I had an interesting
conversation recently with an atheist (Robert) which was wide-ranging and led
into many areas that I might write about later, but I want to focus now on one
area – the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
Robert asked me, “Where was
Jesus before He came to earth?”
“In heaven with His Father,”
I replied.
“Where is He now?”
“In heaven with His Father.”
“So, what is the sacrifice
then? He was in heaven before; He’s in heaven now. The period of time He was on
the cross is insignificant in light of eternity.”
Robert was unimpressed by
the sacrifice of Christ. Maybe you feel the same way? Let’s ask a couple of
questions about this subject.
What was the
sacrifice for?
Robert had the idea that the
death of Christ at Calvary was intended to win our hearts. He found this quite
insulting – the human race suffers for thousands of years in misery and pain,
and God takes a sliver of time out of paradise to step into our suffering
before going back to heaven, and we are supposed to be filled with awe and
praise?!
If that was the purpose of
the death of Christ, then I think Robert would have a point. The sacrifice of
Christ has won, and does warm, my heart; it does fill me with awe and praise,
but only because that wasn’t the reason for it. If the reason was to win us,
then it would be nothing short of emotional manipulation. But that wasn’t why
He did it.
I told Robert that the
reason for the sacrifice of Christ was to pay the penalty of sin and satisfy
the demands of justice so that salvation could be offered to sinners. If Robert
isn’t impressed by that, so what? It wasn’t done to impress him, it was done
because it needed to be done to provide salvation, and the Lord Jesus did it.
Whether someone reckons the sacrifice to be great or small, the fact is it was
necessary if any were going to be saved from their sins.
What was the
sacrifice of?
But was it an insignificant
sacrifice? Not at all. I told Robert that I thought he was looking at this the
wrong way. I asked him to imagine someone rushing into a burning building to
rescue a child. Suppose he experiences horrific pain in the rescue effort but
makes a full recovery and goes on to live a full and healthy life. I don’t
think any of us would just shrug our shoulders and say, “Well, that was no
sacrifice – nothing to admire there!” To willingly suffer horrendous pain for
the good of another is noble, admirable, praise-worthy and awe-inspiring, even
if it is only for a short period of time.
Then consider what was
involved in the sacrifice of Christ. It was not merely that the Lord Jesus
experienced the awful pains of crucifixion. He was paying the penalty for sin.
The Bible presents God as holy and righteous. Because God is holy, sin must be
banished from Him; because He is righteous, sin must be punished by Him. On the
cross the Lord Jesus experienced that banishment and punishment, and that was agony
we cannot imagine, much less describe.
He was banished
from God
The eternal Son of God, the
one who eternally existed in loving fellowship with God, was forsaken by God –
bereft of the enjoyment of His presence. It is impossible for us to appreciate
what this meant to Him. We have never known the fulness of God’s presence, but
the Lord Jesus did – there was never anything that came between Him and God to
spoil that infinite and eternal joy. And we have never known the fulness of
God’s absence – even though sin separates humanity from God, we are still
surrounded by innumerable mercies and blessings. But on the cross, the one who
knew the fulness of God’s presence knew the fulness of His absence. Charles
Spurgeon, a great 19th century preacher, wrote, “Hell itself has for
its fiercest flame the separation of the soul from God.”[1]
He was punished
by God
The Bible describes God’s
punishment as “indignation and wrath” and the results of it as “tribulation and
anguish” (Romans 2:8-9). A person in hell will experience the punishment for
his own sins, so that those who sin more will suffer a greater intensity of
punishment. But for the Lord Jesus, He was not suffering the punishment of a
certain amount of sins. The Bible says God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin
for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). That is, God treated His own Son as sin deserved
to be treated, so that He could not have suffered any more. There couldn’t have
been more indignation and wrath. The tribulation and anguish could not have
been more intense.
The thought of that might
not mean much to you, but as the Lord Jesus anticipated the night before His
death it caused sweat to fall from His brow, tears to flow from His eyes, and
an agonising cry to rise from His heart, “O My Father, if it is possible, let
this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew
26:39). This was certainly not insignificant to Him, He said on one occasion,
“I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is
accomplished” (Luke 12:50). Because of the infinite value of the eternal Son of
God He could drink the cup, accomplish the baptism and say, “It is finished”
(John 19:30). He paid the penalty for sin in full, and thus God raised Him from
the dead.
Robert agreed that the man
who rushed into a burning building to save a child was making a sacrifice
worthy of admiration. But consider what the gospel teaches: we are not like
little children caught in a burning building – we are guilty rebels deserving
of condemnation. It was not a mere man who came to save us, but the one we had
offended and rebelled against – our almighty Creator. Robert looks at it and
says, “What sacrifice?” I look at it and say, “What a sacrifice!” What is your
response?
For the message of the cross is foolishness to
those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18
[1] C.
H. Spurgeon, Psalms, Volume 1, Crossway Books, 1993, p. 78.
