A Sip
Greetings blogworms! I pray this blog finds you well in the Lord. This blog falls into the category of one of those blogs which I have been thinking about for some time but hadn’t the time to write – actually, I have quite a few of those kinds of blogs in my head. It’s something that has been annoying me for a while now and I think it’s important that the Church not only rediscovers this particular topic, but preaches it from the pulpit, as it is not only highly relevant, but pivotal and crucial to our Faith. In fact, it is what the whole Gospel hinges upon and I fear that we are raising up a generation of believers who are either ignorant or apathetic towards this particular topic, and in turn, having a poor understanding of who God is. Anyway, without further ado, on with the blog! (And I’ll try and keep it short this time).
Spring Time!
Like I’ve already stated, this particular topic has been stewing in my mind for quite some time now but it wasn’t until today, after reading something which bothered me, that it was brought to the forefront of my mind again. You see, I am reading a brilliant book at the moment by Westminster Seminary professor Michael Horton called, “Christless Christianity.” In this book, Horton astutely describes, analyses and critiques the sorry state that Christianity is in here in the West, targeting its primary captors; Pelagianism, ‘moral therapeutic deism’ and the prosperity gospel. One of the sections that I‘m up to reading, which deals especially with the latter of the three, is on ‘smooth talkers’. And who else should Horton use to typify and analyse this heretical phenomenon but everyone’s favourite smiling pastor, Mr Joel Osteen.
Osteen, being a bestselling author and pastor of the Houston mega-church, “Lakewood Church”, personifies the sort of Bible-twisting, narcissistic, motivational self-help drivel that Horton critiques. So much so, that Horton spends quite a large section of his book quoting Osteen and exposing the underlying heterodoxy and vanity in his words. It is one such quote of Osteen’s that rekindled this blog topic and my grievance. In the quote, taken from his bestselling book, “Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day”, Osteen said, “I know my heart is right. To the best of my ability, I’m doing what pleases Him [God]…Frankly, it’s not because of what you have or haven’t done; God loves you because of who you are and because of who he is. God is love” (p.89).
Whilst it would be real easy to point the finger of blame solely at Osteen, I think Osteen’s views are tragically a reflection of the views of the majority of both the Christian and Secular worlds. This commonly held and preached view, which omits, ignores or misinterprets the Cross of Christ, is something which at first glance is sweet, attractive and instinctively Biblically correct; ‘God is a loving god and He loves you just the way you are.’ However, even if its proponents in both evangelical and liberal camps are well meaning, dig a little deeper and what this watered-down and “nice” seeker-sensitive message actually does is either make Christ’s death on the Cross obsolete, or it makes God out to be a benign and simple grandfather figure in the sky. Both of these, as I will show below, are detrimental to our knowledge of God, Christ, Salvation, us and the Gospel.
1) THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CROSS
The tendency we have as Christians when seeing the Cross, is to focus on the love; we only see the love of God. Now, don’t get me wrong, the Cross is a wonderful and glorious sign of God’s love, but, to the detriment of the true meaning of the Cross, we tend to overlook the other side; the darker and uglier side of the Cross. This side is key to understanding the necessity of Jesus’ crucifixion. This darker side is God’s wrath.
You see, it is true that God is a God of love, but He is not ONLY a God of love. He has other characteristics such as His Holiness, His justice, His mercy and His Righteousness to name a few. And these other characteristics, particularly His justice in the case of the Cross, must be satisfied and adhered to in conjunction with His loving nature. Those, like Osteen, who make God out to be only a God of love with no mention of His wrath or His justice make Him out to be an easy going old man in the sky who benignly pardons us with seemingly no cost to us or Him. As Horton rightly notes:
“Osteen’s God is uncomplicated. Characterized by only one attribute (love), God’s forgiveness is cheap. His love does not require consistency with his justice, holiness, and righteousness. Therefore, it is not merciful love – that is, compassion toward those who deserve judgment. By contrast, the God of the Bible is far more interesting and majestic. Finding a way to love sinners that does not violate his holy character, God gave his Son to fulfill the law and bear our judgment in our place. The biblical plot of the redemptive drama is rich, while Osteen’s story is thin – with me rather than God at the center.” (p.89)
2) GOD’S WRATH
So what has the Cross got to do with God’s wrath? Everything! Those who either ignore the Cross or reduce it to merely a sign of God’s love also reduce its power and, inevitably, its significance and meaning to our Faith, Salvation, and ultimately our relationship with God Himself. You cannot understand the Good News until you understand the bad news; you cannot understand God’s love until you understand His wrath. So what is God’s wrath?
