The Cross is Not About Wrath
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
How are your sins forgiven?
This is a question that every Christian has asked at one point in time. This is a question that we’ve studied before either in Bible study or due to a sermon or two. In Christianity we talk a lot about forgiveness and how we are forgiven of our sins and how we must forgive other people and all of these things are true… But how exactly does this happen? How are our sins forgiven as Christians? What does this look like? When did this happen? Does this matter?
This is why Theology matters. We call this the atonement. One definition of atonement is, “The reconciliation between God and man.” How does atonement happen? We know the Biblical answer: Through Christ’s death on the cross! How are sins forgiven? Through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ on Calvary. We understand this because it is made clear in Scripture and I pray we have all experienced the forgiveness of our sins personally.
4 When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
5 to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Many kids love to ask why questions and as we get older, we love why questions at times. We ask these questions as we read our Bibles and during Bible studies and sometimes in the middle of the night! Why this, why that, why did God make it this way and not that way? Why questions are normal as humans and one of the biggest why questions that Christians and non-Christians alike have is this: Why did Jesus have to die on the cross?
23 Though he was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him.
24 God raised him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by death.
We understand that the Bible tells us that Jesus died for our sins on the cross - that’s straightforward, but why the cross? Why couldn’t God just wipe the slate clean? Why couldn’t God come up with a better way? Why this, why that? These are legitimate questions that people have asked for centuries. Why are there so many questions about the cross? In part, because people view the cross with different lenses because people view God with different lenses
Some people look at God and say that God is just love and nothing more. To these people, the cross doesn’t make sense because God lets His Son be killed and this amounts to “Cosmic Child Abuse.” God is love, God would never let His Son be crucified and abused, therefore, the cross was not God’s idea but rather it was Satan’s.
Others look at God and say that God is love and because of this, He loves us so much that in eternity past, He planned for Christ to come and willingly die on the cross because of His great love.
View #2 is much better than view #1 obviously, but is God only love? Is there more to God than simply being love? Throughout the Bible we see references to other attributes of God: We see that God is love as 1 John 4:16 shares with us. We know that God is gracious in places like Exodus 34:6 and Ephesians 1:8. We know that God is merciful in places like Psalm 103:13 and Mark 14:14. We also know that God is holy, righteous, just, faithful, and so much more. Focusing specifically on God being just, we learn a great deal about the cross.
19 Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.
We are reminded that God a just God and He punishes sin. What is the just punishment against sin? Romans 6 shares this truth with us
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God is just and our sins deserve death. God promises to punish sin. Therefore, what will God do? God will punish sin. Romans 1:18 shares with us that, because God is just, His wrath will be poured out
18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,
So, why does Jesus have to die on the cross? To forgive us of our sins. Why the cross? Because on the cross, we see the love of God on full display and we also see the wrath of God against sin be satisfied as Christ willingly lays down His life for sinners like you and I.
There are some, though, who reject this. There are some who say that, “The Cross is Not About Wrath.” They argue that God is love and that there is no such thing as the wrath of God. They argue that the cross is only about love and some make the argument that there is no atonement at all because, after all, our sin doesn’t make us enemies of God or children of wrath, our sin just makes us in need of a tune up and with some elbow grease and hard work, we can fix the problem ourselves… There are some congregations and entire denominations that have changed lyrics to songs to fit this belief. The (PCUSA) Presbyterian church of the United States was working on a new hymnal and 10 years ago, they requested to change the lyrics of In Christ Alone away from “The wrath of God was satisfied” to “The Love of God was magnified.” Thankfully the publisher said resoundingly “NO” to this request! To quote Jared Wilson, “The devil loves a bloodless cross… Satan is afraid of the blood… The blood of Jesus spells the devil’s doom.”
Tonight we’re going to study about the wrath of God, the importance of Christ’s atonement on the cross, and why the cross still matters today in 2 Corinthians 5 as Paul unpacks what Jesus has done for us as sinners. Let’s study from the Word of God together
16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!
18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”
21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 Working together with him, we also appeal to you, “Don’t receive the grace of God in vain.”
What’s the Big Deal About the Cross?
What’s the Big Deal About the Cross?
Satan loves to tell the lie that you are perfect just the way that you are. That you don’t need help - you certainly don’t need saving. There are Christians who subscribe to this lie and they think that Jesus simply came to help us live our best lives now and not save us. As we talked about this morning from Hebrews 10, we are reminded that our works cannot save us. Regardless of how long we’ve attended church or how many Bible books we have memorized, we’ll never be able to save ourselves because of what the Bible shares
10 as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one.
We are not righteous. We are not good enough to save ourselves So what has to be done? We need a better sacrifice. We need a better high priest. We need a better covenant. We need a better leader. As the preacher of Hebrews argues, this is what we have in Jesus Christ! Something needs to happen and this is what we see with the cross of Jesus Christ and His atonement.
