Recently, I have been learning about the Aztec civilization in my anthropology class, and the Lord really opened my eyes to the fact that people possess a deeply innate need for the gospel, and whether or not they associate it or understand it in light of religious principles, it is evidently portrayed in their life in some way or another.
To give a brief background, the Aztecs were a people who were widely known for their religious sacrificial system. Their worldview essentially hinged upon the idea of reciprocity – meaning, extreme measures of sacrifice and penance must be enacted in order to be counted worthy or deserving of anything good. And the most interesting idea is that the payment always required the sacrifice of life.
For instance, in order to please the gods of water, people were drowned. This sacrifice paid the price to acquire the water necessity from the gods that they lacked and needed. In order to please the gods of agriculture, a life was sacrificed to purchase agricultural blessing. In order to please the gods of war, many people were sacrificed to pay the price of a supernaturally-favored victory. And furthermore, in order to gain blessing from any other gods of marriage, love, birth, success, and etc, the same sacrifice of a life and penance were required as the payment before the gods.
All sacrifices were made because they innately knew that the cost of anything good required the costly life of an individual. They lived through the shattering realization that they were inherently unworthy and undeserving of anything good, unless they were associated with a sacrifice. They were intrinsically convinced that a sacrifice of life was the only remedy for their spiritual detriment before the gods.
And you might be thinking that I am forcing an analogy between the spirituality of the Aztecs with the Gospel. So you might say, “well, these people were just savages and possessed no idea of morality,” or “you never know, murder may have been a unique part of their religious rituals, just like we have unique rituals in modern religious spheres. Therefore, in this case, their ritual was just one that aligned with their societal savagery”.
False. The reading was explicitly clear that these people did not want to murder at all. They hated sacrifice and the extreme measures that were required of them – in fact, they often went to war with neighboring civilizations with the objection of taking hostages to serve as their sacrifices, since they were terribly grieved in the sacrificing of their own people. They could not shake off the reality that the gods were unhappy with them, and that they constantly remained under a state of unpardonable wrath. And further still, they also could not deter from the reality that it was only through the sacrificing of the highest and most valuable thing they possessed, the price of life, that temporarily averted sovereign wrath and warranted supernatural blessing.
One sentence in the article particularly sums it up: “Victory, great leadership, marriage, children, love, and relationship with the gods had to be deserved through penance and sacrifice.” It is also interesting to include that that this article is entitled, Those Made Worthy by Divine Sacrifice.
And it has not just been so with the Aztecs – the Auca tribe of Ecuador, the people group that murdered John Elliot, is also an example. One of the natives explained to Mrs. Elliot that they knew the supernatural deity was angry at their lifestyle of murder and violence, but they did not know how to be forgiven, set right, or justified. That is why the gospel – demonstrated and communicated to them by the Elliots – overwhelmed them and brought them to faith in Christ. It made sense to them and provided the solution in light of their inherent depravity.
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The Aztec spiritual view of reality is fundamentally parallel to the Gospel. The Aztecs believed that they were inherently unworthy and undeserving of anything good from the gods. And they were convinced that it was only through the sacrifice of a human life that provided a temporary, spiritual acquittal and a ‘right standing’ with the gods. Does this example not scream for the divine intervention of God and the Gospel? And though they seemed to possess an innate understanding for 1) a broken relationship with a higher power, 2) an inherent need for acquittal, 3) a death that is the high, but necessary price, and 4) that every good and perfect gift came from above, they needed the Gospel! All these ideas make sense in light of the Gospel!
The death Jesus died paid for the final, ultimate atonement that stopped the sacrificial animal process for the Israelites to be temporarily set right with God. The death of Jesus provides exoneration, and it is our association with His death that God deems us innocent and acquitted, holy and pure, approved and accepted, and as sons. And it is through the death of Jesus that allows blessing – for we were once enemies of God, children of wrath, deserving only condemnation and hell – but now, we are found as heirs with Christ – and it is only through the atoning work of Christ that we gain access to true blessings and unwavering provision; for, “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights” (James 1:17). These are only accomplished by Christ’s substitionary death. For it is His death only that bridges the divide between God and us – “destroying the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, and making peace” (Eph 3:14-15).
Indeed, the Aztec’s ideas are parallel with Christianity in regard to how every blessing – marriage, strength, health, children, ability, etc – can only come from a sacrificed life that resolves peace between God and man. This concept is clearly articulated in the words of John Piper in his book, Don’t Waste Your Life. He says,
“If I deserve nothing but condemnation because of my sin, but instead get life and breath in this age, and everlasting joy in the age to come, because Christ died for me, then everything good – and every bad that God turns for good – must be the reward of His suffering and not my merit.”
p. 52-53
And it is not just the Aztecs. We all struggle to realize our standing with the God of the universe, whether we are Christian or not. In either case, it is natural to feel like we have to do something to earn a right position of God, or His approval, acceptance, love, and blessings. Yet, this is not the case! If it were achievable by our efforts, it would contribute to our boasting, and valuing of self, which is the very essence of sin. But it has been accomplished for our sake in the suffering of Christ – whom we receive all those things unconditionally through Him (2 Peter 1:3-4).
The Aztecs inherently longed for acquittal, and they demonstrated their need to be ransomed from guilt and brought into reconciliation with the higher power through their acts of sacrifice. Unknowingly, their actions cried out for the very reality that has already been secured and established:
Christ’s blood has justified, redeemed, atoned, and restored the broken divide between God and man. And when we innately long, we will supernaturally find.
Because of the Gospel, for the sake of the Gospel
