Justice and substitution
Justice requires reformation of the sinner. Mercy
cancels the debt only when justice approves. Revenge
is inadmissible. Wrath which is only appeased is not
destroyed, but partially indulged. Wisdom and Love
may require many sacrifices of self to save us from sin.
One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to
pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires
constant self-immolation on the sinner's part. That
God's wrath should be vented upon His beloved Son, is
divinely unnatural. Such a theory is man-made. The
atonement is a hard problem in theology, but its scien-
tific explanation is, that suffering is an error of sinful sense
which Truth destroys, and that eventually both sin and suf-
fering will fall at the feet of everlasting Love.
