Wk 5 - For our sake he was crucified

[joseph]

By Jono Linebaugh

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death
and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the
Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of
the Father.


We say the Creed so often that sometimes it is easy to overlook just
how shocking some of its statements are. This week is certainly no
exception. "For our sake he [Jesus] was crucified." What can this
possibly mean? How can the torturous death of a wandering Jewish
peasant- turned-revolutionary be "for our sake?" We all know the
basic answer to this question: Jesus died for our sins. But that
isn't really an explanation. In fact, "Jesus died for our sins" is an
equally outrageous claim.
Every once in a while (normally around Easter) a few scholars think
about this question and realize just how crazy it sounds to say Jesus'
death is an expression of God's love and has some effect on human
sin. There are two basic arguments that tend to resurface. First, if
God sent Jesus (his Son) to die this can hardly be an expression of
love. On the contrary, letting one's own child suffer for a bunch of
guilty people is more like "child abuse" than love. Such an argument,
however, forgets what the Creed has already said about Jesus'
relationship to God the Father. The Jesus who died for sinners is God
of God, light from light, begotten not made. In other words, Jesus'
death is an expression of God's love because in Jesus God himself
suffered for sinners. Put another way, this is not child abuse, it is
self-sacrifice.
This, however, raises the second objections. What is the connection
between Jesus' death and the forgiveness of sins? The logic doesn't
really seem to work. Just as two plus two doesn't equal five, so the
death of an innocent person doesn't equal the salvation of guilty
people. This admittedly is a more substantial objection. In fact,
because the notion of Jesus dying for sins is so familiar, many
Christians have never stopped to ask how this works. Consequently,
this kind of argument can seem fairly persuasive. So how does Jesus'
death accomplish the forgiveness of sin?
In 1 Corinthians 15:3 Paul writes that "Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures." For Paul the Scriptures were what we
now call the Old Testament. This means that the way in which Jesus'
death deals with sin is by fulfilling the promises of the Old
Testament. Perhaps the easiest way to explore this connection is to
tell the Old Testament story with Jesus playing the climatic role. In
Genesis 1-2 we see that God created a good world but in Genesis 3 this
world is spoiled by human sin. As a result Adam and Eve are exiled
from the garden (they die). God, however, was committed to his world
and his people. Therefore, in order to begin the process of
redemption and re-creation God called Abraham (Gen 12) and told him
that through his family (Israel) all the nations of the earth would be
blessed. This means that Israel was intended to be God's agent of
redemption. The problem which becomes evident in Israel's history,
however, is that they participate in the problem they are supposed to
solve, they are sinners. God, however, is rather clever. Instead of
rejecting his original plan to work through humans he determines to
use the one thing humans are certain to do, namely disobey. This
explains why after bringing Israel out of Egypt (exodus) he gave them
the Law. The Law had twin promises: obey and live, disobey and go
into exile (die). Because Israel shared the problem of sin, the
outcome was inevitable: they disobeyed and went into exile. But
remember, God was working through Israel to bless all the nations.
This means that Israel's failure to obey the Law was a part of God's
plan to deal with the problem Adam and Eve created, the problem of
sin. What we discover as we read both the Old and New Testament is
that just as Adam represented the whole world, Israel was the world's
representative (look at Romans 5). This helps us understand Israel's
history. When Israel was given the Law they reenacted the
disobedience of Adam and Eve and suffered the same consequence (death
in the form of exile). Because Israel represented the whole world,
their failure to obey the Law represents the sin of the whole world.
Therefore, the consequences of Adamic sin (that is the sin of the
whole world) were gathered into one place (Israel). This was as much
as sinful Israel could do. They were guilty so they couldn't forgive
sin; they could only gather the world's guilt into one place (see
Isaiah 40-55).
This is where Jesus comes in. Jesus is "Christ." Christ is a
translation of the word "Messiah" which means the person who
represents Israel. This means that Jesus represents Israel (think
about David fighting Goliath on behalf of the whole nation). Just as
Israel represents the whole world, Jesus represents Israel.
Therefore, because Israel's failure to obey the Law had gathered human
guilt into one place, Israel's representative, Messiah Jesus, could
deal with the sin of the whole world by dealing with the guilt of
Israel. This is what Paul means when he says "Christ (Israel's
representative) died for our (the whole world) sins according to the
Scriptures." When Jesus died outside the city walls of Jerusalem he
suffered death and exile as Israel's substitute and therefore took the
full punishment of God against human sin onto himself and exhausted
its consequences (he was the whole world's substitute). His death
defeated death (this is what the resurrection is all about). This is
how the logic of atonement (a word which means that Jesus' death fixes
our broken relationship with God) works: Jesus, as Israel's
representative, died as and for Israel and therefore, because Israel
is the world's representative, Jesus died for the whole world. More
personally, Jesus' death means the forgiveness of my sins because he
died as the representative of Israel.
This is a complex story, but that is because God was determined to
work through and save sinful people. The upshot of this complicated
tale is that God dealt with sin in the death of Jesus because he loves
the people whom he made. It is hard to say it better than Isaiah: "he
was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his
stripes we are healed" (Isa 53:5). Or as Paul summarizes the story,
"the Son of God loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20).

[Sarah Perry]

This was very interesting, I had to read 1/2 and then read the other

1/2 later.

 

Today in my bible study we talked about Matthew 22 and also 1 Peter 2:24
"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness."

 

Also, Isaiah 53:12, "...For he bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."

 

 

Sarah Perry