There are lots of questions about the atonement, though. There are many different atonement theories and ideas that have been suggested over the years and there are pieces of truth to each one. Many Christian denominations believe slightly different things about this doctrine. At this point maybe you’re wondering why it even matters to study the atonement, to quote Leon Morris, “The atonement is the crucial doctrine of the faith. Unless we are right here it matters little, or so it seems, what we are right elsewhere.”
Some hold to a view called
Christus Victor. This atonement views Jesus’ work on the cross as destroying the power of evil, conquering death, and winning the victory for His church.
Ransom. This atonement view says that Jesus’ work on the cross pays what is owed for rescuing sinners. Some view that this is a ransom paid to Satan, to sin, or even to the Father.
Moral Example. Others view that Jesus’ death serves as an example to His followers to live a life of selflessness rather than one of selfishness.
There are many other such views out there and we’d be wrong to think that there aren’t pieces of truth to multiple views. In SBC life, we largely promote, practice, and preach the view called Penal Substitutionary Atonement. PSA states that, “Christ died on the cross as a substitute for sinners. God imputed our sins to Christ and He in our place bore our punishment. This was a payment for sins as He satisfies God’s righteousness and wrath so that God can forgive sinners while still maintaining His justness.”
Why does this matter? You see in this view (PSA) that there is victory achieved by Christ’s sacrifice as He pays this price to satisfy God’s wrath against sins. There is some overlap with this view compared to others and we’ll address some of the differences in a few minutes.
What we have to come to understand, as we talked about this morning, is that we are not good enough to work our way to heaven by ourselves. The individual who formulated PSA was the Archbishop of Canterbury, Anslem and in looking at texts like Isaiah 53, John 1, 2 Corinthians 5, Galatians 3, and Hebrews 9 we see a picture developing that Jesus Christ, in His death on the cross, bore our sins. This is crucial for us to understand and to teach to others because our sin must be dealt with.
The good news of Jesus’ death on the cross is that there is deep security for Christians. Christ died on the cross. In dying, He bore sins. Once you belong to Him, we believe that He bore our sins - it becomes personal - and Christ cannot “un-die” for your sins. The good news of Jesus’ sacrifice is further explained in Hebrews as we see what previous sacrifices would do. They would cover sins for a year and then another sacrifice would have to be offered. Yet, Jesus’ sacrifice is different. His sacrifice
14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified.
What does this verse mean? This verse contains in it some of the best news in Scripture! Through Jesus’ sacrifice, He has perfected forever those who are sanctified. Again, you don’t have to question your salvation - you are secured because of what Christ has done. We talked in Hebrews 6 about how some use the expression, “Once saved, always saved” and noted that maybe a better statement would be “Once justified, always justified.” Once you are justified and declared innocent because of the blood of Jesus, that blood changes you forever in the eyes of God. We have security in the sacrifice of Jesus and this is great!
The bad news of Jesus’ death on the cross is equally important for us to realize. Our sins are serious. Think about this, the only way that sin could be properly dealt with was for the Son of God to die on the cross. This is terrible news because sin is powerful and destructive. We know people who continue to live in sin and they reject Christ as Lord - this breaks our heart because they don’t understand how serious the consequence of that choice will be. The bad news continues, though, as we see throughout Scripture that there is salvation only found through Jesus Christ. Meaning this, all the other religions on the earth are a 1 way ticket to eternal separation from God. Jesus, as the infinitely valuable Son of God, cleanses us of our sins in full - but without Christ, even if you cover it like the Jews did with bulls and goats, we understand that there is still a vacuum that needs cleansing.
The atonement of Christ is incredibly important to understand what exactly Jesus did on the cross. We say that He died on the cross or that He died for sins and people argue on the extent of the atonement and other secondary issues that we simply don’t have time for, but what we have to understand is that Jesus died in our place. Just as we read this evening
21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This is substitutionary language and language matters.
Is the Cross About Love or Wrath?
Is the Cross About Love or Wrath?
Now that we’ve looked at what Jesus did on the cross, another question is often asked. I understand that Jesus came and died on the cross, but why? God is love, not wrath. Jesus doesn’t receive God’s wrath.
To quote Jared Wilson, “If Jesus doesn’t receive God’s wrath, then who does?”
We know the Biblical answer to that question is you do. If Jesus doesn’t receive God’s wrath against your sins, then you will receive it for all eternity. Some people are so dedicated to making Jesus and the cross all about love that they lose the atonement entirely. Yes, God is love, but God is so much more as we discussed earlier and it’s not wrong to say that God can and is often multiple of those things all at once. The Cross is a critical display of this as we see the love and wrath of God at the same time. The answer to this question of Love or Wrath is simply: Yes.
Still, some are confused about God’s wrath and why humans are deserving of such a thing. Again, much of this has to do with a minimal view of God’s holiness and a maximal view of man’s greatness. The Bible shares with us that God does have wrath and it is something owed to those who disobey Him.