For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God…for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. (Eph 5:5-6)
The wrath of God is the divine punishment, distributed by a God who is a “consuming fire” (Heb 12:29), to those who are guilty of “all ungodliness and unrighteousness” (Ro 1:18), disobediently transgressing His Holy laws and sinning against Him. And unfortunately, the bad news is that includes ALL of us (Ro 3:10-12, 23). For all of us by our human nature can be neither pure nor righteous before God (Job 15:14). Man is “abominable and filthy”, ‘drinking iniquity like water’ (Job 15:16). It is for this reason that God’s wrath remains on all of us by default unless we have faith in Christ’s work on the Cross (Jn 3:36).
For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. (Ps 5:4-6)
So why does sin so much invoke God’s wrath then? It is because sin in its purest form is being in opposition to God’s nature which is that of the Spirit (Ro 8:5-11). And God, being a Holy and Righteous God, cannot be in the presence of such filth of the flesh (Jn 3:5-6). Like two opposite magnetic charges that repel one another, so is sin and God’s Holiness; sin brings separation from God and thus the wrath of God (Isa 59:2-3). As David says in the above Psalm, God detests sin and, whilst longsuffering sin in us temporally in forbearance of our later justification, sanctification and glorification (Ro 3:25), He cannot eternally tolerate it. As such, all those whose sins are not forgiven through Faith in Christ must be Eternally Destroyed.
Thus, those who ignore this bad news and only focus on the Good News, or God’s love and forgiveness, render the Cross obsolete, and likewise, reduce the Church’s understanding and gratitude for the Lord’s work on the Cross. Rather than realise their utter helplessness, that man cannot save himself, they assume that they could have saved themselves but God let them off the hook. They fail to realise that no matter how hard we try and no matter how good we think we are, God looks at our hearts and sees the sinful pride and motivations with which these so called ‘good works’ were done (Pr 16:2) and thus justly condemns us. As Horton again astutely says:
“Grab all the glory now. No cross, no wrath, no judgment. Just be all you can be. We are constantly bombarded in our culture by appeals to our native narcissism…The biblical message is far deeper and richer, however, both in its bad news and its good news. The bad news is far worse than making mistakes or failing to live up to the legalistic standards of fundamentalism. It is that the best efforts of the best Christians, on the best days, in the best frame of heart and mind, with the best motives fall short of that true righteousness and holiness that God requires. Our best efforts cannot satisfy God’s justice. Yet the good news is that God has satisfied his own justice and reconciled us to himself through the life, death, and resurrection of his Son. God’s holy law can no longer condemn us because we are in Christ.” (p.91)
Instead of appreciating the enormity of their sinful condition, the enormous price God has paid to redeem us and thus, understanding how much we have been forgiven of, they view their sin as merely mistakes and failures which God has lovingly pardoned. And because the gravity of their sin is diminished and reduced, so is their appreciation for God’s saving work and His love in doing so. God’s forgiveness is cheapened and as such, they respond with cheap love for their Saviour. As Jesus said, “to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little” (Lk 7:47). Of course, with me using the words ‘they’ and ‘their’ I must not get carried away and forget that I can sometimes be just as guilty myself in not appreciating what my Saviour has done on the Cross.
3) WHAT DOES THE CROSS MEAN?
So if the bad news is that we are all sinners and we are born with God’s wrath upon us (Jn 3:18), then the consequence of this wrath is that in order for it to be satisfied, blood must be shed (Heb 9:22). As one of my favourite Christian musicians Keith Green puts it in his song, “Altar Call”, “Most people don’t find out, ‘til it’s too late, that someone has to pay the price. You can pay it yourself (ha!), or let someone else. But who would be that nice, to pay a debt that isn’t His? Well I know someone like that, and He’s your best friend, He really is, He really loves you.” In other words, something or someone must die for our sins. This is explained by Paul in Romans 6:23 when he says, “For the wages of sin is death.”
Before Christ’s death on the Cross, the Israelites had shed the blood of animals to atone for their sins, but this was just a temporary band-aid solution “for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins” (Heb 10:4). Since these animal sacrifices were required regularly and often, they aimed at revealing to the Jews the inadequacy of such sacrifices and, hence, reveal their need for a better one. They were purposed, like much of the law, to point towards Christ. But alas, most of them missed the arrow.
Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all…For the transgressions of My people He was stricken…Yet it pleased the Lord to…make His soul an offering for sin…By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities…And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors. (Isa 53:4-12)
This prophecy, written hundreds of years before Christ’s Incarnation, shows that God had premeditated and preordained that He would send His Son to die on the Cross. This was not something which was unforeseen or spontaneously decided on as a solution; this was something which God had planned since before the creation of the world and any of us in it. You see, before creation, God loved His Church (Eph 1:4-5). However, He was faced with a serious dilemma. Knowing full well that man would become sinful and thus could never save himself, God (as a loving God) wanted to be with His people, but at the same time (as a just and holy God), He also had to punish this sinfulness. The solution that God conceived is the most glorious climax of all world history; God condescended in the form of His Son to take the penalty of our sins on Himself. As opposed to some “theologians” like Brian McLaren who accuse God of “cosmic child abuse” in doing this, Jesus tells us Himself that He was not forced to die for His sheep, but rather He laid down His life willingly out of love (Jn 10:18). Christ loved us so much that He gave “Himself for us [as] an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Eph 5:2).
For He Himself is our peace, who has…broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances…thus making peace, and that He might reconcile [us] to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity…For through Him we…have access by one Spirit to the Father. (Eph 2:14-18)
In taking the penalty of the sinful Church’s sins on Himself, Christ has successfully satisfied God’s wrath and as such, has reconciled the two parties so that now the Church can dwell with God forever in His Kingdom. God has reconciled all those who have faith in Jesus by forgiving them in both a merciful and just way (Ro 3:26), freely justifying them “by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood” (Ro 3:24-25). This word ‘propitiation’ is not commonly used anymore, but it is a beautiful word which basically means a ‘sacrifice of atonement’.
But now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. (Heb 9:26-28)
This fundamental doctrine is popularly called ‘Substitutionary Atonement’ in theological circles. Basically, it means that Christ suffered the punishment we justly deserve for our sinfulness as a substitute, taking our spot on the Cross and dying in our place. The Cross is not simply Jesus showing us what is morally ideal or just pointlessly showing us how much He loves us. No, in order that our sins might be justly forgiven and God’s wrath lovingly satisfied, someone’s blood had to be shed and that person’s blood was God’s Himself in the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ bore the penalty of our sins and thus took on Himself much more pain than simply the nails in His wrists and feet. Oh no, Christ bore the full wrath of God. Christ, out of the love He has for His sheep, suffered the wrath and separation from His Father that sin brings as a definitive sacrifice, once and for all.
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Co 5:21)
Christ lived a completely sinless and Holy life, yet as the Lamb of God, our sins were imputed to Him so that He became the symbol of all the Church’s sin and hence, He suffered separation from the Father for them. This is most clearly expressed by Christ Himself when He agonisingly exclaimed on the Cross in Matthew 27:46, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” In a fallen world with much suffering, everyone (even Atheists, terrorists and serial killers) still experience the blessings that God’s common grace and presence bring. Can you imagine if He took all of that away and you experienced what it would be like to be separated from the goodness of God? Well, that was what Christ experienced on the Cross for your sins, suffering the torment of separation from a Holy God that you rightfully deserved.
Furthermore, when Christ finally and climactically says, “It is finished!” (Jn 19:30) before giving up His Spirit and dying, this reveals to us the nature of the work that Christ had completed on the Cross. You see, the Greek word that is used here for ‘finished’ is ‘teleo’ and is a legal term. It basically means to pay, execute or discharge a debt. What this shows us is that the Cross is not merely Jesus exemplarily taking a bullet for some of His friends, but it is an official legal transaction in God’s eyes. God did not simply forget the debt, but paid it Himself. Christ paid this debt we owed to God that we could never pay. And He did this out of His extravagant love by suffering and paying with His life!
4) WHY DID GOD REDEEM US ON THE CROSS?
So why did God do all of this? Some people like Osteen might answer this question with something along the lines of, “Because He loves you for who you are.” What nonsense that is! This only pacifies Christ’s work on the Cross and diminishes God’s love. As I already discussed above, we are sinners and God’s Holy nature is such that He cannot tolerate sin.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. (Ro 6:5-8)
As this verse tells us, Christ died on the Cross to eliminate and conquer sin in us; to free us from the captivity that our sinfulness had on us. Christ died so that we in our sinfulness would also die with Him, and thus, we would be a new creature, being “sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb 10:10). What this means is that God sent His Son to die on a cross so that not only will your sins be forgiven, but that you will be sanctified and transformed into the likeness of Christ. You see, God does not love you for who you are, He loves you DESPITE who you are!
