On Atonement

[cjbanning]

There is indeed the inexpressible. This shows itself; it is the mystical. (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 6.522)

In Wittgensteinian terms, nonsense (unsinnig) is the mechanism by which (so to speak) God reconciles the world to Godself. For the Christian, the inescapable conclusion from this is that the Cross is an event which is, at its heart, fundamentally nonsensical: the primordial mysterium fidei.

If Wittgenstein is correct, the Cross was required for the world's redemption not because of God's bloodthirsty demand for a sacrifice but because of the transcendence of the very bounds of sense which the Cross represents: the death of the immortal, ever-living God; the helplessness of the omnipotent Ruler of the Universe while undergoing cruel torture; the questioning cry from the omniscient Overseer.