If you were look at my youtube video recommendation page, you'd think I was a flaming atheist. Seriously. I try to watch DA Carson or some dork (aka awesome brother) like him, and then I see an atheist argument on the side bar. And I click it. Well, I shouldn't have. Why? It was good ol' Richard Dawkins.
"Isn't the Cross the most disgusting thing about the New Testament?" He asks in snide derision, as if no one has ever thought about this for the past 2000 years. Ever. Now, I admit, the theologian he was talking to struck me as a bit of a tool (he avoided the fact that God DOES pour out His wrath on the Son). Dawkins' objection is that the Cross doesn't really do anything. If God wanted to forgive He could have just done it. Therefore Christians, pack up and go home, God is a maniacal bully. Well, so how does the Cross make sense?
Well, I give an answer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Op8GaQnlAo
But I'll summarize it here ;)
The Dilemma
Suppose you got Judge Bobby and murderer Felicia and victim Lil'Timmy. Felicia killed Lil'Timmy. Now if Bobby is a just Judge, is he going to just "forgive" or excuse Felicia? THIS is actually the great dilemma of the Christian faith. For the Apostle Paul, the issue was NOT how can a good God allow bad things to happen to good people? The issue was: how can a good God forgive thoroughly jacked up rebels? So how is God to be simultaneously just, and merciful?
Justice
Okay, so let's think about what justice is. If Felicia stole Lil'Timmy's car, she'd get in trouble. However, if she murdered Lil'Timmy, she'd get a more severe punishment. Why?
I assume we all agree that people matter. People have intrinsic value. Stealing someone's car devalues them because it ignores that person's ownership of property. Stealing, in essence, says that the person's ownership doesn't matter...which devalues the person himself. However, shooting Lil'Timmy devalues him MUCH more than stealing his car. Rather than denying his right to ownership, one devalues the worth of his life by taking it. Should Felicia go free if she's really really sorry for it the next day? Of course not! The judge must deal justice.
So what is justice? Well, suppose Felicia gets a life sentence. What does the life sentence demonstrate? When the perpetrator is punished, it demonstrates that the victim mattered. In other words, the penalty of a crime says this: you ignored the worth of this person, and thus in order to honor the worth of said person, we will uphold it through punishment. The purpose of punishment, then, is to emphasize and uphold the worth of the victim of a crime.
Objections Considered and Smashed John Cena Style
But of course, someone will object: doesn't the punishment devalue the worth of the criminal? Not at all. Tied into our worth as human beings is an obligation to honor the fellow man. In other words, part of my value consists in my obligation to honor others. Thus, when I fail to uphold those obligations, to deal punishment actually respects my worth as a human being. Punishment treats me as a moral agent. Let me use an analogy.
Suppose you have a kid named "Obnoxious Punk-butt Jr. III". We'll call him "Kanye". Now, Kanye is at his sister's art competition as a five year old. His sister is about to win, but before she accepts her away, Kanye steals the mic and says, "yo sis, you did good and imma let you finish, but BEYONCE HAD THE BEST PAINTING OF ALL TIME." At that moment, you scream "SHE'S NOT THAT KIND OF ARTIST. HOW DID YOU COME OUT OF MY BIRTH CANAL?" But more than that, you're at a cross roads. You love this kid. He is, after all, your son. So what do you do?
Let me ask this question. Is it loving to punish a disobedient son for failing to uphold his moral obligations, or is it loving? Of course, one would immediately point out the flaw in this argument: judgment here is meant to be restitutional, not retributional! Well, let's take this one step further. If your son rapes and kills someone (yup that changed quickly), do you turn him in? I'd argue that it would be right AND loving to turn him in. Why? Because in treating him as a moral agent, you a.) do not trivialize his role as a human being and b) you emphasize the seriousness of devaluing another person.
In other words, a punishment doesn't devalue the worth of the perpetrator because the perpetrator's worth (in part) demands that he keep his obligation to the fellow man. In inflicting punishment, that failure is acknowledged. In a sense, the worth of the perpetrator is being upheld (in a different way than the victim, of course). The perpetrator's worth is being upheld in that he's being treated as a moral agent. So punishment does not devalue the perpetrator, but rather properly treats him in accord with his intrinsic worth.
Why is the Cross Just?
My definition still stands, then. Justice is to uphold the worth of the victim devalued in the crime. Now, suppose our sin devalues and dishonors God. Then God is the victim here. HIS worth was trampled on. So if Jesus is dying p for us, then the charge holds. Jesus's death was not just.