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Ro 5:6-11)
How much more glorious is this love that the Father lavishes on us if we do not deserve it as filthy sinners. For if He loves us for who we are, then there is an element of worthiness and value in that love; that there is something about us that merits God’s affection. But if we realise that we are totally undeserving of the Father’s love; that He died for us not because we were righteous and deserved it, but because we were totally sinful and undeserving; how much more glorious and unfathomable is this love, and thus, how much more appreciative we will be for what He did on the Cross.
He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins…For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight. (Col 1:13-23)
Christ died on the Cross not because God was happy with the way we are, but because He DETESTED the way we are, so much so, that it required a radical solution – the Cross. Yet though He detests the way we are, He still loves us! – “Who is so great a God as our God?” (Ps 77:13). Christ’s death on the Cross not only reconciles us ungodly and wicked rebels to God, but it also is designed through the working of His Spirit to change us from who we are as sinful dead reprobates, into the perfect image of His Son. For just as our sin was imputed to Him, so is His perfect obedience and Righteousness imputed to us. This is the mysterious miracle of Justification; that though I am an unworthy sinner undeserving of God’s Grace, I can stand before Him clothed in the Righteousness that is not mine, but that of Christ that comes through Faith in Him (Eph 4:24; Phil 3:9).
“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Ro 8:29)
The word ‘foreknew’ used here means much more than mere factual knowledge, it is used in the same sense as when Adam knew Eve; it means to intimately know someone – to love them. God loved us so much before we were even created, that He wanted to transform us from our sinful state into the fullness of life in His Son. How amazing and incomprehensible is this promise of God; that we will one day be like Jesus Himself, free from sin and death, sharing in His Glory!
Osteen, being a bestselling author and pastor of the Houston mega-church, “Lakewood Church”, personifies the sort of Bible-twisting, narcissistic, motivational self-help drivel that Horton critiques. So much so, that Horton spends quite a large section of his book quoting Osteen and exposing the underlying heterodoxy and vanity in his words. It is one such quote of Osteen’s that rekindled this blog topic and my grievance. In the quote, taken from his bestselling book, “Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day”, Osteen said, “I know my heart is right. To the best of my ability, I’m doing what pleases Him [God]…Frankly, it’s not because of what you have or haven’t done; God loves you because of who you are and because of who he is. God is love” (p.89).
Whilst it would be real easy to point the finger of blame solely at Osteen, I think Osteen’s views are tragically a reflection of the views of the majority of both the Christian and Secular worlds. This commonly held and preached view, which omits, ignores or misinterprets the Cross of Christ, is something which at first glance is sweet, attractive and instinctively Biblically correct; ‘God is a loving god and He loves you just the way you are.’ However, even if its proponents in both evangelical and liberal camps are well meaning, dig a little deeper and what this watered-down and “nice” seeker-sensitive message actually does is either make Christ’s death on the Cross obsolete, or it makes God out to be a benign and simple grandfather figure in the sky. Both of these, as I will show below, are detrimental to our knowledge of God, Christ, Salvation, us and the Gospel.
1) THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CROSS
The tendency we have as Christians when seeing the Cross, is to focus on the love; we only see the love of God. Now, don’t get me wrong, the Cross is a wonderful and glorious sign of God’s love, but, to the detriment of the true meaning of the Cross, we tend to overlook the other side; the darker and uglier side of the Cross. This side is key to understanding the necessity of Jesus’ crucifixion. This darker side is God’s wrath.
You see, it is true that God is a God of love, but He is not ONLY a God of love. He has other characteristics such as His Holiness, His justice, His mercy and His Righteousness to name a few. And these other characteristics, particularly His justice in the case of the Cross, must be satisfied and adhered to in conjunction with His loving nature. Those, like Osteen, who make God out to be only a God of love with no mention of His wrath or His justice make Him out to be an easy going old man in the sky who benignly pardons us with seemingly no cost to us or Him. As Horton rightly notes:
“Osteen’s God is uncomplicated. Characterized by only one attribute (love), God’s forgiveness is cheap. His love does not require consistency with his justice, holiness, and righteousness. Therefore, it is not merciful love – that is, compassion toward those who deserve judgment. By contrast, the God of the Bible is far more interesting and majestic. Finding a way to love sinners that does not violate his holy character, God gave his Son to fulfill the law and bear our judgment in our place. The biblical plot of the redemptive drama is rich, while Osteen’s story is thin – with me rather than God at the center.” (p.89)
2) GOD’S WRATH
So what has the Cross got to do with God’s wrath? Everything! Those who either ignore the Cross or reduce it to merely a sign of God’s love also reduce its power and, inevitably, its significance and meaning to our Faith, Salvation, and ultimately our relationship with God Himself. You cannot understand the Good News until you understand the bad news; you cannot understand God’s love until you understand His wrath. So what is God’s wrath?
