My caregivers taught me about a God who was angry with me for a crime I hadn’t committed but loved me enough to punish his own son for my sins. Of course, if I didn’t assent to this belief that God had killed his son for my sake, the salvific purchase of his sacrifice would be rendered null, and I’d end up in hell anyway. Like them, God was sacrificing for me and I had better appreciate it.
Andrew Rillera’s Lamb of the Free, a recently published book on the meaning of sacrifice in the Old Testament, throws this account into question. It’s the sort of biblical history I love reading, aimed at something much deeper than simply explicating the Levitical system for its own sake. The questions Rillera seeks to answer have great bearing on how we approach Christ’s sacrifice. Was it necessary because God had to punish someone for humankind’s sins? Or was it a completely free, radical act of solidarity with a humanity enslaved to death? Did it only redeem our sins or did it liberate us for something greater?
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