Status Updates From Cross of Christ

Quoting Anselm of Canterbury’s “Cur Deus Homo?”: “‘there is no-one…who can make this satisfaction except God Himself…But no-one ought to make it except man; otherwise man does not make the satisfaction.’ Therefore, ‘it is necessary that one who is God-man should make it.’ A being who is God and not man, or man and not God, or a mixture…and therefore neither man nor God, would not qualify.”

“If we reinterpret sin as a lapse instead of a rebellion, and God as indulgent instead of indignant, then naturally the cross appears superfluous.”

“If we bring God down to our level and raise ourselves to His, then of course we see no need for a radical salvation, let alone for a radical atonement to secure it.”

“We must, therefore, hold fast to the biblical revelation of the living God who hates evil…and refuses to come to terms with it. In consequence, we may be sure that, when He searched in His mercy for some way to forgive, cleanse, and accept evil-doers, it was not along the road of moral compromise. It had to be a way which was expressive equally of His love and of His wrath.”

5 metaphors in Scripture related to God’s intolerance of sin: height (YHWH Most High), distance (Moses & burning bush, the ark, etc.), light, fire, and vomiting (Canaanites in the OT and Laodicean church in the NT).

“Our evangelical emphasis on the atonement is dangerous if we come to it too quickly. We learn to appreciate access to God… only after we have first seen God’s inaccessibility to sinners.”