Cur Deus Homo (Why God-Man?)
Anselm of Canterbury, a premier theologian in the 11th century AD, wrote one of the most important theological works in the history of the church, Cur Deus Homo, which means “Why God-Man?” This theological masterpiece addresses the heart of the Christian Gospel (gospel means “good news”) — the act of God taking human form in the person of Jesus Christ to save helpless sinners. (This, of course, also is the theme of the Christian holy day of Christmas).
In Cur Deus Homo, Anselm takes the position of assuming the truth of the incarnation of God in the man, Jesus of Nazareth, and from that perspective, explaining why God became man. However, understanding the theological truth elucidated by Anselm will help those struggling in their faith to (i) understand that it was absolutely necessary for God to become man to provide a means of salvation to man; (ii) believe that it really did happen; and thereby find hope in the good news of the God-Man.
To understand why it was necessary for God to become man, it is first necessary to understand that we — all we humans — are sinners and stand in need of God’s grace and mercy. Of course, we all naturally recoil at the notion of being labeled “sinners”. That reaction, though, is a characteristic of our sinful nature. It is evidence that we are, in fact, sinners. But if it’s not palatable to think of yourself as a sinner, then contemplate this thought: we all are going to die. Death is the enemy of us all, and none of us can defeat death on our own. We all succumb. And, in the words of the late Steve Jobs, “Nobody wants to die.” We all are utterly helpless in our war with death. We cannot not die. This is the desperate plight of the human race and the futility of life that caused the great King Solomon to cry out, “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity!” (For “vanity”, think “soap bubbles” — pretty, glistening, beckoning to be grabbed… and then nothing, emptiness. Soap bubbles, soap bubbles, all is soap bubbles!)
The fact is, however unpleasant it is to ponder, we are sinners. What does it mean to sin? God is our creator. As such, he has ownership rights to us. He, in fact, is our Sovereign. He holds the ultimate right of kingship over us. Our every thought, word and action should be for his pleasure. That is our duty. But, as Yoda would put it — fulfilled our duty, we have not.
God has given us laws — commandments — to help us understand his will and our duty to him. Jesus summarized God commandments this way: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 1. Love God. And 2. Love your neighbor. Sounds pretty simple. Rolls of the tongue quite nicely. But it’s very, very, very hard — no, not hard — impossible to do. And therein lies our problem. We all are selfish. We are selfish by nature. We are selfish to the core. None of us love God with all our hearts, and none of us love our neighbors as ourselves. Our self-absorption is our undoing.
If you’re still with me, and if you’re honest with yourself, then you should realize by now that you too are a sinner (as I am). So where does that leave us? It leaves us in the perilous position of being guilty of violating God’s law and under God’s judgment and in need of satisfying his justice. But satisfying God’s justice is a problem of immense — no, not immense — infinite proportions. It is a debt we are unable to pay.
To try to grasp the magnitude of the problem, it is necessary to contemplate God. If God exists (and I am asserting that everyone knows deep in his or her heart that God does exist — we all are without excuse), he must be perfect. That after all, is an essential part of what it means to be God. God, in order to be God, must be perfect in every way. And not only must he be perfect; he also must be infinite. God must be infinite and perfect in goodness, power and justice. God’s necessary qualities of being infinite and perfect constitute the heart of the problem for us. God’s justice is infinite. We, as mere mortals, could never satisfy God’s justice. We need a substitute. We need a savior. We need someone to satisfy God’s justice on our behalf.
Since God’s justice is infinite and perfect, only an infinite and perfect being could satisfy God’s justice. But, by definition, the only infinite and perfect being is God. Thus, God is the only being who is capable of satisfying his justice. No man could ever satisfy God’s justice. No angel could ever satisfy God’s justice. No created, finite being could ever satisfy God’s justice. Only God himself possesses the capacity to satisfy God’s justice.
But God does not owe the debt of satisfying God’s justice. Man owes this debt. Man has rebelled against his Maker and gone his own way. Man has failed to perform his rightful duty to his eternal, Sovereign King. Man has violated the great commandments to love God and love his neighbor. Man is the one who owes the debt of satisfaction of God’s justice. Therefore, it must be a man who pays the debt. Moreover, it must be a perfectly righteous man — one without any sin. For if a man has sin of his own, he cannot pay the debt for others’ sin. He would need to have his own sin absolved.
So, we need a man to be our savior, our substitute. Only a man can pay the debt and make satisfaction for man’s sins. It would be unjust for God to punish any other sort of creature for man’s sins. And God must punish man for man’s sins, for God is just, and perfectly so. It would be unjust for God not to punish man. Furthermore, our savior must be a perfectly holy, righteous man — a man who has no sin of his own. But this man, our savior, cannot be a mere man, for no mere man could ever satisfy God’s infinite justice. Only an infinite being is able to satisfy infinite justice. But the only infinite being is God. Thus, it was necessary for God himself to become man — for the Creator to take the form of the creature — to suffer God’s wrath and pay for man’s sin, to satisfy God’s justice. The is the reason for the God-Man. This is the answer to Cur Deus Homo.
And this is the Gospel — the good news. God loves man so much that he himself became a man, in order to suffer the punishment for man’s sin, to satisfy his own justice, so that man can be forgiven for his sins. This was accomplished by the God-Man, Jesus Christ. This is the only way it could have been accomplished. This is the reason for Deus Homo.
The God-Man is man’s only hope. But the hope is real. It is rational. It is imperative. And it is available, as a free gift of mercy, to all who believe and put their hope in the God-Man.
