The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ

by Fleming Rutledge

The church has always been tempted to recast the Christian story in terms of individual fault and guilt that can be overcome by a decision to repent. This undermines the gospel at its heart. The liturgy for the Jewish high holiday, Yom Kippur, contains these words: “Repentance will turn aside the severe decree.” No disrespect is intended in pointing out that this is perhaps the major difference between Christianity and Judaism.11 The germ of the Christian proclamation is already present in the apocalyptic late sections of the Old Testament, when the biblical writers have begun to realize that human repentance is not powerful enough or thorough enough or dependable enough to deliver the human race from wrong. Only the incursion of God’s irresistible grace will suffice to prevent us from self-destructing. As Austin Farrer wrote, “Christ . . . took us, and associated us with his divine life, even while we struggled against him. He has wrought all our repenting in us.”