Imposed Penalty or Natural Consequence, part 10
Last time I listed a number of questions that challenge a certain understanding of what happened at the Cross. This article attempts to explore some of the answers. It should be said though that the depth of meaning of the Cross and what was accomplished at the Cross will be the "science of the ages". In other words, we should always have an attitude of humility and never take the position that we have mastered the subject entirely. First, a few quotes on the subject that I have appreciated:
"While the Cross was a violent episode, we are not witnessing God's violence; the atonement is non-penal. Good Friday was not the outpouring of God's violence upon Christ to assuage his own wrath. That day was God's "No!" to wrath and "Yes!" to love and forgiveness in the face of our violence and wrath....We stand in a place of mystery that requires humility. We ought not violate the very love that Christ demonstrated by firing cannon balls over Golgotha at one another. We do well to present our proposals with genuine meekness, with generosity for our rival theorists, renouncing contempt wherever it lurks. Let us not tread, through lack of charity, upon the very Cross we proclaim." (Brad Jersak)
"The inevitability of the death of Jesus does not stem from God's need, but from humanity's. There are only two roles to play in the tale of divine and human relationships, persecutor or persecuted. God can cause suffering or God can suffer. God in Christ chose the latter...[Christ's death] will mean a costly understanding of discipleship. It will mean the active choice to live a life of non-retaliation, non-retribution or vengeance; a life grounded in forgiveness, reconciliation and peacemaking. Discipleship as 'cross-carrying' is life lived as Jesus died." (Michael Hardin)
"Jesus crucified is God crucified, so we believe. Jesus is the total and final embodiment in history of God's loving mercy; and so this cross is a unique, terrible, extreme act of violence - a summary of all sin. It represents the human rejection of love. And not even that can destroy God: with the wounds of the cross still disfiguring his body, he returned out of hell to his disciples and wishes them peace...he proclaims God as the one who, above all others, has the right to forgive." (Rowan Williams)
"The law of Jehovah was burdened with needless exactions and traditions, and God was represented as severe, exacting, revengeful, and arbitrary. He was pictured as one who could take pleasure in the sufferings of his creatures. The very attributes that belonged to the character of Satan, the evil one represented as belonging to the character of God. Jesus came to teach men of the Father, to correctly represent him before the fallen children of earth. Angels could not fully portray the character of God, but Christ, who was a living impersonation of God, could not fail to accomplish the work. The only way in which he could set and keep men right was to make himself visible and familiar to their eyes. Christ exalted the character of God, attributing to him the praise, and giving to him the credit, of the whole purpose of his own mission on earth,–to set men right through the revelation of God. In Christ was arrayed before men the paternal grace and the matchless perfections of the Father. In his prayer just before his crucifixion, he declared, "I have manifested thy name." "I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." When the object of his mission was attained,–the revelation of God to the world,–the Son of God announced that his work was accomplished, and that the character of the Father was made manifest to men." The Signs of the Times, January 20, 1890
"Had God the Father come to our world and dwelt among us, humbling Himself, veiling His glory, that humanity might look upon Him, the history that we have of the life of Christ would not have been changed....In every act of Jesus, in every lesson of His instruction, we are to see and hear and recognize God. In sight, in hearing, in effect, it is the voice and movements of the Father." Letter 83, 1895
click here to read the article
"While the Cross was a violent episode, we are not witnessing God's violence; the atonement is non-penal. Good Friday was not the outpouring of God's violence upon Christ to assuage his own wrath. That day was God's "No!" to wrath and "Yes!" to love and forgiveness in the face of our violence and wrath....We stand in a place of mystery that requires humility. We ought not violate the very love that Christ demonstrated by firing cannon balls over Golgotha at one another. We do well to present our proposals with genuine meekness, with generosity for our rival theorists, renouncing contempt wherever it lurks. Let us not tread, through lack of charity, upon the very Cross we proclaim." (Brad Jersak)
"The inevitability of the death of Jesus does not stem from God's need, but from humanity's. There are only two roles to play in the tale of divine and human relationships, persecutor or persecuted. God can cause suffering or God can suffer. God in Christ chose the latter...[Christ's death] will mean a costly understanding of discipleship. It will mean the active choice to live a life of non-retaliation, non-retribution or vengeance; a life grounded in forgiveness, reconciliation and peacemaking. Discipleship as 'cross-carrying' is life lived as Jesus died." (Michael Hardin)
"Jesus crucified is God crucified, so we believe. Jesus is the total and final embodiment in history of God's loving mercy; and so this cross is a unique, terrible, extreme act of violence - a summary of all sin. It represents the human rejection of love. And not even that can destroy God: with the wounds of the cross still disfiguring his body, he returned out of hell to his disciples and wishes them peace...he proclaims God as the one who, above all others, has the right to forgive." (Rowan Williams)
"The law of Jehovah was burdened with needless exactions and traditions, and God was represented as severe, exacting, revengeful, and arbitrary. He was pictured as one who could take pleasure in the sufferings of his creatures. The very attributes that belonged to the character of Satan, the evil one represented as belonging to the character of God. Jesus came to teach men of the Father, to correctly represent him before the fallen children of earth. Angels could not fully portray the character of God, but Christ, who was a living impersonation of God, could not fail to accomplish the work. The only way in which he could set and keep men right was to make himself visible and familiar to their eyes. Christ exalted the character of God, attributing to him the praise, and giving to him the credit, of the whole purpose of his own mission on earth,–to set men right through the revelation of God. In Christ was arrayed before men the paternal grace and the matchless perfections of the Father. In his prayer just before his crucifixion, he declared, "I have manifested thy name." "I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." When the object of his mission was attained,–the revelation of God to the world,–the Son of God announced that his work was accomplished, and that the character of the Father was made manifest to men." The Signs of the Times, January 20, 1890
"Had God the Father come to our world and dwelt among us, humbling Himself, veiling His glory, that humanity might look upon Him, the history that we have of the life of Christ would not have been changed....In every act of Jesus, in every lesson of His instruction, we are to see and hear and recognize God. In sight, in hearing, in effect, it is the voice and movements of the Father." Letter 83, 1895
click here to read the article
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