Jan
17
2012
Justification and violence
“[W]hen classic justification, based on the propitiatory work of Christ, is absent, human beings will grasp for substitutes, often grotesque ones. . . . We have here [in the French Revolution], among much else, a case of secular atonement. One of the central rituals within the drama of the French Revolution was meant to achieve expiation. It was important to be cleansed from the past, while at the same time holding up revolutionary ideals. . . . Thus, the guillotine was a counterfeit for Calvary.”
William Edgar, “Justification and Violence,” in K. Scott Oliphant, editor, Justified in Christ (Fearn: Christian Focus, 2007), pages 131-134.
Moral fervor and violence go together quite compatibly. We sinners know we cannot bear our own guilt, so we look for a substitute. If we are not believing and revering and savoring Christ as our atoning substitute, we will find someone else to whom we may transfer our shame. Only the gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, apart from all our works — and that doctrine not merely as a formal position, but as a moment-by-moment resource deep in the heart — can save us from our self-invented rituals of substitutionary atonement.
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” Colossians 3:15