Letters from a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with His Father's Questions about Christianity

by Gregory A. Boyd

First, Dad, it’s important to realize that Jesus was not just “a man” whose death 2,000 years ago gets you off the hook. Jesus was not an innocent “third party” that God punished in place of us. Rather, Jesus is Himself God as well as man. He is not only the one judged for the crime; He is the one against whom the crime is committed, and the one who passes out the sentence for the crime. The Judge Himself became the judged! So there is no “third party” in this transaction, Dad. There are only two parties—the all-holy God and sinful humanity—and the Jesus who died for us is both. This is not injustice, Dad; this is incomprehensible love.