Christianity is a religion which is completely based on a relationship with Jesus. The radical claim is that in being in a relationship with Jesus, you are in a relationship with God, because Jesus is God the Son, one Person of the Triune God.
How is this relationship with God possible? The Atonement!
People have been separated from God ever since the Fall involving Adam and Eve. And people have been further straying ever since Adam and Eve. The result of this is that all people sin, which is doing that which is counter to the perfect will of God. The consequence of sin is the spiritual death of people. Yet praise be to Jesus, salvation was made possible, because Jesus became what theologians term the penal substitutionary atonement.
"For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God..." (I Peter 3:18 NIV).
Also - "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8 NIV).
Also - "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8 NIV).
And - "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV).
That "him" is Jesus, and Jesus is God the Son, who had no sin in the first place. Truly only Jesus could be the substitute for sins, because only Jesus, who is infinite, could die for all humans, who are finite. I add that Jesus died for everyone, yet His atonement is the choice of a person. Each individual chooses whether she or he will believe in Jesus.
by Hunter Irvine
