A fascinating conversation, sparked by the newly appointed canon of St. Paul's Cathedral, continues here at the Cafe. Why did Jesus die?
Painting by Edward Knippers.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Great conversation continues here at the Cafe on the the primary question of "Why did Jesus die?"
A fascinating conversation, sparked by the newly appointed canon of St. Paul's Cathedral, continues here at the Cafe. Why did Jesus die?
Painting by Edward Knippers.
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5 comments:
bb,
Why did Jesus die? let's begin with this excerpt from the Nicene Creed.
"Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate"
Mark 10v 45 "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many"
Romans 5:8 "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
God loves us.
God wants to forgive us.
God is all-powerful and he can do anything he wants to.
If all that is true, then, why can’t God just go ahead and forgive us for our sins? Why the brutal and messy cross?
God himself is holy and righteous. He cannot condone anything that is holy and unrighteous without compromising his own holiness and righteousness. At the same time, he does want to forgive us. How can he do it? How is it possible for the righteous God to declare the unrighteous to be righteous without either compromising his righteousness or condoning their unrighteousness? Is not the answer the cross?
God, because in his mercy he willed to forgive sinful men, and being truly merciful, willed 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. [God cannot forgive our sins lightly because to do so would] to have compromised with the lie that moral evil does not matter and so to have violated his own truth and mocked men with an empty, lying reassurance, which, at their most human, they must have recognized as the squalid falsehood which it would have been.--Charles Cranfield.
The problem of forgiveness for God is the problem of the gravity of sin. Sin is putting ourselves on God’s holy throne. God takes sin seriously. He cannot possibly forgive it lightly. But the cross, with all its physical horrors and mental anguish makes our forgiveness possible.
Rick H.
Hi BB,
Please give Ed Knippers a credit line.
Thank you!! ;-) I put it in the photo but not in the post - thank you!!
bb
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