How does the way we understand criminal justice relate to the way we think about Jesus' atonement?

"Our model of justice in the West and even our theological descriptions of why Jesus died upon the cross are based upon this idea of compensatory punishment, that when harm is given a harm must be given in return.

That's the logic by which, in most Christian contexts, we think about the meaning of Jesus' death. We humans owe God a debt of sin, the only form of payment is punishment, so we have to punish Jesus on our behalf, because punishment is what sets the scales even.

And if you think about our criminal justice system, we think about justice being done when a person who has caused harm, when we do something back to them in turn, right?

Jesus is saying, no, it's actually not about evening harm for harm, it's about recognizing our status before God. Those we love and those we hate, all of us have equal status before God, and God loves us all.

And to think about justice that way, to reconstruct this notion of justice, which is not about compensating harms for harms, but trying to figure out what it would mean for our world to move forward in a way where we try to imagine that God loves our enemies, those who have harmed us, that makes justice a lot harder, but I think it imagines a justice more like the one Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere in his teachings, I think is pushing us towards."

Hear more from Matthew Potts on this important topic, this week on the Faith Matters podcast.