Rampant Theological Speculation

What if “Jesus died to save us from our sins” doesn’t mean “Jesus died to pay the penalty for what we did wrong” but “Jesus died because it showed how we could live sinlessly.”

It’s only a sin if it unjustly harms someone else.

Sometimes we have to inflict harm on others to prevent a greater harm from falling on a larger number (a submariner who slams the hatch on crewmates to keep the rest of the sub from flooding); that is painful but presumably it saves lives that otherwise would be lost.

What Jesus did was to show a way of living that prevented needless harm from occurring.

Jesus died without harming those who harmed him, and as a result those people and their descendants and their culture were saved and blessed by a message of love that continues to this day.

Because if the message is “Jesus died as punishment for what you did” it’s a farce.  If Andy owes Bob $100 and can’t pay it, and Bob’s son Carl writes Bob a check for $100, and Bob then tears the check up, then why didn’t Bob just forgive Andy in the first place? 

(Swap out humanity for Andy, God for Bob, and Christ for Carl to see how this works theologically.)

Or maybe it gets murkier than that.

Maybe Dave (the institutional church) wants to convince Andy that Bob wanted to lower the boom on him but Carl thwarted that by offering to pay, so Bob tore up the check in frustration, thus proving it wasn’t really the debt that motivated him but the retribution, but if Andy wants to stay on Carl’s good side and be protected from Bob, he better listen to what Dave says.

Oh, and if Andy will give Dave some money, Dave can make sure Carl will forgive him.

Jesus talked about the life to come, true, but only as an adjunct to the life to be lived Right Now.

He also taught that many who proudly proclaim his name in this life will be turned away in the next.

Bottom line:
If you follow any religious belief because you want to live forever after you die, you’re doing it wrong.

© Buzz Dixon