A Theological Attempt

I have learned alot of really great things in Seminary this past year that have really resonated with me. I would sit in class or read and something would hit me deep down...almost a sense of awe...or my soul sighing in agreement. Things that I knew would change me somehow...I found one of those things in an unexpected place...the early church father, Irenaeus. I wrote a paper on him last semester regarding his view of salvation. Now the paper was actually painfully difficult for me to write. I struggle to write about what theologians have said...I feel like I don't under stand enough to really have a say in the discussion...I love theology but it really intimidates me, so who knows why I am attempting a post about theology.
Anyways..that was a small insight into my soul... Irenaeus was the one who coined the theory of recapitulation. This theory says that Christ lived the life that humankind was intended to live. He resisted tempation to sin, He loved greatly. It is by this recapitualtion that we are saved. God made humans to immortal. As immortal creatures we were designed to live a certain life...like the life that Christ lived. We were to live with God forever. However, sin thwarted that plan, it did not ruin it, because nothing can ruin the plans of God, but it was set off track. Christ lived the life that God intended for us and in His death atoned for the sin that we should have paid for ourselves.
Many Christians tend to focus soley on the work of Christ on the Cross. But Irenaeus belived that Christ's entire life had salvific power. The atonement of Christ was in the incarnation, it was in the miracles, it was in the parables, it was in His betrayal, and it was in the garden. Our salvation is tangled up in each move that Christ made and each breath that He took. Salvation would not have been possible without the entire life of Christ. The incarnation was needed so that both God and man would hang on the cross. The 33 years between the cradle and cross were needed so that Christ could retrace our steps before we even took them.
I don't know what it is about this idea that grabs a hold of me. I think that in the past I have tended to look at Christ's life in a very compartmentalized sort of way. I examined the incarnation. I examined His minstry. Then I examined the work on the cross. But all of these are so deeply intertwined, in a way that gives such depth and richness to the theological study of soteriology or Christology. There is just something about knowing that Christ's entire life was a movement towards our salvation....not just one moment on the cross but each moment. Knowing this enlivens my reading of the gospels. As Christ kisses the hand of the leper we are saved. As he is in the womb of Mary we are saved. As He raises Lazarus from the grave...we are saved.