Justification: Part I – The Atonement

The question why did Jesus need to come to die is one of the deepest questions concerning the Christian Faith. The fact that God had to come and take on the flesh of a man in the Incarnation and then suffer and die in order to redeem his creation seems to limit the power of God. Why did not God merely forgive our sins without the Atonement of Christ or achieve in it a way that did not involve the suffering and death of the Son of God? Critics would point out that Christians claim that God is omnipotent, meaning that God is all-powerful.
While it is true that God is all-powerful and capable of doing great acts such as creating the world out of nothing (ex nihilo) it is not true that God is capable of doing anything. God is limited by his self-existent nature. For instance, God is incapable of sin because his nature is characteristically perfect. Understanding the Atonement begins with understanding that God will never go against his nature. In a sense, God limits Himself. Therefore, because God is just he could not simply “wink” at sin and forgive it without satisfaction because if he did so he would no longer be just. In the same way, if a judge simply forgave a person found guilty of theft without anything being done to make satisfaction for his crimes he would not be worthy to be a judge,
The argument I am going to use for the first part of the doctrine of justification – the Atonement - was put forth by Anselm of Canterbury during the Middle Ages. He was a forerunner of the Scholastic movement which sought to rationally understand the doctrines of the Christian faith. One of his distinctive works was outlining the rationality of the Atonement so to persuade Christians and non-Christians (such as Muslims) of the validity of the Christian religion. Anselm’s argument is as follows:
First we are to understand that as God’s creatures we owe to Him certain duties such as our obedience to His laws and giving Him worship as our Creator. However, it is clear that all of humanity does not do this. Instead, we fall short of our duty to God and therefore we insult God and incur his wrath upon us. In order to make up for our transgressions against God we need to perform certain works as a repayment not only for the duties we have failed to perform but also the insult it has caused to God. Just in the same way a thief is required to do more than simply pay back what he has stolen.
However, the question arises how are we to pay back God? What works of righteousness can we perform for Him that we do not already owe? If we live a perfect life for the rest of our lives we are only giving to God what is already our duty to Him. The same goes for God’s entire creation, that is, everything other than God. They have nothing to give God which is not already required of them. Therefore only God, who owes Himself nothing, is in a position to make satisfaction for the wrong done. There is an immediate problem here. Only God is in a position to make satisfaction but it is man that must do the satisfying. The solution is that God becomes man so that is still fully God yet fully man. This is one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith but if it has not occurred then we are in our sins and have no hope for salvation because there is nothing to atone for our unrighteousness.
What act does the God-Man do in order to atone for the sins of mankind? Anselm poses the question: If is God-Man was before you and you were that unless you killed him then all creatures; humans, other races that may exist in this universe or other universes, and angelic beings, would perish would you kill him? Boso, the man who Anselm is having the conversation with his work, replies he would not. What, asks Anselm, if it was asked that you bear all the sins of the world or else kill this man? Again Boso answers he would rather suffer the consequences of not killing the man than killing him. Thus the death of the Son of God is of such immeasurable magnitude all other sins pale in comparison. Also, he notes that God was not forced to become Man but did it willingly, thus the righteousness achieved by such an act is equally immeasurable. Thus on the cross Christ achieves enough righteousness to pay for the sins of the entire world.
Thus Christ has earned a great reward for suffering, willingly, for sins committed against the Father. He has acquired merit. Yet Christ is God and is fully content and perfect and needs not this merit. Since this merit is his own he has the right to do with it as he pleases. He chooses to give it to humanity whom he loves so much that he died for so that satisfaction could be made for their sins. The question of how this righteousness is given to man will be discussed in the later section entitled “The Doctrine of Sanctification.”