Thoughts on an Easter Eve: The Mechanics and Mystery of Salvation

There are certain theologies that say that our salvation from doom requires us, each individual, to choose to believe an impossible belief, that a god died for our sins and rose from the dead—a scandal that even the scriptures say we cannot believe without divine help—in order to receive grace. But this formula, this transaction, still places the work of salvation in our hands, as though our choice alone—our own effort, will, and works—could move us from the debt column to the paid column with God. I do not propose to know all the inner mechanisms of salvation—as grateful as I am for it—but I sometimes wonder if it is so much simpler than that. I know the proof texts, the arguments about ransom and justification and the awful price to be paid, but I often wonder if, after generations of watching our human insecurity before God, and witnessing all the things we offered and burned and killed to try to appease this terrifying force in the sky, God finally said, look, I love you, and if only a sacrifice will prove that to you, I’ll do it myself. Look, see? I did it. It is my free gift to you, and it is finished. Can we finally get on with having a relationship now?

[Photo by Edwin Andrade on Unsplash]