For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God…for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. (Eph 5:5-6)
The wrath of God is the divine punishment, distributed by a God who is a “consuming fire” (Heb 12:29), to those who are guilty of “all ungodliness and unrighteousness” (Ro 1:18), disobediently transgressing His Holy laws and sinning against Him. And unfortunately, the bad news is that includes ALL of us (Ro 3:10-12, 23). For all of us by our human nature can be neither pure nor righteous before God (Job 15:14). Man is “abominable and filthy”, ‘drinking iniquity like water’ (Job 15:16). It is for this reason that God’s wrath remains on all of us by default unless we have faith in Christ’s work on the Cross (Jn 3:36).
For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. (Ps 5:4-6)
So why does sin so much invoke God’s wrath then? It is because sin in its purest form is being in opposition to God’s nature which is that of the Spirit (Ro 8:5-11). And God, being a Holy and Righteous God, cannot be in the presence of such filth of the flesh (Jn 3:5-6). Like two opposite magnetic charges that repel one another, so is sin and God’s Holiness; sin brings separation from God and thus the wrath of God (Isa 59:2-3). As David says in the above Psalm, God detests sin and, whilst longsuffering sin in us temporally in forbearance of our later justification, sanctification and glorification (Ro 3:25), He cannot eternally tolerate it. As such, all those whose sins are not forgiven through Faith in Christ must be Eternally Destroyed.
Thus, those who ignore this bad news and only focus on the Good News, or God’s love and forgiveness, render the Cross obsolete, and likewise, reduce the Church’s understanding and gratitude for the Lord’s work on the Cross. Rather than realise their utter helplessness, that man cannot save himself, they assume that they could have saved themselves but God let them off the hook. They fail to realise that no matter how hard we try and no matter how good we think we are, God looks at our hearts and sees the sinful pride and motivations with which these so called ‘good works’ were done (Pr 16:2) and thus justly condemns us. As Horton again astutely says:
“Grab all the glory now. No cross, no wrath, no judgment. Just be all you can be. We are constantly bombarded in our culture by appeals to our native narcissism…The biblical message is far deeper and richer, however, both in its bad news and its good news. The bad news is far worse than making mistakes or failing to live up to the legalistic standards of fundamentalism. It is that the best efforts of the best Christians, on the best days, in the best frame of heart and mind, with the best motives fall short of that true righteousness and holiness that God requires. Our best efforts cannot satisfy God’s justice. Yet the good news is that God has satisfied his own justice and reconciled us to himself through the life, death, and resurrection of his Son. God’s holy law can no longer condemn us because we are in Christ.” (p.91)
Instead of appreciating the enormity of their sinful condition, the enormous price God has paid to redeem us and thus, understanding how much we have been forgiven of, they view their sin as merely mistakes and failures which God has lovingly pardoned. And because the gravity of their sin is diminished and reduced, so is their appreciation for God’s saving work and His love in doing so. God’s forgiveness is cheapened and as such, they respond with cheap love for their Saviour. As Jesus said, “to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little” (Lk 7:47). Of course, with me using the words ‘they’ and ‘their’ I must not get carried away and forget that I can sometimes be just as guilty myself in not appreciating what my Saviour has done on the Cross.
3) WHAT DOES THE CROSS MEAN?
So if the bad news is that we are all sinners and we are born with God’s wrath upon us (Jn 3:18), then the consequence of this wrath is that in order for it to be satisfied, blood must be shed (Heb 9:22). As one of my favourite Christian musicians Keith Green puts it in his song, “Altar Call”, “Most people don’t find out, ‘til it’s too late, that someone has to pay the price. You can pay it yourself (ha!), or let someone else. But who would be that nice, to pay a debt that isn’t His? Well I know someone like that, and He’s your best friend, He really is, He really loves you.” In other words, something or someone must die for our sins. This is explained by Paul in Romans 6:23 when he says, “For the wages of sin is death.”
