Think Wink.

If I were to ask a Christian to define the cross and what it means to them, I would get one really common theme: it saves me from the penalty of sin.  I say to that: Amen!  That’s awesome!  I wholly and totally agree with that definition…when I look at it froma man’s perspective.  Does anyone really take the time to look at it from God’s perspective?  Do we take the time to see why God felt it necessary to have to send Christ to the cross?  That is what I am going to do in this post, see why God needed Christ to die.  I turn to Romans 3:25-26,

25 [Jesus Christ] whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

We can obviously tell that this text refers to the death of Christ because of “by his blood” in v.25.  Christ shed his blood on the cross when his hands and feet were nailed into the wood and his side was pierced by the spear that breached the heart.  That was his death.  But look at the nature of this death.  What function did this death serve?  Go back to v.25 first, “God put forward as a propitiation.”  Christ is a propitiation.  Many people who are reading this probably know what that is: a sacrifice to appease the anger of a holy diety, in this case the anger of Yahweh Elohim.  Anger at what?  Sin.  Psalm 5:5 says, “you hate all evildoers.”  Psalm 11:5 says, “The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.”  Christ’s death appeases that anger towards man.

But why is this such a big deal?  Why do this?  Can’t God just forgive our sins?  Exodus 34:7 says that God “forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”  He is a forgiving God.  So why can’t he just forgive us?  Read the rest of Exodus 34:7, he “will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”  He is a God that must deal out justice.  He must punish sinners.

But what did God do?  Look again at v.25, “he had passed over former sins.”  He did not punish all who sinned against him.  He passed over their sins.  David says in Psalm 103:10, “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.”  God does not punish sin and has thus compromised his own name, his own glory, his own righteousness.  Why is this a problem?  Look at Romans 3:22, “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”  It is the righteousness of God that is given to us through faith in Jesus Christ.  How can we trust a righteousness that is violated by God himself?  Will that righteousness meet the standard that God has set?  Can we even trust a God who isn’t true to his own character?  That is the real question.

Look now at 3:26, “It was to show his righteousness.”  God put Jesus on the cross to demonstrate that he is righteous.  That we can trust his righteousness.  This is the second time in vv.25-26 that Paul says in the cross God’s righteousness is made manifest.  Jesus in the cross is to demonstrate that God is righteous.  That is true to his name and to his honor and to his glory.  That’s what the cross was for.

This was accomplished in two ways: 1.) God punished the sins of those whom he had passed over.  Continue in v.26, “so that he might be just.”  He punishes sin he does not leave sin left untouched.  It is punished and thus the demands on his character as Yahweh is met in Jesus dying on the cross.  No one can say that God is unjust because those who received his mercy have had their sins now punished.  God is faithful to his name, to his glory.

2.) God has now freed himself throught he cross to forgive us of our sins.  God has provided a way to punish our sins without destroying us.  We can receive his mercy.  God is free to forgive us without compromising himself.  Grace is ours.  But even more so, the righteousness we receive in place of our sin is a perfect righteousness, one the delights in love and mercy and grace and compassion.  It is also a righteousness that hates and denounces sin.  It is a perfect, godly righteousness that will stand that test of God’s law on the last day.

So I conclude that the cross was more for God’s sake than for ours.  God could not forgive us and still be righteous.  Imagine your daughter is raped and her husband is killed by a “man after God’s own heart.”  What would your reaction be if our god who is “just” forgave that man and did not punish him.  That god’s justice would be in question after he declared that he would punish such an individual.  That is the predicament we would be in if God forgave us without the cross.  God would be seen as unjust and in fact would be unjust.  Therefore he would be untrustworthy with our souls because he claims to be just.  By the actions on the cross God can have mercy upon us and still maintain his justice.  Apart from Christ, God could not forgiven anyone of his or her sins.

Golgotha

All, Some, or What?

Did Jesus actually suffer on the Cross as God?