More thoughts on the atonement
Tuesday, 16 March, 2004
Following on from his previous article, Ben writes on whether you need to understand the atonement to be saved.
Current:
Bible: Isaiah (ESV) 28/09/2010
seen: Tropic Thunder 26/09/2010
seen: The Life of Mammals 24/09/2010
seen: What a Girl Wants 19/09/2010
seen: Jerry Maguire 19/09/2010
seen: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 06/09/2010
seen: Tomorrow Never Dies 05/09/2010
seen: Nanny McPhee 28/08/2010
read: Mercury (Hope Larson) 27/08/2010
read: Spellcheckers Vol 1 (Jamie S Rich, Nicolas Hitori de, Joelle Jones) 16/08/2010
read: Solipsistic Pop Vol 2 (Solipsistic Pop) 16/08/2010
read: Chiggers (Hope Larson) 15/08/2010
seen: Josie and the Pussycats 14/08/2010
seen: Mr & Mrs Smith 14/08/2010
seen: Step Up 2 13/08/2010
Blinks:
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
Online magazine that publishes fairy tales that are not reworkings of old tales.
Journal that publishes fairy tale writing.
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Maybe, but isn’t it nice to pursue and grow in wisdom and the knowledge of God anyway?
I don’t understand what you mean, Deb.
Not needing to understand something in order to be saved is not really a reason not to try to anyway.
No, I do think it is important to understand the atonement, especially the more one walks in Christ. However, if one does necessarily need to understand it at the point of becoming a Christian, why are evangelistic talks so heavy on it?
Hmm. I imagine because of the centrality of the cross. If I were not a Christian and I went to a talk (and I was seriously interested), I suppose that I would want to know why this guy had to die and why that makes me right with God.
I always think back to the thief on the cross next to Jesus. He didn’t need to be baptised in water to be saved. Did he understand substitutionary atonement? I don’t know…
I think at the most basic level, you don’t need to understand atonement to be saved (I could be wrong! Please rebuke me!). I think at its most basic level its saying to God, “I don’t want to live my way, I want to live your way, so I’m going to trust in you”.
But understanding atonement is definitely v. good!
(I haven’t read Ben’s article yet)
Well were saved by, to put it simply “accepting that Jesus died for us on the cross, and letting him pay for our sins”
Understanding the mechanics of how this works, while helpfull to the understanding of the enormity of what God did for us, are not necessary for being saved, but a desire to understand them should stem out of being saved.
If someone you never knew or met pushed you out of the path of a speeding bus, at a cost of their own life, in full knowledge that that was what was going to happen to them, you’d still be saved, even knowing nothing about them. I know I for one would want to find out about them, and ultimatly why they would do something like that for a person they never met.
Thats what were after here. The reasoning and understanding that leads up to and explains the cross. And while were never going to understand it fully, we should DESIRE to understand as much of it as we can,
(An open lisence to disagree is hereby granted, If so Please do so, and explain why
After all, Im not perfect, I leave that to God)
Speaking from personal experience, all I needed to know when I got saved was that I was not right before God and Jesus could make me right. It was basic, but it counted, and I’m still here as a Christian 11 years later.
Hey just read Ben’s article - its good stuff