The idea that the best news ever could be considered evil can startle Christians when they hear it. I have no doubt many who share this objection are just being inflammatory, but once other people, especially young people, hear it, it takes hold because it seems like it's just taking a look at what we say from a different perspective. "I never thought of it that way" can turn into horror quickly. So while it's tempting to take this as an attack from the angry "new atheist" crowd, we need to remember we're answering people, not movements, and many of these people are actually quite sincere. Give them the benefit of the doubt. We want to assume they're honestly bothered by this and ease their concerns, not attack their motives.
When we respond, we don't want to be defensive. The first thing I would say is "I understand how people think that." The Father sending his Son to die in our place is shocking. We call it amazing grace for a reason.
It's always best to ask people why they believe something; we don't want to answer the wrong objection. But there does seem to be a pattern: They have misunderstood the gospel. They characterize it as God being quite happy to punish the Son, who was unwilling but had to go along with it. They take Christ's prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:35-36) and the so-called cry of dereliction (Mark 15:34) as proof that Jesus was an unwilling victim.
What they're forgetting is the Trinity. Specifically, they're forgetting that God is one.
Any time people tell the gospel story in a way that pits the Father and the Son against each other, they're making this mistake. The Son was not rescuing us from the unforgiving Father. That Father was not inflicting the cross on his unwilling, innocent Son. God has eternally existed as three distinct persons who have always been in perfect harmony. God created. God was rebelled against. God saved.
At the cross, the God whose moral law has been violated took the sins of the world on himself.
This isn't Modalism; the Father sent his Son. But this is also not Arianism; the Son is fully God. Under any kind of Arianism, the cross is cruel: God sets one of his creatures apart to pay for the sins of other creatures. Only the Trinity explains how the Father can send his Son and at the same time God can be on the cross.
And this is not some scheme the Father imposed on the Son. This has been God's plan since the creation of the world (eg, Matt 25:34, Titus 1:2, Rev 13:8). No one has forced this on the Son; he laid down his life of his own accord (John 10:18).
So what do we make of the prayer in the garden? A few days earlier, Jesus had spoken about his mission:
“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” (John 12:27)
But mere hours from the cross, from not only one of the cruelest deaths man has ever designed but also bearing the weight of our sins, his human nature quite naturally reeled. He said to his Father, "If you've come up with any other ideas, I'm open to them." Then he said, "But if not, I'll stick to the plan."
And afterward, he still insisted the Father would rescue him if he asked (Matt 26:53).
What do we make of the "cry of dereliction"? Hanging on the cross, as the sky grew dark, the Lord cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Surely that is proof Jesus was forced into this and was now abandoned by God!
No. That is proof all of this was planned long before. His cry points us to the promise:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish? ...
I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
“He trusts in the LORD,” they say,
“let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”
Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce my hands and my feet.
All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.
They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.
But you, LORD, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me. ...
I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.
You who fear the LORD, praise him! ...
For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help. (Psalm 22:1, 6-8, 16-19, 22-24)
Jesus' cry pointed his generation — and ours — to the prophecy of his suffering and the promise of his victory. God, on the cross, was carrying out the plan he had made before the beginning of time. Christ, on the cross, was carrying out the mission he had come for: the rescue of his creation from their own rebellion. This was not child abuse. It was amazing grace.
Image via Pixabay
No comments:
Post a Comment