Repairing The Breach

Personal Reflection Having grown up in a hyper-evangelical church, I thought I had a solid understanding of God’s grace and mercy, but it was always in the context of ‘what amazing Love, that He would take on Himself the torture that should have been done to me!’ (this is called sacrificial atonement, by the way, if you’d like to look it up and read more). It wasn’t until I widened my horizons that I found other theologies that don’t see atonement this way (plenty of them, too—who knew how much major theology could be outside one denomination’s bubble!? Maybe some of you know this already. I did not.) Christ’s death is not ‘the torture that should have been done to me’. God’s way is not that torture should be done to anyone. God is not a torturer. Full stop. This revelation released me from a lot of mental gymnastics that had been necessary to hold on to my faith, but which were wearing me down, like how the Jesus who loved his society’s outcasts unconditionally was the same Yahweh who demanded violent blood sacrifice before forgiving sin. It opened me up to learn more about how to read the Bible in ways that have integrity; that don’t require cherry- picking and hand-waving explanations about the many contradictions therein. The Bible became a source of light and life again, instead of a weird mixture of precious (but removed from context) verses and uneasiness in avoiding the tricky bits. Over the Rooftops - Carol Aust 102