnation and atonement is central to Christianity. Yet within that centrality we find there has been debate, on more than one occasion, as to the interaction between the two. In regards to the Church, the concept of incarnation is what happened when Jesus, the Son of God, was conceived of a virgin; the divine nature of the Son was perfectly united with human nature in one divine Person, also referred to as Logos (Albl). With the divine nature of Christ in place (incarnation), we then proceed to atonement, “The Christian doctrine of atonement is essentially an attempt to understand the earliest teaching of the Church that ‘Christ died for our sins’ (1 Cor. 15:3)” (Albl
. . When I violate the divine order, I put myself in debt to God, the source of that divine order. In order to reestablish justice, I must pay that debt” (271). This concept of satisfaction describes a balance of justice, which holds in highest regard the honor of God. Sumner explains this honor as, “His investment in the world as a just place. Anselm wants us to realize how much we rightly have invested in that honor. What if the god who would wave his hand at sin is the same kind of god who would look at the consequent moral anarchy and say ‘whatever’? In other words, God’s justice, his mercy, the order and beauty of the universe, and his involvement with his creatures are woven together, and one thread cannot be pulled out in disregard of the rest” (29). Anselm wanted us to understand that through our sin we dishonor God, but still have an opportunity to restore that
The intricacies of the two can be found in 2 Corinthians where Paul writes, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (5:14-15). The one that ‘died for all’ was Jesus, in whom we have received deliverance from our sins and reconciliation with the Lord God. Paul continues in 2 Corinthians in stating, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation” (5:18-19). Despite humans committing our own sins, we cannot be free of them ourselves, which is where the incarnation of Jesus shines. His love for us was so great that He took on human form, to live as one of us, thus enabling Himself to be a surrogate for our deserved punishment. Christ also called us to reconciliation with one another, just as we are to be reconciled with Him; it is through this mutual reconciliation that we build one another up within the family of