The Glory of the Cross
You may or may not know, but I’ve been taking a class on the Person and Work of Christ this summer at Western Seminary and my final paper is due tomorrow. So, you’re getting a sneak peek at a small section of the paper. Here’s the backstory. Several years ago, a pastor made some comments on the substitutionary atonement of Christ, where he minimized the work of Jesus, and essentially said the Cross is a symbol of a vindictive, pagan god. So, I chose to address that topic in the paper.
One of the statements this pastor made was in essence, ‘If God is a God of love, he should just overlook our sin and give us kindness.’ He doesn’t cite any biblical texts to support his assertion, nor does he offer any insight into how God’s wrath against sin is dealt with. Is his statement true? Can humans be forgiven apart from sacrifice?
John Stott in his masterpiece, The Cross of Christ, quotes Archbishop Anselm who says, “If anybody imagines that God can simply forgive us as we forgive others, that person has not yet considered the seriousness of sin, and you have not yet considered the majesty of God.” If we have a mistaken view of the seriousness of sin and a mistaken view of God’s holiness, it will inevitably lead to a misunderstanding and faulty view of the atonement. Therefore, we need to have a firm understanding of both the gravity of sin and the majesty of the Lord. To those two topics, we now turn.
The Seriousness of Sin
The Bible describes sin using a cluster of words with meanings ranging from ‘the missing of a mark’ or ‘unrighteousness’ to ‘perversion’ or ‘evil’ to ‘trespass.’ Yet the nature of sin is the same: its essence is hostility towards God (Rom. 8:7) and active rebellion against him. When David commits adultery with Bathsheba (2 Sam. 12), and then arranges to have her husband Uriah killed, he commits terrible sins against them and against the nation, yet he recognizes ultimately that he violated God’s law and sinned primarily against God himself, which is why in his confession he says, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (Ps. 51:4). Sin is not simply a regrettable lapse of judgment, or irresponsibility. Sin is a defiant, self-assertion of autonomy, an open rejection of the Lord’s authority and care.
The Majesty of the Lord
One of the overwhelming convictions of the authors of Scripture is that God is holy and majestic. Habakkuk declares of God, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.” We’re told in Isaiah that our sins have separated us from him and caused him to hide his face from us (Is. 59:2). Those who were given just a glimpse of the Lord’s glory were amazed by it. Moses was afraid to look at God and hid his face (Ex.3:6). Isaiah was overwhelmed by it and sensed his own uncleanness. Job repented in dust and ashes (Job 42:5-6). Ezekiel and Daniel fell to the ground (Ez. 1:28; Dan.10:9). Moving to the New Testament, like Isaiah, when Peter is confronted by the Lord Jesus Christ, he senses his own sinfulness (Lk. 5:8). John, when seeing Jesus in his exalted state, falls before him (Rev.1:17). An aspect of God’s holiness is his wrath, which is his holy reaction to evil and sin. God’s anger, however, is not like man’s anger. Dr. Charles Cranfield comments on God’s wrath stating, “God’s wrath is no nightmare of indiscriminate, uncontrolled, irrational fury, but the wrath of the holy and merciful God called forth by, and directed against, men’s ungodliness and unrighteousness.” The Bible is clear that God can’t tolerate sin and that humanity is in open rebellion against God and his ways. Our sin and God’s holiness present a serious dilemma: How could God express His complete and perfect holiness in judgment and his complete and perfect love in pardon?
The Cross
The Cross of Christ stands not as a symbol of a pagan God (as the pastor implied) but as the symbol of a Holy God, whose justice and love are made manifest.
His Justice
The holiness of God in justice demanded that God find a way for the sins of humans to be paid for. God could not allow sinful humanity into fellowship with him, without the penalty being paid. The Apostle Paul helps us understand the justice of God. In Romans 3:25-26, Paul writes, “God presented him (Christ) as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished– he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” On this, Cranfield states, “God, because in his mercy He willed to forgive sinful men, and, being truly merciful, willing to forgive them righteously, that is, without in any way condoning their sin, purposed to direct against his own very self in the person of his son the full weight of that righteous wrath which they deserved.”
His Love
The Cross of Christ isn’t a symbol of a vindictive God, but rather the Cross reveals the Lord’s love for sinful humanity. Paul states in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” And John in 1 John 4:9-10 tells us, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Regarding our Lord’s love, J.I. Packer says, "Jesus Christ our Lord, moved by a love that was determined to do everything necessary to save us, endured and exhausted the destructive divine judgment for which we were otherwise inescapably destined, and so won us forgiveness, adoption and glory. To affirm penal substitution is to say that believers are in debt to Christ specifically for this and that this is the mainspring of all their joy, peace and praise both now and for eternity."
Rather than minimizing the substitutionary work of Christ, we should marvel at it and praise God that he, in love, paid our penalty, satisfied his justice, and made a way for us to be forgiven and reconciled to him permanently.
Pastor Travis