Substitutionary sacrifice

[Not David]

Someone gave an illustration which, while kind of theologically offbeat, I think really gets to the heart of it. From Men in Black"

Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith wind up fighting a giant cockroach from the Bug Race who has come to earth to find the Galaxy, an immense source of power. Seeing that they are losing, Tommy Lee Jones taunts the roach and dares it, getting the immense bug to swallow him whole. From inside the bug, you hear a weapon powering up and then POWIEEE!!! the bug is blasted into pieces from Jones killing it from inside with the weapon that the bug had swallowed moments earlier.

This is what Christ did. He allowed death to swallow Him and by doing so, He destroyed it from within. He embraced it to Himself and by doing so, His life destroyed it. There are beautiful Paschal hymns which we sing that speak of this.

Payment does not even enter into this understanding. It is Christ healing human nature by removing death from the equation.

That's an interesting understanding. Nevertheless, there are parts in Scripture that makes it sound like payment, not necessarily to the Father though.

 

[ArmyMatt]

(Emphasis mine) Exactly this is what I said. If I call "father" my parent here on earth then God isn't "father" because he is "wholly unlike any earthly father" to quote you. However, to quote myself again, the word "father" if the best word which we can apply to Him.

Or to quote St. Gregory Palamas (and others): "God even doesn't exist if the other beings exist".

St. Dionysios the Aeropagite has an entire book on this topic (on the apofatic theology about God's names).

well, sorry but you didn't actually say that. you said He isn't father. He actually IS Father and created fathers merely reflect the true Father.