Friday
March 4, 2011
What is the Good News?
Did God Have To use a Cross to Save us?
“People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know. But God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to a cross and killed him. But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip." Acts 2:22-24 (NLT)
Pastor’s Reflections
Did God “have to” kill His son on the cross in order to save us?
I think there are several important things to understand about this question, a question that must lurk in the back of the minds of millions of people.
1. God does not “have to” do anything, as if there is some sort of standard of justice or necessity outside of God’s self to which God must adhere. To believe that such a standard exists means that there exists something outside of and greater than God. That cannot be....One good definition of God is that God is “that than which nothing greater can be thought”
2. The idea that God would kill His son sets God up in many people’s minds as an ogre and Jesus as the good guy. This cannot be allowed. They are two persons in one. God is Jesus and Jesus is God yet distinct. Impossible as that is to understand, it is crucial that they not be dichotomized as shown. John 3:16 is another way of saying that God gave Himself up for us.
3. There are many ways Christians have tried to explain the atonement and crucifixion. Some have said that God had to satisfy justice (watch out for “had to” and watch out for “satisfy” as if God is in the same league as pagan god’s who demanded human sacrifice). Some have said that God demands a human substitute for the death penalty of sin. (this is very popular but I’m not certain that it has the best biblical support). Others have said that God went to the cross to demonstrate his love rather than out of necessity. (this view falls short in that the cross accomplished something more than just a demonstration). Another view is that the cross is simply the end result of our rebellion against God. We rebelled in Eden. We rebel today. The best way to get rid of God is find some way to kill him. We humans conspired and got His death done. But God brought Hinm back to life. God brings the greatest things out of the worst things. Someone once told me that “redemption is better than creation”. I love that.
So , what did Peter say in Acts 2? What was Peter’s “atonement theory” at Pentecost? He only says that God knew the crucifixion would happen and then it did. Instead of majoring on why, he centered in on what matters most, God raised him from the dead.
This, then, is the Good News. “God brings life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist” (Romans 4:17)
It makes sense to me that the crucifixion was the result of our rebellion and not God's planned payment for that rebellion -- the resurrection was God's answer. Satan/sin/evil took it's ultimate move to silence God by murdering Jesus on the cross and lost -- hallelujah!!!!!
ReplyDeleteOne thing God "has to do" is to be true to His own character and He is a God of Justice as well as of Mercy. He warned Adam/Eve about death as a consequence of sin and in Lev 17:11, He states that "blood makes atonement for (lost) souls." Taken with Rom 5:8 (God shows His love in that He sent Jesus as atonement for us while we were still sinners) all seems to say that the death of the only ever Sinless Man is a "requirement" that God has placed upon Himself in order to be true to Himself and at the same time, atone for our sins. Our sins are the problem even since Eden. We cannot forget that in our thinking processes.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I can wrap all that around my head. Does it change anything for me that I don't grasp the mind of God? I'm just glad that God has the answers and I get to reap the benefit of believing and trusting Him for them. It seems to free me in not trying to figure out the hows and whys of God and to accept Him for His Word. Is this being too simplistic?
ReplyDeleteThe Bible tells us to be able to explain to others why we believe the Gospel . . . and this "postmodern age" demands substance if we are going to spread the Gospel.
ReplyDeleteThe world may snear and scoff when we do not have all the answers. Our faith is what matters, not our ability to totally understand God. The bible teaches us that we can not understand everything.
ReplyDeleteIsaiah 55:9
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
For me, when I think about this I look to Genesis & Revelation. In Genesis, death is a consequence. In Revelation it seems to be a means to an end, no pun intended ^_^
ReplyDeleteThe two trees in the garden offered two things:
-Eternal Life (which is knowing God-John 17:3)
-Knowing Evil (knowing Satan)
God told the Adam & Eve "when you eat of it you will surely die". (I guess they must not have been very attentive for wouldn't they have asked "when? what about "if?").
Death came as a result of knowing evil. The Eternal vs Evil.
They were safe as long as they only knew The Eternal Father. But as we all know they chose to know evil, they chose to know Satan.
Satan, as a created being, is not eternal. He has a beginning and will have an end, such as it is. As such he is the very definition of death and death is what he has to offer.
As to why Jesus had to die. He didn't have to, He chose to. The Bible says as death came to all men from the actions of one man (Adam), so has life come to all men through the actions of one man (Jesus) Romans 5:16.
But, death as a consequence, and death as a passing is a moot point when met with the Eternal.
Jesus, the Eternal chose to stand in for man through death. After all he said to us that "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends...." John 15;13 and
Romans 5:18 "For if by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ."
Death has, indeed, lost its sting. Evil, indeed, for the Christian, has lost its sting.
Thank you, Jesus!