Before Christ’s death on the Cross, the Israelites had shed the blood of animals to atone for their sins, but this was just a temporary band-aid solution “for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins” (Heb 10:4). Since these animal sacrifices were required regularly and often, they aimed at revealing to the Jews the inadequacy of such sacrifices and, hence, reveal their need for a better one. They were purposed, like much of the law, to point towards Christ. But alas, most of them missed the arrow.
Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all…For the transgressions of My people He was stricken…Yet it pleased the Lord to…make His soul an offering for sin…By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities…And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors. (Isa 53:4-12)
This prophecy, written hundreds of years before Christ’s Incarnation, shows that God had premeditated and preordained that He would send His Son to die on the Cross. This was not something which was unforeseen or spontaneously decided on as a solution; this was something which God had planned since before the creation of the world and any of us in it. You see, before creation, God loved His Church (Eph 1:4-5). However, He was faced with a serious dilemma. Knowing full well that man would become sinful and thus could never save himself, God (as a loving God) wanted to be with His people, but at the same time (as a just and holy God), He also had to punish this sinfulness. The solution that God conceived is the most glorious climax of all world history; God condescended in the form of His Son to take the penalty of our sins on Himself. As opposed to some “theologians” like Brian McLaren who accuse God of “cosmic child abuse” in doing this, Jesus tells us Himself that He was not forced to die for His sheep, but rather He laid down His life willingly out of love (Jn 10:18). Christ loved us so much that He gave “Himself for us [as] an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Eph 5:2).
For He Himself is our peace, who has…broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances…thus making peace, and that He might reconcile [us] to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity…For through Him we…have access by one Spirit to the Father. (Eph 2:14-18)
In taking the penalty of the sinful Church’s sins on Himself, Christ has successfully satisfied God’s wrath and as such, has reconciled the two parties so that now the Church can dwell with God forever in His Kingdom. God has reconciled all those who have faith in Jesus by forgiving them in both a merciful and just way (Ro 3:26), freely justifying them “by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood” (Ro 3:24-25). This word ‘propitiation’ is not commonly used anymore, but it is a beautiful word which basically means a ‘sacrifice of atonement’.
But now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. (Heb 9:26-28)
This fundamental doctrine is popularly called ‘Substitutionary Atonement’ in theological circles. Basically, it means that Christ suffered the punishment we justly deserve for our sinfulness as a substitute, taking our spot on the Cross and dying in our place. The Cross is not simply Jesus showing us what is morally ideal or just pointlessly showing us how much He loves us. No, in order that our sins might be justly forgiven and God’s wrath lovingly satisfied, someone’s blood had to be shed and that person’s blood was God’s Himself in the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ bore the penalty of our sins and thus took on Himself much more pain than simply the nails in His wrists and feet. Oh no, Christ bore the full wrath of God. Christ, out of the love He has for His sheep, suffered the wrath and separation from His Father that sin brings as a definitive sacrifice, once and for all.
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Co 5:21)
Christ lived a completely sinless and Holy life, yet as the Lamb of God, our sins were imputed to Him so that He became the symbol of all the Church’s sin and hence, He suffered separation from the Father for them. This is most clearly expressed by Christ Himself when He agonisingly exclaimed on the Cross in Matthew 27:46, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” In a fallen world with much suffering, everyone (even Atheists, terrorists and serial killers) still experience the blessings that God’s common grace and presence bring. Can you imagine if He took all of that away and you experienced what it would be like to be separated from the goodness of God? Well, that was what Christ experienced on the Cross for your sins, suffering the torment of separation from a Holy God that you rightfully deserved.
Furthermore, when Christ finally and climactically says, “It is finished!” (Jn 19:30) before giving up His Spirit and dying, this reveals to us the nature of the work that Christ had completed on the Cross. You see, the Greek word that is used here for ‘finished’ is ‘teleo’ and is a legal term. It basically means to pay, execute or discharge a debt. What this shows us is that the Cross is not merely Jesus exemplarily taking a bullet for some of His friends, but it is an official legal transaction in God’s eyes. God did not simply forget the debt, but paid it Himself. Christ paid this debt we owed to God that we could never pay. And He did this out of His extravagant love by suffering and paying with His life!
4) WHY DID GOD REDEEM US ON THE CROSS?
