This is a guest post from Ryan Lane.
We are often told that Jesus died to pay the price of our sins. Yet it seems strange that the unfair death of God’s innocent son could somehow be a good thing to the rest of us. We try to explain this mystery by telling stories that connect Jesus’ life to our lives. As Mormons, we usually do this by telling stories about God’s eternal plan. We tell stories of cosmic struggles between Justice and Mercy or between Sin/Death and Grace. These are important stories, but sometimes they might seem a little mythological or abstract. Sometimes when my imagination or my faith is running a little low I get a little tired of trying to relate stories of the creation, the fall, and the atonement to my own life. Is there some other way for me to connect with Jesus?
Yes! Jesus and I are connected to each other through the story of human history, the same story that is told in the Bible. Perhaps we Mormons can learn a few things about Jesus by spending more time telling the story of his life, as found in the Bible.
Jesus’ role in the story of the Bible is to introduce humanity to the New Covenant (Hebrews 8). The New Covenant had been predicted in the Old Testament by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Jeremiah said that this New Covenant would not be like the old covenant that Moses received. In the New Covenant, people would no longer need other people to preach to them about God, because everyone would know God personally. So, Christ initiated this New Covenant by helping us to know God.
Jesus helped us know God not simply by dying for us, but perhaps more importantly by how he lived. When we study the life of Jesus, we study the result of a terrible “experiment”. We get to see what happens when God shows up in the world. The experiment showed that God didn’t fit in very well. Jesus was always on a different plane from those around him. The people tried to engage him in discussions about what was important to them, like questions about doctrines, the technicalities of who would be with whom in the afterlife, and how to judge between right and wrong. But Jesus never really got caught up in the conversation; he always seemed to have his mind on something else. He was always talking about God and his kingdom. He seemed to have his eye on a different world, a new world.
The disciples were excited about this new world. It filled them with ambition and wonder at the possibilities. They aspired to be next to him when he came into this kingdom in great glory. But Jesus said they were missing the whole point (Mark 10:35-42). They were thinking of the glory in human terms, as if Jesus were some kind of king of this world. The kingdom is totally “out of this world”, he tried to explain (John 18:36). But they never really understood this until Jesus was suddenly killed. This event utterly shocked them, drained their ambition, filled them with fear, and shattered their all-too-human faith. In fact, the Number One Apostle was so ashamed and fearful that he pretended he didn’t even know Jesus.
But then three days later, before the light of the morning, a woman Mary went to the tomb of Jesus to wash his body, but it was missing. She told Apostles Number One and Number Two. They raced to the tomb, and Number Two got there first. When they saw that Jesus was gone, they believed but they didn’t understand. And they didn’t stay either. They went home, but Mary stayed and cried. Then she saw Jesus but she didn’t recognize him. Instead of fearing an apparent stranger in a dangerous world that kills good people unfairly, she asked if he knew where the body was. (By contrast, shortly afterwards, the disciples were huddled together behind locked doors because of their fears). But Mary didn’t show fear. Perhaps she had lost all fear because the worst imaginable thing had already happened, and it had taught her what she truly wanted in life. Her only desire was to find Jesus, wherever he might be. Then she heard Jesus say her name, and suddenly she saw Jesus differently, as if for the first time (John 20:1-18). She no longer saw him from a worldly point of view. She saw that the new creation had come; everything was new and different because she was “in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5: 16-17 [1]).
This was the beginning of a “new type of human”; a human who knows God. In the world, the new humans, like Jesus, resembled “dead men” (Galatians 6:14).[2] Their worldly ambitions and dreams, and the associated fears, had died with Jesus on the Cross. That death had been necessary to prepare them to see the new creation that Jesus had been talking about all along: the Kingdom stuff and the God stuff. Their ability to see the new creation is what made them dead to the old world. Because they were already dead to the old world, they didn’t fear it but faced it with boldness and courage.
Perhaps, like Mary and the disciples, we too need a massive “faith transition” to understand what Jesus and his message is all about. Perhaps sometimes our old faith has to die so that a new faith can be reborn. When this happens we might stop seeing Jesus in a worldly way, as a means for achieving our worldly ambitions. Perhaps, like the disciples, we have to live through the death of Christ by seeing our worldly ambitions, fears, and even our faith, die on the cross. Perhaps we need to focus less on the race towards Jesus, and instead wait a little bit longer for him to come to us. When our old human faith and our fears of other humans are extinguished, perhaps we will start seeing the new stuff, which is the kingdom stuff and the God stuff. Perhaps we will even come to know God. But if this wonderful change does happen to us, perhaps it is because we are already a part of the New Covenant, the New Creation, that began with Jesus in Jerusalem over two thousand years ago.
[1] Corinthians 5: 16-17: So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!
[2] “The Cost of Discipleship” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Wheat & Tares 
I enjoyed reading this. Food for thought.
Great post Ryan. It’s another dimension of Christ’s life that we don’t think about. Christ is an example of a life lived “not of this world.” It was the message of Last Temptation of Christ, where Christ himself overcomes the temptation to live for this world. He says in the Garden of Gethsemane “I don’t know which is more beautiful, heaven, or this world.” This is the choice we all have to make when we become a Christian.
A very nice post. I think you are really on to something important here. It seems to me that the key to understand the atonement and its effect in our lives lies in understanding the life of Jesus rather than the end of it in Gethsemane or on Calvary. He says that he is the way and we say that we must go through him to come to God. But mormons often seems to treat him and the atonement as a gate. It was once done for us and now the door is open. To me it is his exemplariness in laying down his life for his friends that is the atonement. It means that he showed us the way of salvation. The kind of sacrifice that is involved in godliness and which we should aspire to.
