JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

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As God, Jesus Christ was able to pay the eternal price.
Don Richardson in his book, Peace Child, communicates many of the elements of
redemption. As missionaries Don and his wife, Carol, went to the Sawi people of Irian Jaya,
Indonesia. This Sawi tribe was made up of headhunting cannibals who were still living in the
Stone Age and who were isolated from everyone except nearby tribes. Individual tribes among
the Sawi people were locked in a centuries-long war in which they tried to outdo each other in
every imaginable form of ruthless revenge.
Momentary peace was achieved only when a son from one tribe, referred to as a "peace
child," was given to another tribe as a peace offering. The practice was that the two leaders of
their tribes would exchange sons and their own names. After the exchange the people from each
tribe would gather around and lay hands on their respective peace child, thereby confirming their
acceptance of the peace. At that point the two tribes would come together and exchange names
and gifts, symbolizing peace and unity.
The peace, however, was usually short-lived since death of a peace child was fairly
common in the disease-infested jungles of Irian Jaya. Such death released a tribe from its peace
commitment. Thus revenge quickly set in again whereby cannibalism was not uncommon.
Don Richardson saw in the peace child a powerful analogy to Jesus, the perfect and
eternal Peace Child. He told the Sawi people:
"I kept saying to myself, 'O that they could make peace without this painful giving
of a son!' But you [the Sawis] kept saying, 'There is no other way!' . . . You were
right!
When I stopped to think about it, I realized you and your ancestors are not the
only ones who found that peace required a peace child. Myao Kodon, the Spirit
whose message I bear, has declared the same thing--true peace can never come
without a peace child! Never!”16
Because Myao Kodon wants men to find peace with Him and with each other, He
decided to choose a once-for-all [peace] child good enough and strong enough to establish peace,
not just for a while, but forever! The problem was, whom should He choose? For among all
human children, there was no son good enough or strong enough to be an eternal [peace].17
Don Richardson then went on to tell these cannibals how Jesus was God's Peace Child
who died and was raised from the dead in order to give us eternal life and thus eternal peace.
Apart from Jesus' saving work we are left with pure morality rooted in the inherent
goodness of man and helped along by the example of Jesus. Professor Torrance perceptively
analyses such a religion.