Consider Ephesians 2:3
3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
Paul is clear, friends, every single human at one point in time or still to this day is walking as a child of darkness and we were under wrath. This is the situation that we are either under today or we were under before Christ. This might sound like an evil God were it not for the fact that He provides numerous times for His followers to avoid His wrath. What are some of these ways? Consider the Israelites in Egypt and the plagues that God sent on the Pharoah and other Egyptians. The last one was the Angel of Death who would kill the firstborn son. Again, this sounds cruel and heartless, this is a picture into God’s wrath against godlessness. What is the way out? To put an X over the doorpost. If a house had this X the house was passed over - God passed over many people and we see that this is essentially what Christ does on the cross as He serves as the sacrificial lamb who took upon Himself the punishment we deserved
5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.
6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.
Further, we read this in the New Testament regarding Jesus’ sacrifice
25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
John in 1 John 4 shares this point yet again as to what Jesus does
10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
What does Jesus do? He serves as the propitiation or atoning sacrifice for our sins. As He does this, He removes God’s wrath by dying in our place so that whenever the Father see’s us, He see’s the blood of Jesus.
We sing a song entitled Cornerstone once every few months and it shares this, “When He shall come with trumpet sound. Oh, may I then in Him be found. Dressed in His righteousness alone. Faultless stand before the throne.” How are we ever able to stand faultless before the Lord of Lords and King of Kings? Through His righteousness.
So, does everyone get this? Universalism is a popular concept and teaching in our world today and they posit that every person will make it into heaven because God is love, Jesus died on the cross for sins, there is no wrath of God, everyone gets a participation trophy. Again, there are secondary disagreements between genuine brothers and sisters in Christ here, but what we all have to agree on is the fact that everyone could get in through Jesus’ sacrifice. There’s no one too far gone for Christ to save. There is no sin too great and no one who is a lost cause. Yet, the application of the cross only goes to those who accept Him as the Lord that He is. See, you don’t make Jesus Lord, He’s Lord already - you humble yourself and acknowledge His Lordship. If you have done this, you are saved. If you are not a Christian, for whatever reason, you will bear the wrath of God. Your sins make you guilty of treason before God and deserving of His wrath, either you accept Christ and Christ pays for those sins, or you reject Christ and you will pay for them forever. God is too holy and too righteous to let our sin slide by.
Why Does the Cross Matter in 2023?
Why Does the Cross Matter in 2023?
I’ve used this illustration before from Paul Washer, but it’s worth repeating as we look at why the cross matters today. Right now, it is as though God, with one hand, is pleading with sinners to come home and with the other He is restraining His wrath. That’s why people often call God love, but if we leave it at that we’ll be confused some day because there is coming a day whenever God will drop both hands. It will be too late to come home and His wrath will be poured out unlike anything we’ve ever seen before!
The cross matters just as much to us today as it did to Jesus’ followers and to the early church. At the cross we see how much God loves us, even as sinners.
5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die.
8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath.
The Cross serves as the bridge that connects us to our heavenly Father and it is only possible through the sacrifice of Christ in our place. At the cross we see great love, grace, mercy, and also wrath. We can’t look at the cross without looking at the blood, nails, and crown of thorns. Church, in a world that is all about love and inclusion, we have the best news of all. Christ died for the ungodly! That’s each and every one of us - without lying to yourself or to someone else, you can tell them that God loves them enough to send His Son to die on the cross for their sins. What other person would do that? There is a select few people I’d do that for and it doesn’t include strangers that I’ve never met. Yet, the Creator of the Universe, the eternal Word/Logos, willingly laid down His life for sinners at the right time.
Why does the Cross matter today? Because the cross demonstrates God’s plan and faithfulness. This was God’s plan and we’ve been tracing this plan through our study of Hebrews and in our Wednesday night Bible study as we’ve been examining the hope of the Resurrection in all of Scripture, especially the Old Testament! The cross matters because it demonstrates the truth that our God wins as Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 15
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
Without Jesus there is no victory! Without Jesus there is no hope. Without Jesus we’d be under the wrath of God as Ephesians 2 tells us. What do we have to “get” when we look at the cross? This line from How Deep The Father’s Love for Us, “It was my sin that held Him there. Until it was accomplished. His dying breath has bought me life. I know that it is finished.” Until we understand our depravity and the punishment of our sins, we will never fully understand the cross of Christ. We will look to the cross with thanksgiving and love and admiration, but we won’t look to it knowing that the debt has been paid in full. We won’t have assurance that the wrath of God has been dealt with and our accounts are counted as righteous.
You don’t get that assurance, peace, joy, and beauty without the blood of Jesus, though. This is why Satan loves a bloodless cross. This is why Satan hates the idea of God’s wrath and why he fights hard for Christians to deny its entire existence. If non-believers can be fooled into thinking that God doesn’t have wrath and if Christians can be deceived into thinking God is just love, Satan will continue to confuse and comfort people into thinking that their sin really isn’t that big of an issue.
Don’t buy into his lie - apply the blood of the lamb to your doorposts before its too late and share the good news of the Gospel with those you know. Jesus Christ died for sinners and became a curse to redeem us from the curse of our sin. This is good news - but we have to understand the full news and the full weight of our sin and sadly many in our world don’t realize this.