So why did God do all of this? Some people like Osteen might answer this question with something along the lines of, “Because He loves you for who you are.” What nonsense that is! This only pacifies Christ’s work on the Cross and diminishes God’s love. As I already discussed above, we are sinners and God’s Holy nature is such that He cannot tolerate sin.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. (Ro 6:5-8)
As this verse tells us, Christ died on the Cross to eliminate and conquer sin in us; to free us from the captivity that our sinfulness had on us. Christ died so that we in our sinfulness would also die with Him, and thus, we would be a new creature, being “sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb 10:10). What this means is that God sent His Son to die on a cross so that not only will your sins be forgiven, but that you will be sanctified and transformed into the likeness of Christ. You see, God does not love you for who you are, He loves you DESPITE who you are!
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Ro 5:6-11)
How much more glorious is this love that the Father lavishes on us if we do not deserve it as filthy sinners. For if He loves us for who we are, then there is an element of worthiness and value in that love; that there is something about us that merits God’s affection. But if we realise that we are totally undeserving of the Father’s love; that He died for us not because we were righteous and deserved it, but because we were totally sinful and undeserving; how much more glorious and unfathomable is this love, and thus, how much more appreciative we will be for what He did on the Cross.
He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins…For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight. (Col 1:13-23)
Christ died on the Cross not because God was happy with the way we are, but because He DETESTED the way we are, so much so, that it required a radical solution – the Cross. Yet though He detests the way we are, He still loves us! – “Who is so great a God as our God?” (Ps 77:13). Christ’s death on the Cross not only reconciles us ungodly and wicked rebels to God, but it also is designed through the working of His Spirit to change us from who we are as sinful dead reprobates, into the perfect image of His Son. For just as our sin was imputed to Him, so is His perfect obedience and Righteousness imputed to us. This is the mysterious miracle of Justification; that though I am an unworthy sinner undeserving of God’s Grace, I can stand before Him clothed in the Righteousness that is not mine, but that of Christ that comes through Faith in Him (Eph 4:24; Phil 3:9).
“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Ro 8:29)
The word ‘foreknew’ used here means much more than mere factual knowledge, it is used in the same sense as when Adam knew Eve; it means to intimately know someone – to love them. God loved us so much before we were even created, that He wanted to transform us from our sinful state into the fullness of life in His Son. How amazing and incomprehensible is this promise of God; that we will one day be like Jesus Himself, free from sin and death, sharing in His Glory!
Waves
So, with that said, I pray that I have been enabled by the Spirit to demonstrate to you as best as possible the richness of the love of Christ on the Cross. Jesus’s death was not a trivial epitome of loving moral behavior for us to imitate or the simple pardoning of sin, but the amazing saving grace of a God who dealt with our radical problem of sin with a radical solution of self-sacrifice, our forgiveness coming at an expensive cost; the death of His Son; and that you will respond to this with the thanksgiving, praise and worship that is due to Him.
I hope that the Spirit will make you better understand the depth of love shown on the Cross; that you can only do so by first understanding the wrath of God as divine punishment for our sin and your own contemptibility before a Holy God; that He loves you not because of who you are, but despite who you are; that you will cherish the Cross as a sign of God paying the death penalty you deserve Himself and reconciling you to Him out of a totally undeserved and unmerited love. So powerful is this symbol of God’s gracious love, that I pray that you will say with the Apostle Paul, “I [am] determined not to know anything…except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Co 2:2).
And now, having reconciled us, I finally pray that you accept “the ministry of reconciliation” that God has bestowed upon us to preach; “that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them” (2Co 5:18-19). So until next time, put that in your cloud and rain it (Jude 12).
Christus Regnat,
MAXi
I hope that the Spirit will make you better understand the depth of love shown on the Cross; that you can only do so by first understanding the wrath of God as divine punishment for our sin and your own contemptibility before a Holy God; that He loves you not because of who you are, but despite who you are; that you will cherish the Cross as a sign of God paying the death penalty you deserve Himself and reconciling you to Him out of a totally undeserved and unmerited love. So powerful is this symbol of God’s gracious love, that I pray that you will say with the Apostle Paul, “I [am] determined not to know anything…except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Co 2:2).
And now, having reconciled us, I finally pray that you accept “the ministry of reconciliation” that God has bestowed upon us to preach; “that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them” (2Co 5:18-19). So until next time, put that in your cloud and rain it (Jude 12).
Christus Regnat,
MAXi
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