Paradox of the Cross

Can you even begin to imagine agreeing to the death of your child for the good of others? Until we reach glory we will never fully understand or appreciate the mysteries of the cross – how and why God the Father gave His Son Jesus to die for our sins that we might have eternal life (John 3:16).

God is perfectly holy (1 John 1:5) and perfectly just. Although He is love (1 John 4:8), and has infinite love, He cannot allow sinners or sin to enter into His presence. We have all broken the law (Romans 3:23), and our fitting punishment is eternal death in hell (Romans 6:23). But in God’s mercy and grace, He devised a perfect plan of salvation for whosoever would accept it. He gave His only begotten Son as the perfect, sinless sacrifice, to take the punishment befitting our crimes (Isaiah 53:5-8).

Jesus is part of the Triune God, fully Divine, yet fully human in His earthly ministry and tempted in all ways as we are, yet He was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). Only He could be the perfect sacrifice – the Lamb Who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29) -- to reconcile sinful man to Holy God.

In a transaction of infinite love, justice, holiness and perfection, Jesus took on, suffered and died for all the sins of the world, which were imputed to Him, or debited against His account. Simultaneously, His perfect righteousness and holiness were imputed to all believers, or credited to our account. (Romans 5:12-18; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21; Isaiah 53:4-11). He completely removed our sins from us, in a perfect transaction foreshadowed by the "scapegoat" in Old Testament times that carried the sins of Israel far away into the wilderness (Leviticus.16:20-22).

Therefore, when Holy God the Father, the righteous Judge, looks at believers who have repented of their sins and trusted in Jesus' finished work on the cross, He sees not us and our filthy sins, but only the perfect holiness of His Son. Therefore, as joint heirs with Christ, just as Jesus was resurrected from the dead, believers will be resurrected to eternal life in Heaven with Christ (Romans 6;8; 8:17).

Yet, here is one of the mysteries: God the Father "turned His back" on Jesus as He suffered and died for our sins, because His perfect holiness could not look on sin (Isaiah 53:4). For that reason, Jesus cried out "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46; Psalm 22:1-8) because in that moment, He felt the agony of being separated from His Father with whom He had always known perfect, intimate fellowship.

At that moment, Jesus related to God not as His Father, but as the righteous Judge Who had to punish sin. The pain of separation from the Father and the shame of bearing all our sins (Hebrews 12:2) must have far outweighed even the physical torture of crucifixion.

So, the conundrum is, given that both God the Father and Jesus the Son are both perfectly divine, how could Jesus bear all our sins while God the Father could not even look at them? I believe that is one of the mysteries we will not fully understand until we reach glory. However, one clue to this might be that while all three members of the Trinity are equally divine, they are different.

God the Father always demands perfection, whether through animal sacrifice in the Old Testament (Exodus 12:5; 29:1; Leviticus 1:3), which only covered sin, and ultimately in the perfect, sinless sacrifice of His Son (1 Peter 1:18-19; Ephesians 5:2), which removed us as far away from our sins as the East is from the West (Psalm 103:12).

Jesus came to earth expressly to save sinners (Luke 19:10), and He died for us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8). He was the perfect fulfillment of the Old Testament law (Matthew 5:17), yet He touched lepers, He allowed Himself to be touched by diseased and sinful women, He ate with sinners, He cast out demons, and He forgave sins (Luke 7:14, 21-22, 34-39).

All three Members of the Trinity always act together to fulfill their perfect and unified will. In this case, the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus to fulfill His earthly ministry, including His suffering and death on the cross, and continues to work in the heart of every born-again believer (John 3:7-8) who places their faith in His death, burial and resurrection as the only way to Heaven (1 Corinthians 15:1-4; John 14:6).

Thank God that Jesus does not demand perfection from us, but that He died for us while we were yet sinners, and that He freely gives salvation to all who repent and trust Him, taking us just as we are in our lowly and sinful state. Thank God that through the perfect, sinless sacrifice of Jesus (Hebrews 9), His righteousness is imputed to our account (1 Peter 2:21-25), and when God the Father looks at us, He sees not our sins, but only the perfect holiness of His Son!

Not the least of the mysteries of the cross is that it pleased God to sacrifice His only Son in this cruel and torturous way (Isaiah 53:10), and that Jesus faced the ordeal with joy for our sakes (Hebrews 12:2). My limited mind cannot begin to wrap itself around a love so perfect, so pure that it not only allowed the agony of the cross, but that it rejoiced in it.

None of us earthly parents can begin to imagine agreeing to the death of our child for the good of others, let alone planning and orchestrating it. I have heard a sermon illustration of a child with rare antibodies in his blood, capable of curing all diseases known to all mankind. The catch is that the cure requires every drop of that precious blood.  How many parents would step forward magnanimously to sacrifice their child’s life, even for such a supremely noble cause? How many children would find joy in giving up their own life, even to heal others?

Now add to the scenario the fact that those whose lives will be saved are not friends, but mortal enemies of the parent and child. The child’s suffering and death will be prolonged and excruciatingly painful as the blood is shed drop by drop. The parent cannot be present to comfort the child during their suffering.

Far from being thankful and honoring the parent and child for their sacrifice, the vast majority of people will mock, despise and shame them. When the sacrifice is complete, and the cure available to anyone who wants it, most will shake their heads in disbelief, walk away in scorn, and refuse the freely offered, life-saving gift.

Yet that is exactly how the world reacts to the perfect, completely self-sacrificing gift of God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son. His blood was painfully and completely shed for the remission of all our sins (Romans 3:25; Hebrews 9), while we were still His enemies (Romans 5:10), yet most people mock God and refuse His precious, freely given gift of eternal life in Heaven. God is omniscient, and knew from the beginning of time that all this would occur. Yet He sacrificed for us not only willingly, but joyfully, that whosoever believes will have eternal life in His presence!

Don’t refuse His cure for sin and death! Be washed in His life-saving blood today!

© 2013 Laurie Collett