Adam Hamilton writes in today's devotional, "With the crucifixion of Jesus, we reach the climax of the story by which God intends to save the world. Every detail has meaning. It is filled with pathos and irony. It is bad news, for in it we see the Son crucified and human beings at their very worst. Yet at the same time it is good news; for it reveals God's suffering with us and for us, his redemption of humankind, and ultimately the full extent of his love."
To truly understand the redemptive power of the cross, we have to understand what love is.
Love is not just a warm fuzzy feeling we have towards someone who is lovable. To love someone involves doing 3 things: feeling, fulfilling and freeing. Since Christians call God Father (and sometimes Mother) I believe parental love is the best illustration.
Imagine a parent being awakened at 3AM by a crying infant. What do you do first?
First, you have to understand why the infant is crying. Is it hungry, wet, cold, sick? This compassion, trying to understand and feel the needs and wants of another is the beginning of love.
Second, you have to fulfill the need or want the infant is trying to express. If the baby is hungry and you don’t feed it, or wet and don’t change it, that is hardly love. So the second part of love is nurturing, actually fulfilling the wants and needs of another.
But the point of raising children is not to keep them dependent on the parent fulfilling their every need. The point is to nurture through helping, teaching and challenging until the child grows up into and independent adult capable of becoming a parent on their own. So the third part of love involves liberation, freeing another to be able to care for themselves and others.
The liberaton part is probably the trickiest. We learn a lot of things by observation, but sometimes we just have to learn by making mistakes. Many times the best lessons are taught by allowing the children to experience the "natural and logical consequences" of their actions. If you don't practice, you won't make the team. If you don't study, you won't pass the test. But there is a point where you can't use natural and logical consequences to teach, and that is where there is too much danger of those consequences harming the child. You can't let a child learn about the dangers of being hit by a car by letting them run in front of one. You have to do what it takes to stop that behavior before it harms the child.
The Romans 6:23 tell us, "the wages of sin is death." Sin can be defined as cutting oneself off from a relationship with God, by caring for ourselves above all others, and judging all things only by how the affect us, by using the gifts of God and our relationships with our neighbors as if they were only means to our ends. This kind of psychological and spiritual death leads inevitably to physical death and a life without meaning or purpose.
So how does God save us from this ultimate end?
Once again, let us return to the example of parental love. Many a parent who sees a child run out into the street would throw themselves in front of the oncoming car rather than see their little one perish. It is the same with God.
To say that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself is to say that Jesus' death shows us just what God is willing to bear for us that we might live. God is willing to take upon Godself the suffering, humiliation and death we would inflict on others to rescue us from that same fate. God in Christ is willing to die in our place. The perfect parent does whatever it takes to save the child for as Jesus tells us, "it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost." The death of Christ on the cross is an outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace which saves us. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 6:23 Will God do whatever it takes to save us? Three days later the Christ rises to say, "Yes!" And nothing will ever be the same again.
When I see the tortured form of Jesus nailed to the cross, taunted by the crowd, forgiving those who are killing him. I know what God is willing to bear for me. I know he died for me. And I know that all my life must be an act of returning that love through loving others as Christ love me.
The liberaton part is probably the trickiest. We learn a lot of things by observation, but sometimes we just have to learn by making mistakes. Many times the best lessons are taught by allowing the children to experience the "natural and logical consequences" of their actions. If you don't practice, you won't make the team. If you don't study, you won't pass the test. But there is a point where you can't use natural and logical consequences to teach, and that is where there is too much danger of those consequences harming the child. You can't let a child learn about the dangers of being hit by a car by letting them run in front of one. You have to do what it takes to stop that behavior before it harms the child.
The Romans 6:23 tell us, "the wages of sin is death." Sin can be defined as cutting oneself off from a relationship with God, by caring for ourselves above all others, and judging all things only by how the affect us, by using the gifts of God and our relationships with our neighbors as if they were only means to our ends. This kind of psychological and spiritual death leads inevitably to physical death and a life without meaning or purpose.
So how does God save us from this ultimate end?
Once again, let us return to the example of parental love. Many a parent who sees a child run out into the street would throw themselves in front of the oncoming car rather than see their little one perish. It is the same with God.
To say that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself is to say that Jesus' death shows us just what God is willing to bear for us that we might live. God is willing to take upon Godself the suffering, humiliation and death we would inflict on others to rescue us from that same fate. God in Christ is willing to die in our place. The perfect parent does whatever it takes to save the child for as Jesus tells us, "it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost." The death of Christ on the cross is an outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace which saves us. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 6:23 Will God do whatever it takes to save us? Three days later the Christ rises to say, "Yes!" And nothing will ever be the same again.
When I see the tortured form of Jesus nailed to the cross, taunted by the crowd, forgiving those who are killing him. I know what God is willing to bear for me. I know he died for me. And I know that all my life must be an act of returning that love through loving others as Christ love me.
