[anderskaseorg]

The sense in which the Lisp code (list 'lambda (list 'x) x) evaluates to the data representation of (lambda (x) x) is exactly the same as the sense in which the lambda calculus code λa. λb. λc. c (λx. λa. λb. λc. a x) evaluates to the data representation of λx. x.

What makes Lisp special is that this particular correspondence is made visible to the programmer via quote and other macros. Again, very cool, but not fundamental to this particular discussion.