The Seventy's Course in Theology, Fourth Year: The AtonementRoberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
The Seventy's Course in Theology, Fourth Year: The Atonement
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines
more just and necessary than that primitive righteousness innate to
deity which maintains the honor of God. This justice, indeed, is God
himself, so that to satisfy it, is to satisfy God himself.
"Having in this manner carried the discussion into the very heart of
the divine nature, and shown that a necessary and immanent attribute
of the Deity stands in the way of non-infliction of punishment and
the happiness of the transgressor, Anselm proceeds to consider the
possibility of satisfying the claims of justice--the claims of Satan
being expressly denied. There are two ways, he says, in which this
attribute can be satisfied. First, the punishment may be actually
inflicted upon the transgressor. But this, of course, would be
incompatible with his salvation from sin, and his eternal happiness,
because the punishment required is eternal, in order to offset the
infinite demerit of robbing God of his honor. It is plain, therefore,
that man cannot be his own atoner, and render satisfaction for his
own sin. A sinner cannot justify a sinner, any more than a criminal
can pardon his own crime. The second, and only other way in which the
attribute of justice can be satisfied is by substituted or vicarious
suffering. This requires the agency of another being than the
transgressor. But here everything depends upon the nature and character
of the being who renders the substituted satisfaction. For it would be
an illegitimate procedure to defraud justice by substituting a less for
a more valuable satisfaction. It belongs, therefore, to the conception
of a true vicarious satisfaction, that something be offered to justice
for the sin of man that is greater than the finite and created, or,
in Anselm's phrase, is 'greater than all that is not God.' In other
words, an infinite value must pertain to that satisfaction which is
substituted for the sufferings of mankind. But he who can give and has
the right to give, out of his own resources, something that is greater
than the infinite universe, must himself be greater than all that is
not God, or than all that is infinite and created. But God alone is
greater than all that is not in God, or the created universe. Only
God, therefore, can make this satisfaction. Only Deity can satisfy the
claims of Deity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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