Removing Wrath And Seeing Beauty

[Cole]

I’m going back to Penal Substitution. Here’s one of the reasons why. One of the reasons I have come back to Christ is because of C.S. Lewis and his ideas about beauty. For Lewis there seems to be an instinct for the transcendent that is awakened by beauty. Beauty stirs a longing for the transcendent. This seems to be true in my life. I have had intense experiences with what I consider to be “beauty”. So intense that it felt like I was in God’s presence. It just seemed like something was telling me that there has got to be more to it than just this finite existence. Here’s one of those experiences that I recorded:

In the presence of Beauty I find the gentleness of mystical love. It is here that wonder is awakened and the beauties of humility, compassion, and kindness come alive. Within this matrix my fears melt away. I tremble at the thought of being inside this glowing radiance, for the longing of my heart is for a union with Beauty. To drink it in and become one with it. For me, Beauty brings warmth. Something in my soul longs for this delight, for Beauty inspires and delights my soul. When Beauty whispers Her tenderness to my soul I am filled with a childlike wonder and awe.

This is one of the things Christ was doing at the cross. He was removing God’s wrath from my vision so that I could see and savor Divine Beauty in His own face. At the cross I was united to Christ in a mystical union. My sins were extrinsically transferred to the innocent Christ as God’s wrath was poured out and Christ removed God’s wrath from my vision as He died and was resurrected and then the righteousness of Christ was extrinsically transferred over to me. That is, I have died to the old self as it was crucified with Christ and clothed myself in the robes of Christ’s righteousness as I am risen to new life. I am one with Christ in mystical union with Him. There is now no condemnation for me. For all that has been removed by Christ as I am in Him and He is in me. Death has been overcome. I can now experience the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[phillip_macdonald]

Thank you for your testimony Michael. I agree that Beauty will save the world, more specifically “His Beauty will save the world.” That is the what has inspired a new website by that name: that it will be the beauty of Christ in all its aspects in salvation, creation, human relationships, story and wonder that will “draw all men to Himself.”

As far as the atonement goes I believe that PSA is just one of many “theories” or as Scot McKnight says, “stories” to try and explain the unexplainable. I think one of the reasons the atonement is so beautiful is that it fills us with wonder and mystery. Somehow it is the answer to all you need and will reveal a different facet of its truth and glory to each person because each person is unique. Therefore I am not sure that we can label it or define it but rather like Jesus who when explaining the kingdom never said what it was but rather “It is like…this”. And this is what I believe you did, you framed it within your story and experience rather than define it, and shared its deep wonder and mystery in your life. Thank you, that was …beautiful!

Leon Morris said:

“Sometimes we read of the cross as a victory or as an example. It is the sacrifice that makes a new covenant, or simply a sacrifice. There are many ways of viewing it. We are left in no doubt about its efficacy and its complexity. View the human spiritual problem as you will, and the cross meets the need. But the NT does not say how it does so.

“Through the centuries there have been continuing efforts to work out how this was accomplished. Theories of the atonement are legion as men in different countries and in different ages have tried to bring together the varied strands of scriptural teaching and to work them into a theory that will help others to understand how God has worked to bring us salvation. The way has been open for this kind of venture, in part at least, because the church has never laid down an official, orthodox view. In the early centuries there were great controversies about the person of Christ and about the nature of the Trinity. Heresies appeared, were thoroughly discussed, and were disowned. In the end the church accepted the formula of Chalcedon as the standard expression of the orthodox faith. But there was no equivalent with the atonement. People simply held to the satisfying truth that Christ saved them by way of the cross and did not argue about how this salvation was effected.”

Scot McKnight on the atonement as “story”:

“This may come as a surprise, but the Church never sensed a need to articulate a single explanatory theory for the Atonement. Some ask why the Church never ‘solved’ the Atonement question. I believe it was because they knew it took more that one story to tell that story, and I believe also they knew it as a reality so rich in diversity that attempts to narrow it down to manageable size were unwise.” (Embracing Grace, p 94)

For more on this topic of beauty you can see the thread “Beauty Will Save the World” inspired by Brian Zahnd’s book by that name.