"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."
John 3:16-17
A very dear friend of mine has been questioning his faith lately. Actually, that's an understatement. He has so many doubts about what he has been taught by the "church" over the course of his life that he isn't really sure what he believes anymore. Or if he believes anything. So naturally he comes to me regularly with very deep theological questions.
Having been raised a Roman Catholic, he is always curious to know what the "Protestants" believe about this or that. It appears that the Catholic perception of Protestantism is about as skewed and incomplete as the Protestant perception of Catholicism. Of course, I am no more able to answer for all Protestants than he can answer for all Catholics. But as I ponder his questions, I have come to conclude that there is absolutely nothing that all Protestants believe in common.
In fact, based on my observations of running dialogues in the faith community, it seems as though traditional Christianity has evolved into a very personalized "boutique" religion, where adherents adapt their theology to suit their own personal needs and understanding, as well as mix in practices and doctrines from other non-Christian faith traditions. At the end of the day, when someone says that he or she is a "Christian", one no longer knows exactly what that means. Organized religion has become extremely disorganized.
Thus, whenever I reply to one of my friend's questions, I try to always reinforce the fact that my answer is my best understanding of the information available to my from my studies of Scriptures, regardless of commonly held beliefs by the "church". The older (and hopefully wiser) I get, the more I continue to re-evaluate what I believe and why I believe it. And the more I do, the more I see my theology drifting away from popularly held beliefs and doctrines of mainstream Christianity. I think this is partly due to the fact that mainstream Christianity has really dropped the ball when it comes to properly discipling the believers. Instead of sound doctrine based on thorough Biblical scholarship, most people sitting in the pews today are either fed a constant stream of feel-good sound bites, or bombarded with negative vitriol. Neither does the kingdom of God any favors, and only serves to drive serious seekers away from the church at alarming rates. But I digress.
One of the questions my friend asked me this week was regarding the death of Jesus. In essence, did God have to kill Jesus because He was mad at humans? And if that's the case, why didn't God just kill all the humans instead? Basically, was the cross really necessary? This is a rather common question, especially among those who are trying to make sense of Christianity. On the surface, it doesn't make any sense: God makes a bunch of laws and requires a blood sacrifice as the penalty for breaking those laws; man breaks the laws repeatedly; God gets mad at man and decides to kill His only son as payment for the sins of humanity; now everyone can live happily ever after with God. Uh, yeah. That makes a whole lot of sense. NOT.
The problem lies in our understanding of the sin problem and God's righteousness.
When God originally created humans, He had perfect fellowship with them. But sin entered the picture and ruined that fellowship. God desired to restore that fellowship, and so He established a moral code for His people to follow. Being a righteous God, He required a blood sacrifice as atonement for sin. Being a merciful God, He allowed that sacrifice to be a substitution - people were allowed to offer the blood of animals in exchange for their own blood. But sin continued to separate people from God (as He knew it would), so His ultimate plan of redemption kicked in. He would make the perfect sacrifice for our sins so that we would no longer be caught in this eternal sin/sacrifice loop. Thus, He came to earth in the form of His son Jesus, fully divine and fully human, to die once and for all to satisfy all of the requirements of God's perfect law. Jesus didn't die because God was mad at us. Quite the contrary - Jesus died because God loved us so much. In John 3:16-17 Jesus made it quite clear that He was here because of God's intense love for His creation.
In order for the death of Jesus to be completely sufficient to remove the sin problem that stood between God and humanity, it had to cover all sins for all people for all time. Otherwise, He would have to die over and over again, just like all those bulls and sheep and goats. Once Jesus shed His blood, the penalty for all sin for everyone was paid in full, and we were finally free to enter into an intimate personal relationship with our Creator. Those Christians who continue to throw sin up as a barrier to fellowship with God negate the work that Jesus did on the cross.
Does this mean that everyone is automatically saved since there is no longer any penalty for sin? Not at all. A person still has to believe in Jesus to receive eternal life.
"If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your
heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is
with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your
mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says,
'Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.' For there is no
difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and
richly blesses all who call on him, for, 'Everyone who calls on the name
of the Lord will be saved.' " (Romans 10:9-13)
The problem is, the church has made it unnecessarily complicated to be saved. In fact, ever since the resurrection of Jesus, the religious elite have attempted to repair the torn veil that once separated us from the presence of God. They go beyond repairing it, however, by adding hoops and hurdles and endless mazes filled with rules and traditions. They hold salvation over the heads of their followers like a carrot on a stick; if you do everything right and follow all of the rules, you might have a chance of obtaining your salvation. But if you trip and fall, we'll yank that carrot out of your reach faster than you can say "Beelzebub".
The core theme of the Gospel (and all of Scripture), has always been God's love for His creation. If the Gospel is presented in any other light, it is a false Gospel. People can't be threatened, scared or bullied into salvation. They have to be wooed in with the serenade of a lover pining for his beloved.
Yes, the cross really was necessary. Not because an angry blood-thirsty deity needed to be placated, but because a loving Father was willing to sacrifice His own son in order to redeem a people who could not redeem themselves, no matter how hard they tried.
Have a blessed week!
Pastor David
