For Love's Sake

When I began to study theology in Seminary naturally I would begin to ask questions.  One of those questions was, did God punish Jesus?  I asked that question because in Scripture it states and as we heard read today, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Is. 53:5)  And in another place, “He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Pt. 2:24)  This led me to ask questions such as, “if Jesus was punished for our sins then he was unfairly treated, justice became injustice because God should not punish the innocent, since Jesus was innocent why would he have to be punished?”  Also, if Jesus was punished for every sin I committed would that then give me license to sin?  Allow me to show you two major concepts on this topic, one being the Reformed position and the other being that of Catholics.

There are two major thoughts in theology which consider what Christ’s atonement means.  In Reformed theology (Protestant, but not all Protestants) it means, “… at Christ’s Passion and death, God the Father transferred all the sins (past, present, and future) of all the elect onto His Son. Then God the Father hated, cursed and damned His Son, who was evil in the Father’s sight on account of all the sins of the elect being concentrated in the Son. (R.C. Sproul says that) In doing so, God the Father punished Christ for all the sins of the elect of all time. Because the sins of the elect are now paid for, through Christ’s having already been punished for them, the elect can never be punished for any sin they might ever commit, because every sin they might ever commit has already been punished. (c.f. http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2010/04/catholic-and-reformed-conceptions-of-the-atonement/)

The other thought being the Catholic understanding is that, “The Catholic conception of Christ’s Passion and Atonement is that Christ offered Himself up in self-sacrificial love to the Father, obedient even unto death, for the sins of all men. In His human will He offered to God a sacrifice of love that was more pleasing to the Father than the combined sins of all men of all time are displeasing to Him, and thus made satisfaction for our sins. The Father was never angry with Christ. Nor did the Father pour out His wrath on the Son. The Passion is Christ’s greatest act of love, the greatest revelation of the heart of God, and the glory of Christ.  So when Christ was on the cross, God the Father was not pouring out His wrath on His Son; in Christ’s act of self-sacrifice in loving obedience to the Father, Christ was most lovable in the eyes of the Father.” (c.f. http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2010/04/catholic-and-reformed-conceptions-of-the-atonement/)

God asked Jesus to be obedient in love.  That obedience meant that he would reverse the penalty of sin, the penalty being separation from God; we were now given back life.  Yes, Jesus did die for our sins, for every one of them, which was done in his sacrificial offering on the Cross.  His sacrifice was necessary since there was no act we could do to turn back what had already be done, i.e. The Fall of man.  We tried with all kinds of things, animal sacrifices, fasting, dust and ashes, and all sorts of atonements; we did these naturally because we felt the pain of our sin and were always trying to make up for it and yet none of these could be eternally sufficient, the sacrifices themselves were not pure because we were not pure, we were always a little tainted, i.e. sin.  Yet, when Jesus offered Himself, that sacrifice was pure, for He had no sin and His act of love (atonement) was sufficient, but that act was not punishment in the sense that He had to pay for our sins, because if that was the case the punishment would mean eternal damnation and Jesus was not damned.  He was punished in the sense that He did not deserve to die because He was innocent, He was punished, if you will, in the sense that He had to pay our penalty (meaning He was the One who had to be the sacrifice not the one who would be eternally damned).  It can get confusing, simply stated the punishment was the sacrifice of love and not the punishment of separation from God.

What is incredible is that Jesus would have done this for us.  We were a people who had gone astray and were continuing to walk away from God and we were in dire straits if we were to continue in that route.  To turn us around God became man and would offer a sacrifice of love that would not only take away sins, but keep us walking in a path towards Him, even if we sometimes stray away from the path, the Good Shepherd comes to find us again.  Remember, God is not a God of punishment, but God is love.  Jesus died for love’s sake not for punishment’s sake!