The apostle Peter, preaching on the day of Pentecost, explained the cross in terms of both the wickedness of man and the infinite love of God. He accused his hearers very clearly of putting the Son of God to death. Their sin was enormous and they were responsible for it, but overriding this was the plan of God: “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked man, put him to death by nailing Him to the Cross” (Acts 2:23).
The death of Jesus, both with regard to its manner and its purpose, was set and determined by God Himself. It wasn’t a last minute adjustment to a plan that was going wrong. It always was the plan as the many references and allusions to the cross in the Old Testament make very clear. To the Christian, this is a thrilling truth because it puts our salvation at the heart of God’s will and purpose for this world. When Jesus died it was an act of substitution and propitiation – he died instead of me, and in his death he paid the price for my sin.
In the communion service (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) we are told the body of Jesus was broken for you, and his blood shed for you. These two little words ‘for you’ are of enormous importance in understanding the atonement. They tell us that if you are a Christian, Jesus died ‘in your place’, he became your substitute. In some wonderful way the Lord Jesus had you in mind, specifically when he died. He is your Passover Lamb, your Scapegoat, and the innocent victim who dies in the place of the guilty.
The propitiation means that on the cross, bearing our sin and guilt, Jesus faced the wrath of God instead of us, and fully paid on our behalf the debt we owed to the broken law of God. At Calvary, the wrath of God the Father being poured out on his Son Jesus means that a holy God can be propitious – or favourably inclined – towards us, even though we are guilty sinners. God dealt with the problem of sin in the only way that could satisfy his holy justice and enable him to save his people even though we deserved only judgement.
This is the amazing plan of God and it is so personal. Jesus died for me, in my place. There is nothing theoretical about this. It is very real and is the heart and substance of the Christian gospel.
WHY DID GOD DO IT?
There are two reasons why God planned our salvation as He did. The first is that He wanted to, and He wanted to because He loved us. The other reason is that God did it because He had to if we were to be saved. Without a Savior, all sinners will perish eternally. Both reasons are found in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life:” In other words, it’s God’s love that makes the cross possible, and it’s God’s holiness that makes it necessary.
That God is love is a precious truth that is accepted by practically everyone, but the meaning we give to love is not always biblical. Modern man confuses love with sentimentality, and sees God’s love as a sort of general benevolence which has no other purpose but our happiness. It then follows that God will not punish sin. Consequently, every notion of hell is dismissed as incompatible with the idea of a “God of love:” Such thinking is seriously flawed because, although it’s true that God is love, this is not the only thing that’s true about God. He is also holy. The love of God as seen on the cross saves sinners, but what are they saved from? The Bible has only one answer to that: sinners are saved from perishing, from the consequence of their sin, from the wrath and judgement of God upon that sin. Why in John 3:16 are people perishing? Because God is holy and will not, and cannot, tolerate sin. In 1 John 4:9-10, we see both the love and holiness of God linked together: “This is how God showed His love among us; He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins:” Why was it necessary for Jesus to be an atoning sacrifice or propitiation for our sins? Because God in His holiness had declared that the wages of sin was death. He will not wink at human sin or pretend it’s nothing. It has to be dealt with in accordance to His own law.
The atoning sacrifice, or propitiation, Jesus made on the cross satisfies the law of God and thus satisfies his holiness. The word “propitiation” means that, on the cross, bearing our sin and guilt, Jesus faced the wrath of God instead of us, and fully paid on our behalf the debt we owed to the broken law of God. At Calvary, Christ made it possible for a holy God to be propitious-or favorably inclined-towards us, even though we sinners had broken His holy law. At Calvary, Christ suffering was sufficient to cover the sins of all his chosen people throughout all of history. God dealt with the problem of sin in the only way that could satisfy His holy justice and enable Him to move in and break the power of Satan in sinners’ lives. The fact is that it’s the holiness of God that dictates the events on Calvary. In his love, God decided to save sinners from the consequence of their sin, but it’s God’s holiness that dictates exactly how this is done. A way of salvation had to be found that in no way contradicts the character of God. This means that sin must be punished and not just glossed over.