So how exactly was God's worth mocked? If God is the source and origin of all goodness, He is therefore the embodiment of all goodness. When we sin, we pretty much give God the finger. We say "honoring you doesn't matter!" Hence, we are rejecting the embodiment of all goodness in reality. Thus, if God is to be just with how He relates to rebel sinners, He must uphold His worth. He must demonstrate His opposition to all that opposes and mocks His value. He must vindicate His infinite worth in light of how it is being mocked by sinners. Therefore, God must deal with sin in such a way that shines forth His infinite value. This is where the Cross comes in.
The Cross
On the Cross, Jesus (who, remember, shares God's own Being, and thus is Himself fully Divine as well as fully Human) takes sin on Himself. He takes the full weight of evil, and conquers it in His death. God the Father pours out His infinite wrath against sin in the flesh of Jesus (not against Jesus Himself, but against sin. Jesus bears God's wrath because He bears our sin), and thus destroys evil in the willing, obedient death of His Son. In light of crushing evil under His wrath (which is His intense anger and judicial action against all that defaces His value in creation), He vindicates His worth because His glory is the only thing left standing. When Christ takes on sin onto Himself, dies, and is raised, Jesus conquers the sins of His people. He conquers and triumphs over death, and initiates God's new creation. Hence, sin, suffering, and brokenness is dealt the death blow at the Cross. This leaves God's beautiful worth vindicated in how it stands victorious over those things in the risen Christ. Not only does it display the worth of God's value in opposing evil, but it also displays God's worth in His infinite grace and mercy. See, the Cross also kills the old nature of those who are united to Christ by faith. The Cross purchases a particular people for Christ, such that God ensures His people (the people of faith in Christ) new life.
What does that mean? When one believes in Christ, He is united to Him. His old man dies in the death of Christ, and the new life Christ obtained in Christ is shared with those who are adopted in Christ. So God, when He unites someone to Christ, places His Holy Spirit in that person. He's not releasing criminals back onto the population. He also destroys their old identity and restores them. Hence, God displays the riches of His grace; He would have been totally just to damn said sinner to hell. However, He doesn't. So God is just because He upholds His infinite worth. God is merciful because He doesn't damn sinners He had every right to. And THAT'S the brilliance of the Cross!
Human Analogies Smashed John Cena Style
Now of course, Shabir Ally (a famous Muslim apologist) argues that this is still cruel. He says it's like a human judge who, seeing a bunch of criminals, brings out his son as the son begs for mercy, and gives him the death penalty while letting the criminals going free. Never mind that Jesus's death was completely willing. This parallel fails for one key reason: when a criminal commits a crime, he is not defacing the worth of the judge. Yet, whenever we do evil-because God is the source and origin of all goodness in reality-we are defacing His worth every single time. Additionally, because Jesus shares the being of God, Jesus Himself vindicates God's worth by taking evil and gloriously triumphing over it. He shows the worth of His superiority to it and power over it.
Suppose we modify the example so that the criminals are being tried for an attempted murder attempt on the judge. Is it right for the judge to impute the crimes of the criminals to the son? Well, we know there are cases where such an imputation would be just. Suppose the criminals had a big ol' fine for blowing up the Liberty Bell. The son offers to pay the fine-we're all good!
Similarly, Jesus makes a "payment". "The wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23). What does that mean? Jesus Himself made the payment for us. Justice had to be satisfied, and Jesus footed the bill.
It also means something much more profound. I'm an idealist. If you don't know what that means, don't worry about it. I think God has the power to make an actual, ontological transfer of evil onto Jesus. That is, whereas a human judge cannot in any sense take the crimes or the evil inherent in a crime and place it onto a human, God has said power (I think because the world exists in His mind-it would be as easy as transferring the information that constitutes a particular evil and imputing it to Christ by just thinking it), God absolutely can. So because God ACTUALLY DESTROYS evil in the death of Christ, it is right for Him to vindicate His worth by imputing sin to Christ.
Concluding thoughts
God must judge sin because He is just. Anything less than that, and God would not be God. Yet, because God is also unspeakably merciful and loving, God redeemed a people for Himself, and made salvation available to all. Oh the riches of His grace! May my God be glorified through Jesus Christ. Because of the Lamb, your crimes can be forgiven-He knocks at the door, willing to grant new life to all those who rest in Him!
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