—Barrie McMaster

If we have a weak sense of Jesus’ atonement for us on the cross, we cannot have a strong faith because we have little to be thankful for, in the view of Willy Reimer, executive director of the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches. “We must understand the depth of what God has done,” he said. “We have to have a robust understanding – do you know what you have been saved from, and what you have been saved FOR?”

Through the 2011 study conference on the atonement, we have been pushed to think of the judgment of God that Christ took for us, says Reimer. He was responding to the study conference presentation by Erwin Penner on the death of Christ.

Reimer said thinking about peoples’ understanding of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross “makes me anxious for us. To understand the implications of our sin, and the impending judgment, everyone will need to know God one way or the other, whether it is as our judge or our Saviour.” Scripture states that, one way or the other, every knee will bow before Christ, he said.

He believes there is a generational difference in Canada in response to the atonement. “I think my parents (now 83) had a clear understanding of the wrath of God,” he said. “Then I look at the baby boomers. We turned God into our buddy. We changed how we expressed our relationship to him. There was a loss of holiness.”

“Kids grew up in the lap of luxury, and it did not serve them well,” he said. “The younger generation now engages in two streams. One is focused on the implications of the gospel – like environmentalism and justice. The other stream wants truth, clarity and holiness, the core of the faith. So if we preach the whole gospel, social justice has to be part of it. But some people bypass the gospel and go right to justice and environment issues. Yet, the social side of things needs to be one outcome of how we understand the atonement.”

He said current Canadian statistics show that Canadians, unlike Americans and Europeans, are more open to the ministry of the gospel than ever before. He points to New York City pastor and church planter Tim Keller’s question: “Will we step up for the gospel and the kingdom of God?”

Reimer says in that context alone, he personally leans to the penal substitutionary view of the atonement. “The hope in that atonement is so overwhelming, it is the incredible grace of God. I am overwhelmed at God’s goodness, at God’s grace,” he said. “I want to pray, God, give us this city. We pray for the country. Because it matters.”

“I pray as we walk out of here with the greatest gift of grace through faith, that we do not just go home from this conference, having thought better. I hope it is much more than that,” he said.