The Cross Was an Inside Job

Spirituality Column #89
July 22, 2008
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

The Cross Was an Inside Job
By Bob Walters

Here is a picture of Christ Jesus and Christian doctrine that I’ve often heard explaining the crucifixion:

God punished Jesus instead of us. Jesus was sacrificed for our sins. Our sin debt was paid to God. Because of our guilt, we should have been punished – and probably ought to be punished – but Christ took the nails for us.

Y’know … it’s not in the Bible that way.

It makes for a very human story. We understand punishment and death and sin and even sacrifice; they are all very human things. They are among the awful ways we order our incredibly imperfect social hierarchy.

We humans have a power-motivated “do this or else” aesthetic that God can’t possibly share if He is a God of love and if God is truly represented by the Father-Son-Spirit Trinity, which I believe He is.

Why? The Trinity is not interdependent within itself for punishment and death and sin. God has no need for any of these. Yes, Christ sacrificed himself as a human to defeat human death. But how (and why) would Christ – and remember He is co-equal in the Trinity – sacrifice Himself to repay Himself as God?

Jesus died on the Cross to defeat death which was created by God in response to our sins (read Genesis 3). And considering God already owns and shares everything, there is no way on earth to repay a debt to God. We don’t “borrow” things from God.

Within the Trinity there is not what philosophers would call an “other.” God is not “other” from Jesus, nor Jesus from the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is the ultimate, cosmic team effort; It is the relationship of the universe. Yes It is three distinct persons, but the Trinity is One; a wholly loving – and lovingly interdependent – relational community.

That was God’s original plan for all humanity, and remains His eternal purpose.

So the idea of God punishing Jesus, or of Jesus repaying God – an oft-told story – cannot be true; and it is not described in the Bible that way. The Bible says “ … [God] gave his son … that [we] shall not perish” (John 3:16).

The Cross was an inside job; God required the Cross to defeat death, God (Jesus) was on the Cross, and God (Spirit) provides us – if we want it – with our faith in the Cross.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that in the Greek manuscripts, the specific word “punish” does not appear in the New Testament. It has been added by translators.

Tough Love, Tough Jesus

Spirituality Column - #14 - February 13, 2007
Current! In Carmel newspaper

Tough Love, Tough Jesus
By Bob Walters

Lambs are gentle and sheep are stupid, but a good shepherd has to be tough enough and smart enough to make up for the weakness of the flock.

An attentive read of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) reveals a critical truth about the incarnate Christ Jesus – God become man – that runs counter to “Gentle Jesus” stereotypes.

Jesus was one tough customer.

Look at it another way … if sins are our weakness, and Jesus was without sin, how far from weakness was Jesus?

Pretty far.

We are the children of a loving God Who created the world to glorify Himself, then gave us freedom to seek Him and to love Him. Given the awesome power of God Almighty, it’s much more comforting for us to look at God in terms of gentle than tough; savior not disciplinarian; because, to tell you the truth, a tough God scares me.

But how tough can God be, if God loves us?

Put that another way – how tough would a Shepherd need to be to love us, to love this world, to love us in spite of our sin, to die a horrific death to redeem our lives in the eyes of God?
Most of the time I think, pretty tough.

So, Jesus … Gentle Lamb of God who died for our sins? Good Shepherd?

Here is the miracle of Christ ... He did the hard part. He was tough so we can receive the gentle gift of His love; a redeeming love that gives us peace and assures eternal salvation. “My yoke is easy and my burden is light … “ says Matthew 11:30.

“O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world …” goes the wonderful hymn. You can’t possibly think that was a gentle job.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), a Carmel resident, thinks Valentine’s Day is no big deal compared with the redeeming love of Christ.