Blessed87, thanks for the resource. It is very interesting and useful to see the various theories about the meaning of Christ's death. I take somewhat of an issue with it, however, because it does not present such theories in a non-biased manner. By condemning various Christian thinkers over the years as "heretical," and maintaining there is only one correct (Calivinist) interpretation of Christ's death, it is defining Christianity not on who one follows (Jesus Christ) but rather on doctrine.
Many Christians, down through the ages to the very birth of Christianity, have not believed in the doctrine of original sin, and have not believed that Jesus' death was a human sacrifice that cleansed us from this sin. Jews, as I understand it, did not do sin offerings for Adam's sin- they did it for their own. The Old Testament is replete with Jews that were acknowledge to be righteous and good. The Jews that I have discussed this issue with have said that the Jewish God, the God of the Old Testament, is just but also merciful, and was always thus, as He is unchanging. Righteousness was not perfection, but rather a life of consistently seeking after God's will and dutifully trying to act accordingly. Take Abraham, for example. He was acknowledged to be righteous and was blessed by God, but he wasn't perfect. He disobeyed God at times. God forgave him and blessed him richly, because though he occasionally messed up, he was faithful in his efforts.
Personally, I do not believe in original sin. No person is held accountable for another person's wrong-doing. There is no "sin DNA" that resides in the blue-print for our souls. Infants are born good, and that is why we must become "like little children" to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Yep, I follow Pelagius and the other Celtic Christian thinkers. I am not a heretic. I follow Christ. That doesn't mean I agree with every doctrine people who are Christians have put forth. The Calivinist idea is one among many.
My belief is that there is no one right answer to this question. The question should not be, "what does Jesus' death mean?" but rather "What does Jesus' death mean for me?" If a person believes their soul is contaminated by Adam's sin, and God demands perfection, they need an atoning sacrifice. If a person believes their deepest essence is good, but clouded by their wrong-doing, they need an example and a light to lead them to truth. If a person is lonely, they need a friend. If a person is sick, they need a healer.
My experience has been that God is not bounded by anything. He is limitless and omnipotent and beyond comprehension. If God wants someone to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (enter into God's Presence), that person will enter only through the Grace of God. I do not believe there are legal constraints on God, nor that God is unable to look upon sin. Based on my own experience, I believe He's walking with every person at every moment of their lives, and always has been. He is with the drug addict when they overdose. He is with the man who is beating his wife. He is with the prostitute. He is with me when I lie, or gossip, or become angry and hurt another's feelings. He is with us every moment, whether we recognize Him or not, whether we turn toward Him or not. The meaning of Jesus, for me, is not that God finally figured He'd send one part of Himself to pay for everyone's sins, but rather that Jesus Christ is an eternal aspect of God that unites divinity and humanity, heaven and earth. Christ always existed, as John tells us- the God that was in Christ is eternal. The Eternal Christ has always united God and humanity, and has always provided the path home to union with God. God exists outside time. We don't. We think of Jesus on some sort of timeline in the history of humanity- people before Jesus couldn't get into heaven, Jesus comes and pays for sin, then people can get into heaven and have the Holy Spirit. But this puts God within our human conceptualization of time. Jesus the man existed a couple thousand years ago and died once. Christ of God has ever been and will always be, uniting divinity and creation. He was the Word through which creation was spoken. Jesus Christ the man is the physical manifestation of an eternal uniting force.
I think death is another part of life. Death is not separate from living, but simply one of the many actions of living. One's death, like one's actions in life, reflects one's spiritual path. Jesus Christ, the perfect union of divinity and humanity, died in accordance with the will of God and the wisdom of God's teachings found during Jesus' life. Jesus taught a way of giving all power and glory to God, of loving boundlessly, of forsaking personal comforts, possessions, and prestige for a humble life of a servant. Jesus taught peace and forgiveness, and that these were the pathway to forgiveness by God. Jesus' death was indeed self-sacrifice, for he had all power and yet it was in embracing God's will as a servant, as one of the powerless, that he finished his own teachings and ended his life in accordance with his own wisdom. And it is this remarkable final testimony of his teachings, in a long line of testimonies, that catapulted his teachings to a global level and authenticated them as God's for so many. If Jesus had taught peace, but smote down his persecutors rather than forgiving them as he did- the dischord would have proven he was not of God. If he had taught humble service and yet been willing to use his own power for himself (rather than for God's work), he would have contradicted himself. The choice Jesus made in allowing himself to be crucified is foreshadowed by his temptation by Satan in the wilderness, and it is the ultimate question given to us all- use power for onself, or use it for God. Be God's servant, or a servant of oneself.
Jesus did, indeed, give the ultimate example of giving up oneself for God. If Jesus had no real temptation as a human being, it cheapens his experience in the wilderness and his constant life of service, culminating in his supreme act of giving up power to God. If he was not truly human, with all of our temptations and desires, and also truly of God, with a divine inner nature, then he could not really expect us all to take up our cross and follow him. For if he did not really experience temptation, he did not live a fully human life. God not only loved us enough that He sent a bit of himself to manifest physically among us, to lead us on our path, to comfort and guide us, to dwell within us... he loved us enough to have the human experience, to show us that he did not expect for us to withstand what he would not- pain, suffering, temptation, the struggle to shine as a light in a world oft dark. Jesus ultimately does show God's love for us, through his life including his death, and giving us the hope of recognizing that death is not the end of us. The Christ's importance cannot be underestimated, for it is the Eternal Word that is the uniting force that reconciles God and humanity. One need not believe in original sin and blood payment to believe that Christ died according to the will of God, so that his light might illuminate the path home to God for people everywhere.
