Christianity and Nominalism

 Nominalism poses a particular problem for Christian theology. I hope I will have more time to write on this later, but something should be said now. One strain of Christian theology tells us that Christ died for our sins. Justice required a sacrifice, and Jesus willingly gave himself up as the payment for the sin of the world. This is a wonderful idea.

But it has problems. It implies that God is constrained by justice, which must then be a force greater than God. Had God wanted to pardon all humanity out of pure love, God could not have done so. Justice would not allow it. 

God however is free. God is not subject to a larger force. 

It is said then that God is by nature just. So God is constrained by his own nature. God cannot defy himself, and he himself is just. Like a hand that cannot independently finger all six strings of a guitar because it has only five fingers, God cannot mete out grace without satisfying justice. 

The nominalist does not accept in justice. Or more precisely, the nominalist does not accept the reality of the abstraction justice. So how could Christ's sacrifice satisfy a need for something that does not in fact exist? 

The nominalist must look elsewhere to understand what happened that day on Calvary.