“In the Christian doctrine of the atonement Christ is the One to whom sin is transferred, not only by the imputation of God, but also by His own assumption of it. He loved the church, and took her liabilities and debts to himself (Ephesians 5:25). The New Testament’s language on this is bold in the extreme: ‘He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us’ (2 Corinthians 5:21). Christ on that cross took His identity from sin, bearing all it deserved. He became the sin of His people. He came to be identified with their guilt and liable to their punishment. And because He was Sin, He became a curse (Galatians 3:13). There was no mitigation and no sparing. There was only the absolute recoil of God from the sin His Son was. He was katara: cursed, banished. He was His Son, but His sonship was obscured by the anomia. The Son belonged in His bosom; the anomia belonged in the Black Hole. God put the whole universe, and more, between Himself and the Son of His love. He banished Him to the farthest edges of reality; and even beyond, because the Black Hole is what lies beyond reality. It is, absolutely, Outside (Revelation 22:15): the place of Outer Darkness (Matthew 8:12) where the Sin borne by the Lamb is out of sight of the God who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity (Habakkuk 1:13).”
Donald Macleod, A Faith to Live By: Understanding Christian Doctrine (Fearn, Ross-shire: Christian Focus, 1998), p.149-150.
Donald Macleod, A Faith to Live By: Understanding Christian Doctrine (Fearn, Ross-shire: Christian Focus, 1998), p.149-150.
