THE
DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY AND 3.4 Three Persons but Same Essence or Nature (al-Dzat) 3.5 Relationship Between God The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit 3.6 The Essence (al-Dzat) of God the Father is in the Son and the Holy Spirit 3.7 God Is Not Splitting Into Three Parts 3.8 The Three Divine Persons Do Not Exist Side By Side In The Divine World 3.9 In the Trinity No One is Greater, Less, Separate Nor Subordinate One to the Other 3.10 Jesus Could Not Be Separated From the Father and the Holy Spirit 3.12 Jesus: God That Became Man (al-Hulul wa al-Ittihad) 3.14 As A Perfect Sin Offering For Mankind: God Became Man |
3.14 As a Perfect Sin Offering for Mankind: God Became Man
To answer why Almighty God became man, St. Anselm (1033-1109 C.E), bishop of Canterbury wrote his ‘Cur Deus Homo’ (Why God became man) where he says: “God became man in order that man might be forgiven (for his sins). Since God is infinite (has no limit) in his greatness, a sin against him is infinite. Such a sin requires infinite satisfaction or atonement. And since it is a man who commits such a sin, it must also be a man who suffers in atonement for it. But man a finite being, is not capable of infinite suffering. Only a being who is both human and divine and thus infinite can offer adequate satisfaction as expiation. That being is Christ, in whom God became incarnate and who offered himself in death as atonement for the sins of man.” [1] Gleason L. Archer, in his “Encyclopaedia of Bible Difficulties” writes: “God as God could not forgive us for our sins unless our sins were fully paid for…it was only as a man that God in Christ could furnish satisfaction sufficient to atone for the sins of mankind; for only a man , a true human being , could properly represent the human race. But our Redeemer had to be God, for only God could furnish a sacrifice of infinite value, to compensate for the penalty of eternal hell that our sin demands, according to the righteous claims of divine justice.”[2] By referring to St. Anselm and Gleason L. Archer, the meaning of this doctrine is that out of love for his servants, God Almighty descended or came down here on this planet and lived among men and walked and talked among men and in the Incarnation died by the means of crucifixion as a perfect sin offering for mankind because Man is helpless to save himself. (The Doctrine of Redemption or Atonement as a result of the Original sin made by Adam). The Encyclopedia Britannica has summarized this “Doctrine of Redemption or Atonement” in the following words: “Atonement in Christian theology means the redemptive work of Christ, through which sinful man was made at one with, and reconciled to, God. It presupposes two truth, the fall of man from God’s grace through Adam’s sin, and the Incarnation of the Word of God to restore man to grace.”[3] This original Sin of Adam was from the viewpoint of magnitude very serious as it embraced many other sins with the result that it became the source or mother of sins.[4] St Augustine of Hippo, writes in this regard: “This one sin of man encompassed so many sins…In truth, if one reflects on the reality of any sin, he will see its reflection in this original sin.”[5] Hanna, a Christian writer who had a debate with Muslim apologist Izzuddin al-Muhammadi explains that God’s method of punishing Adam’s offence of eating the forbidden tree which resulted in sin that passes to all of his descendants (Christian Doctrine of the Original Sin), not through the person of the inferior Adam, but by means of a figure equal in rank to God Himself. Jesus was thus sent as an appropriately equal personage to suffer death and humiliation on behalf of man. Hanna’s explanation is close to that of St. Anselm and Gleason L Archer, who argued that men are unable to make the necessary satisfaction because they are sinful. “The only solution is that God becomes man.”[6] |
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