Jesus Died to Show God's Forgiving Heart
Daily Scripture
Romans 5:6-8, 14-15
6 While we were still weak, at the right moment, Christ died for ungodly people. 7 It isn’t often that someone will die for a righteous person, though maybe someone might dare to die for a good person. 8 But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
14 But death ruled from Adam until Moses, even over those who didn’t sin in the same way Adam did—Adam was a type of the one who was coming.
15 But the free gift of Christ isn’t like Adam’s failure. If many people died through what one person did wrong, God’s grace is multiplied even more for many people with the gift—of the one person Jesus Christ—that comes through grace.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
As we end this week’s study of Jesus’ death as God’s word, Miles Steele sent us a reflection on El Greco’s painting of Jesus’ agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. Miles is a non-traditional student currently studying web design and digital media at JCCC after graduating from KU with a BA in Art History. When he has the time Miles can be found coding at his desk or working on a personal project in the JCCC ceramics studio. To see El Greco’s art with Miles’ commentary, click here.
“When we look at Jesus, the Messiah, we are looking at the one who embodies God’s own love, God’s love-in-action. Look at [Romans 5,] verse 8. What Paul says here makes no sense unless Jesus, in his life and death, was the very incarnation, the ‘enfleshment’ (that’s what ‘incarnation’ means) of the living, loving God. After all, it doesn’t make sense if I say to you, ‘I see you’re in a real mess! I love you so much that I’m going to… send someone else to help you out of it.’ If the death of the Messiah shows how much God loves us, that can only be because the Messiah is the fully human being (how much more human can you get than being crucified?) in whom the living God is fully present.” * Jesus undid the tragic consequences of humanity’s bad choices embodied by the archetypal person of Adam. “Paul summarizes the story of Adam in terms of its consequences, sin and death…. Adam foreshadows Christ in his differences.” **
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Scholar William Barclay wrote, “Sometimes the thing is stated as if on the one side there was a gentle, loving Christ, on the other an angry and vengeful God; and as if Christ did something which changed God’s attitude to [people]. Nothing could be further from the truth…. Jesus did not come to change God’s attitude to [people]; he came to show what it is and always was.” *** God did not have to be “talked into” saving you (as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:18-19). The Roman philosopher Cicero wrote, “The idea of the cross should never come near the bodies of Roman citizens; it should never pass through their thoughts, eyes or ears.” Yet Paul (a Roman citizen—cf. Acts 22:25-27) said, “God forbid that I should boast about anything except for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14). God’s message from Jesus’ cross transformed his life for the better. Do you join Paul in trusting Jesus, your crucified king?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, out of your greatness as the Son of God, you took on the role of the self-giving Lamb of God. It’s hard for me to find words for my gratitude. But I offer you my loyalty, my love, my life. Amen.
GPS Insights
Leah Swank-Miller
Leah Swank-Miller serves as Pastor of Care and Director of Student Ministries at Resurrection Overland Park. A Kansas native, she has been a professional actress for nearly two decades, and she loves to see the vastness of God’s creation through theatre and the arts. Leah graduated with an M. Div. from Saint Paul School of Theology. Leah, Brian, and their two children love to play tennis, golf, soccer, and board games.
“So, let me get this straight: God crucified himself to save us from himself?” This question was posed to me by a student in confirmation class and again by friends or co-workers. This sticky, tricky confusion around why Jesus died on the cross and what part God had to play. The problem with the cross is that it often feels either senseless or condemning, and sometimes both.
A typical teaching is that the cross means one thing: we were bad—so bad that God had no choice but to send his only son to suffer a brutal death in our place. Someone had to pay the price, and that someone was Jesus. Therefore, being a Christian means feeling guilty enough about this sacrifice and desperately trying to be good.
What does that kind of teaching say about who God is? God is either abusive or an unfeeling loan shark waiting to be paid what’s owed.
I don’t believe that’s who God truly is and understanding who God truly is is essential to resolving the confusion surrounding the cross. No wonder people struggle to grow closer to God; I certainly did. While many theological classes in seminary helped me solidify my grasp of who God is and the significance of the cross, I appreciate how Reverend Nadia Bolz-Weber illustrates that the entire meaning becomes complicated when we perceive the cross as being all about us instead of about God. She writes, “When we think the cross is about us, the only view we can have of God is of God standing in heaven with folded arms looking down at the cross judging us but punishing Jesus. But the thing is, God isn’t standing above the cross. God is hanging from the cross.” *
Maybe the real issue is that we assume God is just a magnified version of ourselves—vengeful, power-hungry, eager to punish. So, it’s hard to grasp that God would willingly pour Himself out for us. After all, we’d never do such a thing. We can see who God actually is, when we see how God chose to reveal God’s self in a humble cradle and on a human cross.
Only a God unlike us—one who enters our suffering and responds with love and grace—can save us from ourselves. Through the cross, we see that God isn’t distant or detached. His grace is woven into our broken world, present in our struggles and pain. God chooses to be present in all that we are, even in the midst of our brokenness, and assures us that there is nowhere we can go where He is not with us, and nothing we can do or neglect to do that can stop Him from loving us, even to death on a cross. That’s who God is.
* The Corners, “A Case for Holy Week,” blog by Nadia Bolz-Weber, March 28, 2021. https://substack.com/@thecorners
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* Wright, N.T. Paul for Everyone, Romans Part One: Chapters 1-8 (p. 86). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.
** Michael J. Gorman, study note on Romans 5:12-15 in The CEB Study Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013, p. 284 NT.
*** William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: The Letter to the Romans (Revised Edition). Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1975, pp. 76-77.
