The Cross is an Insult to Forgiveness?
“The Conventional view of the Cross is an insult to forgiveness”. When I heard Brian McLaren say that to the applause of his interviewer I was shocked. That being said, I understand and follow his train of thought. “God does not ask you to forgive your wife then kick the Dog”. Penal Substitutionary Atonement, or more simply the Idea that Jesus died in your place taking the punishment for your sins, is increasingly being rejected by new liberal emergent types because as they see that it portrays a cruel barbaric God.
This train of thinking led one man to ask one man this question on a public forum:
As I’ve been studying the atonement I am finding the penal substitution very difficult to accept. Sometimes the Christus Victor theory seems to make more sense. Sometimes I feel like the substitution theory show God as an angry child abuser. That God is not willing to forgive as he asks us to…that he is not willing to forgive as he wants us to forgive.
Fr. John Mabry views the Penal Theory — and similar theories of the atonement — as “..an oppressive theology, and inauthentic in light of Jesus’ teaching.” He asks: “how can a God who in Jesus told us that we were never to exact vengeance, that we were to forgive each other perpetually without retribution, demand of us behavior that God ‘himself’ is unwilling or unable to perform?…why can God not simply forgive as we are instructed to do, rather than mandating that some ‘innocent and spotless victim’ bear the brunt of ‘his’ reservoir of wrath? The ability of humans to do this when God will not or cannot logically casts humanity as God’s moral superior. This is of course absurd!”
I cut and pasted this because this sums up my concerns. Please no blasting I’m a Christian brother just trying to work through this. I’ve always believed the substituionary theory but am struggling. I am struggling with “It pleased God to crush him.” thanks all.
My reply seemed to help the guy out somewhat, and since it’s one of the most important questions a person could ever ask about anything, I was compelled to make this post. Here was my attempt at the answer :
Christians rightly focus allot on how much of a loving God God is- and we are to imitate this. However you must realize that God is throughout scripture referred to as a Judge- something we are NOT called to copy (in the cosmic sense of determining people’s eternal fate).
Imagine that a little Girl was raped and the culprit was brought before a Judge. Imagine the Judge shrugged his shoulders of threw the case out despite the evidence, would that Judge be just? No, justice demands punishment, and Likewise God cannot just overlook sin, you would never tell a high court judge he is unloving for doing his job, and you shouldn’t tell God the same. A Holy God CANNOT overlook sin.
People often try use the court case analogy and say ‘what if the Judge punished another innocent’. You obviously have a problem with that and so do I. Who is this other person? What about the victim and their family?
It’s always going to be an imperfect analogy because nothing is like God, and no crime is like the offence we have committed against God. But let me try and change it a little bit.
What though if the victim of the Vile offence was the Judge?
Two Scriptures- Ps 51v4a
against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,-So ultimately all sin is against God.
John 5v22
Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son-Here we see that Jesus (who is God and is sinned against) will be the Judge. And as the story progresses we see that the Judge takes the blame on behalf of the sinners. The Justice is appeased, the victim not dishonoured (rather Glorified) and we get to walk free. The Cross is the place where Mercy and Justice meet.
Don’t listen to people who say it was Child abuse- that’s honestly a joke, I mean how old is God? Is he a child? Even from a human point of view, he was a man, thirty odd years old. Did his father force Jesus into this? NO! Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen and WILLINGLY laid down his life.
Obviously if it was a court room and the criminal was let loose people would ask, what is stopping him doing that again? This is where the analogy fails, because in truth we do die, to ourselves, and we are reborn with new hearts with new desires to do good!
And lastly I’d challenge you not to base your theology on what “feels right”, but what is written, we’re not the author of the book, so we don’t get to decide what it says. If you’re a Christian, submit to what it says, pray and ask God to help you understand, so you can say with David the last part of 51v4
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.I hope this helps matey, though sorry if it looks rushed, I’m writing this in my lunch break at work! If you want to talk more privately feel free to message me!
God Bless ya
[Veritas]
<><
