Revelation and Rationalization

     A big theological concept for me is Jesus Christ as unique revelation of God to humanity. All that humans can really know about God is known through revelation. Human reason can give us some pretty good ideas through speculation and via negativa. We speculate that God is all of the great things that we are not; all-knowing, all-powerfull etc... We are imperfect and make mistakes, so it is a pretty good guess that God is perfect and does not make mistakes. So we think, but reason can only take us so far. Why worship a perfect creator who clearly planned to make an imperfect world, if said creator cannot make mistakes?
     We could continue on the path of reason. Perhaps free will and the human choice to sin are the real reasons why this world is imperfect. This is the classical Christian perspective after Augustine. The perfect God of reason is preserved and the utterly corrupt nature of human existence is reinforced. In this rational system, Jesus can only be Savior in the sense of dying on the cross to save humanity from its corruption. Perhaps this is an over-simplification, but it logically follows that if all of the problems of the world stem from human sin, then in order to save the world one must do something to counteract human sin. To the ancient mind, a sacrifice (or penalty) must be payed to God (or the gods). This is how Jesus' very real and human death on the cross was rationalized.
     I will not try to disprove this position. It makes perfect rational sense and it is worth believing as millions of people over the past two thousand years have. It represents a satisfying and attractive cosmology. It essentially says that God is good and perfect and that humans are utterly corrupt, so God, in infinite wisdom, provided a means to make up for this corruption. I admit that there are also parts of it that are not satisfying or attractive, namely the violent propitiation as the only means for saving the world. This is not something that the modern mind understands intuitively. However, I want to maintain that it is a perfectly valid way to experience Christian faith.
     I merely want to point out that this view represents a limited human point of view and is only a part of the Biblical witness. Jesus did many things beyond dying on the cross for our sins. If that were the case, our canon might as well be the second chapter of Genesis, a harmonization of the passion narratives found in the Gospels, and a few chapters from the Epistle to the Romans. I cannot say that I have a better rationalization of faith. Theology as a human exercise will forever be imperfect.
     I wanted to make a point about Jesus as unique revelation of God. Jesus' teachings and actions reveal who we are as human beings and reveal who God is as a God. Jesus reveals our pain and our weakness in contrast to the power and wholeness of God. Jesus reveals our utter dependence on the things that are beyond our selves and beyond the relationships that we choose to forge. Most of all, Jesus reveals the great need of relationship with God; our Creator, our Sustainer, and the Ground of our Being. To be without God in this world is to be utterly lost. Jesus came so that we do not have to be.