the new perspective on the cross
Recently i've been hearing this and seeing this problem from a few sources. I believe i first read about it in something Piper wrote, although i can't remember what it was. i'm not even sure that it was Piper, but I digress. It seems that a large focus of the gospel has become telling people that they are worth a lot more than they believe they are because Jesus died for them. The frame of mind goes like this: God is so interested in making you a child of God that he went as far as to send His son to die for you. That is how much you are worth to God. I'm not sure how this thinking came about, but i have to say that I've fallen prey to it. I'm not saying that man isn't important to God, but I don't think that is nearly the most significant thing in the death of Christ.
The most significant thing in the death of Christ is what it tells us of God's hatred of sin. On Saturday morning at camp I spoke on this subject and in preperation I realized that Christ more had to die because of our sin more than because of our worth.
If you read through Isaiah 53, it doesn't speak to the value of man nearly as much as it speaks of God's distaste for sin. "he was wounded for our transgressions. he was crushed for our iniquities." "the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all." Verse 10 drives this point home by saying it pleased the Lord and was His will to crush his son and put Him to grief. the amazing thing about the death of christ is not so much God's love for man, but God's hatred of sin.
posted by Tim Costine @ 11:25 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
"Verse 10 drives this point home by saying it pleased the Lord and was His will to crush his son and put Him to grief."
You don't hear that very often, do ya'? That it actually pleased God to put His Son to death. For me, anyway, this was the key thing that caused me to re-evaluate my view on the crucifixtion. Who was it for? What was the purpose of it? What did it actually accomplish? All questons I've asked myself over the past few years.
Here's a question: How great is God's hatred for sin if not for His love of Holiness? Could it be that the crucifixtion was more for the presence of His holiness, more for His image to be rightly borne by His people, than it was for the destruction of sin? Let me ask it this way: Could we say that God's decree was, "I must destroy sin!", or, "My people will be holy, for I am holy!"
Just some stuff I've scratched at my brain about in the past.
New Perspectives can be tricky, huh?
"Christ more had to die because of our sin more than because of our worth."
I just read your post again, and had to give this a hearty "AMEN!" Like you said, it's not so much, "God loved you soooo much," as it is, "you were soooo far gone [in fact, you were DEAD]." Just another example of the homocentricity of the modern evangelical church.
Although, we must be careful [and I can be as guilty of this than anyone] not to remove God's love for His people. The scriptures do tell us that, "God demonstrated His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Tim, you got me thinking [which could be dangerous by anyone's assessment]. I've been in an intellectual rut for about two weeks, and I have more I want to say, but it's your blog, and I've said enough already. Thanks for getting the juices flowing again!
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