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We’re all familiar with the generic Easter phrase “Jesus died to save our sins“. But what does this really mean? Also, the question on the lips of all sceptics; why did God feel compelled to “save man” at all, let alone do it in a way that meant he was brutally tortured and killed?

Surely it would be easier for him to “live and let live” and not have to die the horrible death that was required for man to be “saved”. Or even better, if God was God, why not just “save man” with a flick of a switch rather than go through all the headache of an incarnation to suffer a bloody murder.

Well to answer this, we must first understand what the early church fathers meant when they spoke about the “law of death”. That is, if you live apart from God, you will not be able to sustain your life, and therefore you’ll eventually die. This is because God literally is the fuel for life; he sustains all things because that is simply the way we were created. (Hebrews 1:3)

So what happens in that Genesis story (Adam and Eve), is that man elected to not be sustained by God, but to live independently of him. In essence, the trade off was “let us do our own thing and we don’t care if we don’t live forever”. Hence, 100% of people now die and should as a result of this law face complete annihilation. But of course, what an anticlimax this would be for an infinitely loving God. Why would he have created perfect beings to share and grow his infinte love, if they would just hit the self-destruct button at the first instance? Worse still, man would actually turn their world into a place full of pain, hurt and suffering, the complete opposite of his intention for them.

In his book “On The Incarnation”, Saint Athanasius explains that not only was it unworthy for God to allow his creation to die, but “Such indifference to the ruin of His own work before His very eyes would argue not goodness of God but limitation.”

So therefore it was not fitting for a loving God to let his creation perish, and hence he was compelled to go about the process to save man from death. Athanasius affirms that saving man was a two-part process, man not only needed to be re-created as their rejection of God in essence “unplugged” their body and souls from their only possible fuel, but somehow death also needed to be defeated.

Athanasius first highlights that of course, no one but God could possibly save or re-create man. He could not have assigned a man to save man, for all men are now destined for death and are living independently of God. Angels could not have done it either, for they were not made in the image of God like men were. So therefore, God was of course the only one left to do it, and as death needed to be defeated – God himself had to die in order to kill it. What an odd thought. In order to be saved, man is now relying on God to do something that in his very essence, is impossible for him to do. God cannot die by his very definition.

Hence, the perfect solution of Jesus who was both fully God and fully man at once was born. If Jesus was not fully God, he could re-create man as only God could, and if he was not fully man, all parts of man could not be saved that were destined for death, also, he could not die. He embodied every part of man both physical and spiritual, and died with it in order to pass every element of a human being past death, clearing the path for everyone else to follow him.

This is a crucial thing to think about. For some reason there is a popular idea amongst Christians that “heaven” is a place of just spirits that float about in some weird cloudy or spiritual realm. But that misses the big picture. God wanted every part of you to live forever. From your soul to your toe nails. Eternal life in the traditional orthodox Christian sense, means living forever with your physical body too. “God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature…. He likes matter. He invented it.” C.S. Lewis

Saint Athanasius claims that Jesus “re-opened the road to heaven”. He identifies that Jesus was the only one capable breaking down this barrier and defeating death, and once victorious, Jesus allowed man to follow in his path behind him. To use an analogy, the death of Jesus is like a strong cyclist taking the lead ahead of his peers in order to break the wind for them. If the novice riders ride close enough behind the stronger cyclist, they will notice that they will be able to journey on for longer, going further and faster without tiring as quickly. Of course, they will eventually tire, and that’s where this analogy breaks down, for the Christians believe that if man follows Jesus, man will live forever and never die. Christ was not the only man to rise from the dead, but he was the first of all of us, the pioneer.

And on that note, an errant conclusion consumes the mind of most Christians who don’t seem to know how graceful their God is. They believe that if you’re not a Christian you can’t be saved by Jesus’ death. They often use John 14:6 to back up this flawed logic. (“No one can come to the Father except through me.”)

To them I will leave you with a thought by my favourite Christian thinker C.S. Lewis. “We do know that no person can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved by Him.”

Bottom line is, Jesus died to save all of us, not just the Christians.

Happy Easter!

http://www.twitter.com/lukegirgis

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