The Wrath of God

I've been thinking a lot lately about who Christ is and what he means in my life. I did some musing on this in a previous post called "Nativity" a year or two ago. However, that was at the beginning of a nasty faith crisis which lasted for two years. At this point in my life my faith is on a road to recovery which adds to the urgency of my pursuit of Christ's identity and role in my life. But my loss of faith and subsequent turnaround is for a future post maybe.

Anyway, I've had trouble recently wrapping my head around the necessity of Christ - specifically, the necessity of Christ on the cross. Why did God choose this plan? Why didn't God simply say "you're forgiven" if he is the judge anyway? Why the cross? What happened at the cross? "The ultimate atoning sacrifice for all our sins"...okay..."the perfect sacrifice"...okay... But...why the sacrifice?

Couldn't Jesus in his perfection simply declare "I win"?

These questions arise out of a perception of God which is steeped in His primarily loving and merciful nature. Let's face it, it's not popular or fashionable to talk about how we're in sin and in need of saving--most people in this culture don't even believe sin exists! But in these thoughts, I keep forgetting that God is not just merciful but also just. He cannot endure the sight of sin (Habakkuk 1:13)--hence the rise of God's wrath. We feel anger at the sight of some evils, but God is overpowered with it at the sight of all evil. God's wrath is so potent that it requires blood to satisfy it. We know this because of God's instructions to Israel about how to pay for the sin they had committed: blood sacrifice, innocent animals who ceremonially pay for God's wrath on the behalf of Israel-over and over again.

So what happened at the cross? Here's how David Platt describes it in his book Radical:

Listen to his words: "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me." The "cup" is not a reference to a wooden cross; it is a reference to divine judgment. It is the cup of God's wrath. [Psalm 75:8, Isaiah 51:22, Jeremiah 25:15, Revelation 14:10]

This is what Jesus is recoiling from in the garden. All God's holy wrath and hatred toward sin and sinners, stored up since the beginning of the world, is about to be poured out on him, and he is sweating blood at the thought of it.

What happened at the Cross was not primarily about nails being thrust into Jesus' hands and feet but about the wrath due to your sin and my sin being thrust upon his soul. In that holy moment, all the righteous wrath and justice of God due us came rushing down like a torrent on Christ himself [emphasis added]. Some say "God looked down and could not bear to see the suffering that the soldiers were inflicting on Jesus, so he turned away." But this is not true. God turned away because he could not bear to see your sin and my sin on his Son.

One preacher described it as if you and I were standing a short hundred yards away from a dam of water ten thousand miles high and ten thousand miles wide. All of a sudden that dam was breached, and a torrential flood of water cam crashing toward us. Right before it reached our feet, the ground in front of us opened up and swallowed it all. At the Cross, Christ drank the full cup of the wrath of God, and when he had downed the last drop, he turned the cup over and cried out, "It is finished."

This is what is so hard for me and others to reconcile: why would a loving God require blood to save us? Isn't that horrific and violent? How could it be God's plan for us to kill the one man the world needs the most?

Ain't it crazy
What's revealed when you're not looking all that close
Ain't it crazy
How we put to death the ones we need the most

--Over the Rhine, "Jesus in New Orleans"

How could God's plan for redemption appear to be so blood-thirsty? Where is the love? Where is the mercy? Here's what I've been discovering about that. I sometimes forget the most important aspect of this bloodletting:

Jesus himself was God.

The wrath of God must be satisfied-and if we don't believe that then maybe we're underestimating just how tremendous this wrath is and why it makes no sense for God to simply drop it.

This is the key though: God isn't turning this overpowering wrath on us-- he is turning it on himself! The wrath of God is satisfied by God absorbing it within himself. That is the merciful God that we love to praise and talk about.

In this way, I can see exactly how the God of wrath I see in the old testament (and Revelation) is the very same God (unchanging) who is full of perfect love and compassion for humankind--a wretched people.

As for the fate of those who reject Christ and his un-paralleled display of love on the cross, it seems clear that the wrath of God is still a reality for them. There are all manner of views on salvation, heaven and hell, but I won't delve into that subject here.

I will say that now more than ever I have an understanding of how God is both just and merciful, wrathful and full of love.

1 Peter 1:8

This verse means a TON to me these days.

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,-1 Peter 1:8

Bad religion

I found this in my notebook.

It is a quote from Lee Strobel's "Case For Christ," an interview with Louis S. Lapides on page 235

The quote:

What good is religion if it can't help people in a practical way? "

Here was the response I scribbled on the paper:

Can religion exist if no help to people? could the good - the changed lives and transformation be evidence of God and not simply wishful thinking? If no change, is no good, then change is good - which makes it a good religion?