For a while in my Christian faith, I used to believe that God punished Jesus while He hung on the cross for our sins or should I say for our wrongdoings. Our record of wrongdoings is a like a debt that needed to be paid off, and the only One who could pay it off was a sinless or perfect individual who is Divine Himself as God the Son. Why? Jesus had to be Divine so that the infinite debt we committed could be paid off through an infinitely great sacrifice. Every sin carries in a dynamic way an infinite offense against God that requires a sacrifice of infinite value. Now, that is for many Evangelicals a core part of a belief common in evangelicalism known as 'penal substitution'. This belief has been considered by some to be an essential thing to believe to be a true Christian.

Now to many, this may be a stumbling block to people who are not Christians. They may object with a very good objection, one of which convinced me out of that view. They may say that God is loving and could not punish His own Son or that God is forgiving and does not need to be owed any kind of debt or need some kind of justice equivalent to the offense.

I am personally convinced by the latter and believe that no debt of righteousness (what needs to be owed to God for sinning against Him) or honor needs to be paid back to God through punishment of sacrifice. This is because God simply forgives and transforms us over time.

I do not believe that Jesus being punished on the cross is needed to be an authentic Christian. In fact, I believe that God is more forgiving than that. Now having said that, what does the atonement (at - one - ment) mean? Or put another way, how does God reconcile Godself with humanity?

God reconciles humanity through His ultimate display of love that is expressed, even till His last dying breath, on the cross. It is sacrificial love, the ultimate display of love that God the Father through His Son Jesus Christ displays. This is love is:

1. Sacrificial: It is a love which is willing to die in order to draw all to Himself. It teaches humans to be sacrificial in how we love our neighbours as ourselves. Sacrifice for us is not killing a scapegoat but is instead being kind to others at our own expense.

2. Healing: It draws relationally separated humanity to Himself on the cross. Jesus' love displayed on the cross is His drawing grace which may be resisted...but not forever. This healing is also a transformation of humans away from ourselves which has fallen to selfishness and self-centred-ness, while simultaneously transforming humans into becoming more Christ-like.

3. Forgiving: It is forgiving as Jesus while hanging on the cross forgave His enemies. This teaches us to forgive others too and let go of a grudge. A grudge is what allows an enemy to consume our own thoughts, forgiveness is liberating.

Christ's death on the cross is a sacrifice of Himself to heal humanity through His love which draws all to Himself, in this life and those who have not yet come to know Him, possibly in the afterlife. It is also forgiving of our wrongdoing which is where Christ is the ultimate example of why humans need to follow Jesus as Jesus' love is the ultimate and supreme example of how humans should live. So, Christ's sacrifice on the cross teaches us something so fundamentally important about God and how we ought to imitate God and become more like Him in His healing love. Christ's sacrifice is also more than a mere moral example in that it is transformative and healing in that it is the ultimate display of God's love which will ultimately heal all of humanity given enough time - even in the afterlife - as God never gives up on His lost ones.

Finally, Christ's healing love and example which teaches us on our end to be more like Him is what defeats selfishness, defeats our 'sinful' or 'wrongful' desires over time. It is a victory over the works of the devil and is a victory over humanity's rebellion against God through their own godless desires, ignorance, and general separation from God. It is finally a victory over hate! Love of others always defeats hate of others.