"Is sin dead? No, not by a long shot. Yet as Easter approaches, some pastors and theologians worry: How can Christians celebrate Jesus' atonement for their sins and the promise of eternal life in his resurrection if they don't recognize themselves as sinners? ..."Personally, I was a little put off by the flippancy of this article, but truth can be found in many places, if you listen for it.
This first paragraph of the longer article cut quickly to the heart of why theology matters. I have often said that the Resurrection is where I dig in my heels and refuse to yield an inch, but in reality the Resurrection is dependent upon a lot of other things to which, intellectually, I must also give my assent.
Jesus' death on the cross was an atonement. For what? My sins. I am a sinner "prone to evil and slothful in good" and can make no claim that I am worthy in the absence of Christ's atonement. If I accept that Jesus was God in the flesh, then I find myself dealing with the Incarnation. And once I have come to grips with both the beginning and end of Jesus' earthly life, then I need to deal with everything in between.
All this because I believe that Jesus was raised from the dead....
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