Perhaps such an engagement with our fellow men where we are willing to lay down our lives for them is the transition of faith you are talking about. Then accepting Christ in our lives will be to really have him in our lives we live him (He is life). We become grace. That of course is different ontology of salvation than if we think of the atonement as a form of payment of our debts, or a lifting of our guilt.
One last remark. It would seem according to you Ryan, that Jesus death functions as moment of crisis for his disciples that leads to the transformation of their faith. I am thinking of Thoreau who writes that one has to lose oneself to find oneself. Is that what you are saying? I find that idea very intriguing.
Very interesting post. Thanks for sharing this. I really like the idea that after the faith transition comes the real religion – caring more for others, caring less about the ambitions of this world, not fearing others or death, not being worried about doctrine, and just generally becoming more like Christ-like. What you’re describing reminds me a little bit of Jon Paulien’s Stages of Faith essay – particularly everything that comes after stage 3. If you haven’t read that, I think you’d find it very interesting. I don’t know how to create a hyperlink, but this is where it’s at if anyone’s interested: http://www.thebattleofarmageddon.com/stages_of_faith.html.
Thank you for the nice comments.
MOQT: Yes I do think that the stages of faith fit pretty well with this. Reading about the different responses to the “Dark Night of the Soul” made me think off different response my friends have had to faith crises/transitions in the church. There are so many paths people take. Sometimes I wish there were more Mormons who could hold onto their belief of God even after they leave the church. Many don’t believe in God anymore, and it’s probably because Mormons have trouble separating God from the church. So, maybe the story that I’m telling in this blog could be the story of the death of the Church-Jesus, and the resurrection of the “real Jesus” or the living Jesus. For most people, after the Church-Jesus dies, they don’t see him come back in a new form. I’m not sure that I have either, but I’ve caught glimpses of what that might mean. At the very least I’ve decided that the “new Jesus” is what I would like to see.
Viktor: I think what you are saying is that the atonement is the transformation from selfishness and isolation to connection and love with others. As Mormons we see the atonement in such individual terms. We think about how the atonement applies to us personally, and about how Jesus paid for our personal sins. We think that the atonement is our ticket to personal perfection.
But you are saying that the atonement itself was an act of giving up the self-focus. People talk a lot in our church about “using the atonement” but I think you are saying that we need to “live the atonement” by giving of ourselves. In my post, I focused on giving up worldliness, but this this is basically similar to selfishness. The way of the world is self-adsorption, comparisons with others, and fear of failure. The way of Christ is to shed these burdens and to live a new life of freedom.
It’s like Max Lucado’s story, “You are Special” of the dolls that have stars and dots stuck on them depending on if they do good things or bad things. But when the dolls are “in Christ” both the stars and the dots fall off, and they are free of all that judgment and worry. Sometimes church people think that those who are “in Christ” are the ones with more stars, but that’s not how it works. The disciples though they were collecting stars, but then Jesus died and lost his stars, and they lost their stars too. The BoM and Bible make it pretty clear that stars probably do a better job of keeping us from Christ than the dots do.
This discussion reminds me of the recent disciple vs. superfan post over at BCC.
The switch from a worldly perspective to a godly perspective looks different for each individual. I think we recognize it in religious leaders of all stripes (Mother Theresa, Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, and many of our own leaders).
I’m not sure that the personal application of the atonement is inherently selfish. Some of the most godly people I know display an outpouring of love for others because of their personal experience with repentance. As one friend put it, “Jesus didn’t give up on me so I know he ain’t ever givin’ up on you.” Like the woman forgiven of her sins in the house of Simon the Pharisee, the gratitude is proportionate to the debt forgiven. It seems like the gratitude can be a major motivating factor in viewing others with godly love.
You’re right that the personal atonement emphasis doesn’t have to be selfish. I think it’s wonderful to focus on the personal salvation from sins. I’m just saying if that’s the only way we think of salvation, then we might be missing something. For example, people in our church often don’t think about the existence of collective sins, like destroying the environment or economic injustices, etc. Maybe the atonement can save us from those types of sins too. When it comes to ways of thinking about the atonement it’s good to take an “all of the above” approach.
We have so many standardized ways of saying things in the church, I’m just basically looking in the scriptures for new language and ways of thinking about things for those who are needing a fresh approach.
Thanks Ryan, this is a beautiful and powerful post. It makes me think of the story of the young man who was rich, successful and had been obedient to all the commandments from his youth; ie in today’s terms a well respected upstanding member of the church who had done everything right but felt compelled to seek the Master and ask “what lack I yet?” Perhaps because he sensed the spiritual emptiness in his life and couldn’t figure out (or couldn’t face up to) why it was still empty. The answer was of course he was missing the selfless love to be willing to sacrifice what he had for others and couldn’t let go of the things of this world in order to grasp that love. I am sure a lot of people ( I dare include myself) consider the Master Teachers response to his question to be too radical to be practical. But nothing about Jesus is practical or convenient. This is one of the greatest struggles we face in these latter days, the reason why many are called and few are chosen and the reason, and why Brigham was worried the Saints would wax fat in prosperity after enduring persecution and go to hell- we are so short sighted we can’t see beyond the things of this world. I openly admit in writing this that I am not confident I would be any better off than the rich young man. How do you get to that point? What happened to Mary and Peter that transformed their fear and blindness? How do you have that faith transition?