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Lenka
If we really want to understand this, we have to look at it the other way around. How? I will try to explain that here now.
Whenever God is about God, we must assume that God is love because it is written in the Bible and because that is the main characteristic of God. (1 John 4:8 I 16) It follows that God must have loved Jesus very deeply and therefore, Jesus’ crucifixion and suffering must have hurt him immensely.
But he was willing to do it. – For you!
What does it mean to look at it the other way? Not that God is a macochist cruel father, but that he was willing to undergo something so terrible, perhaps the most terrible thing that can happen to a loving parent.
I imagine it as God was with Jesus in heaven and they saw the horror that people do on top of each other. As they kill, destroy, steal things, fight wars, treat each other selfishly and unkindly. And they knew it was the cause of sin. As the Bible says: All have sinned and are far from God (Romans 3:23). And man deserves death for sin. Sin gives its retribution – death; But, that verse continues – God gives as a manifestation of His grace Eternal life. We Get Him Through Jesus Christ. (Romans 3:23)
Back to the analogy that God and Jesus saw the terrible things that people did on earth. I imagine it as Jesus said to God the Father: ‘Daddy, just like you, it hurts my heart. I want people not to suffer so much anymore, I want them to be able to connect with us spiritually and live happy lives. Because the reward for sin is Death, the only way we can get them out of it is, when I go to the ground, I will take on all their sins, suffering and disease, and physically die. So only can we spiritually free them. What do you say about it?” Father God may have given him many valid reasons why it is not a good idea. The idea of how much pain and suffering it would cost his only son was unbearable for him. He tried to prevent him from doing so until the last moment, but Jesus, like most children, when they are convinced of something, could not be stopped.
So that he can understand us better, and so that we can understand him, he was born in the body of man and went through everything here on earth that we go through. In Hebrews 4:15 it is written: He is able to experience our weaknesses with us, because he has experienced all the temptations as we have, but he has not committed sin.
Timothy Keller explains and explains it even better and in more detail in the following article.
“Become a little baby”
excerpts
The founders of the world’s main religions were very successful, they lived to a great age and overpowered their enemies except Jesus. Why is Jesus an exception?
Criticism: The chosen one by God would not say: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’,
In the Jewish encyclopedia it is written that Jesus’ statement on the cross: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’, In all its consequences, it was in itself the refutation of the exaggerated claims that his disciples made about Jesus after his death. Any real Messiah could not suffer such a death, it is impossible and takes away from God’s sovereignty.
Reason says: How could this man be the Messiah, how could he be the Son of God, how could this man be the one who brings God’s kingdom? Look at it, he dies a humiliating death, dies prematurely, is defeated, destroyed.
In general, when people see someone dying, someone who is destroyed by their enemies, it is a sign of weakness for them.
The founders of the world’s main religions were very successful, they lived to a great age and overpowered their enemies except Jesus. Why is Jesus an exception?
I will tell you why – something happened to his disciples that surpassed their common sense. Something happened. And I’m talking about the historical fact, that’s not my opinion. Something happened, What for Jesus’ disciples – the first Christians changed the cross from something that seemed to show defeat, In a badge of honor, a bottomless source of joy and comfort for absolutely anything.
The cross became such a source of joy and strength in their lives that they became the most influential religion.
I mean, their life has changed so much that they were so attractive in the way they lived in the way they lived, attracting crowds of people. A They were so fearless in the way they spoke and preached that they did it regardless of price and persecution.
What was it? The answer is the following point of this sermon. – because they not only knew he had died, but only When they understood why he died. When they understood why it is What changed their lives. When they understood that defeat was actually a triumph, when they understood why he died, it changed their lives. Then the cross became a source of enormous power.
So why did he die? Why did he lay down his life?
In Mark 10:45 Jesus said: After all, I did not come into the world so that others would serve me, but for me to serve them and To give my life as ransom For many.
This is a very rich metaphor. Unfortunately, today we do not understand the full meaning of this word. When you hear the word ransom, you think of the kidnapping and you think about paying the kidnappers, and that’s partly okay. But if you want to understand what Jesus wanted to say, we must transport ourselves to that time and understand how the word was used then. – In a professional article on this topic, it is written: ‘There is a word in the Greek language ransom “Lutron” And it comes from wartime, where it was paid for the removal of a prisoner of war from captivity and slavery.”
At that time they did not have camps for prisoners. If you attacked another country as a soldier and lost, how were you punished? – Either you died in battle or you were thrown into slavery. You were thrown into humiliating, terrible, rasping slavery, that was the punishment. And the only way to get out of it was that you would either manage to escape or that someone from your country (or someone else) came and paid a huge ransom. And Jesus says – this metaphor, This explanation, it is essential for you to understand what I have done for you.
What is interesting about this explanation is that It has both an objective and subjective side. The answer to the question of why he died has an objective and subjective reason. What do I mean?
Objective thing is something that happens outside of me. Subjective happens in me. And Jesus says that on one side there is a debt that must be repaid, which is an objective thing that happens outside of me.
But on the other hand, there is a state that needs to be changed. The state that Jesus wants us to experience, and that is liberation.
You see, we are in slavery. This metaphor suggests that not only that we are condemned in some general way, we are not just guilty in some general way, We are enslaved. That’s so rich in this metaphor.
So it’s here objective A goal that sounds
unabled He died to pay off the debt.
And subjective
– He died to free our hearts.
To pay the debt and free the heart. A It is important to look at both goals (why Jesus died) together. We must hold them together to fully understand them.
Nowadays, modern people do not have them together. They don’t even like them together. They don’t understand how they fit together. However, they actually rise or fall together.
Mahatma Gandhi, the great Indian leader, wrote in his autobiography about Jesus: “I can accept Jesus as a martyr and as the embodiment of a sacrifice and as a divine teacher. His death on the cross was a great example for the world. But that There is some mysterious and miraculous virtue in his death, he cannot accept my heart.”
So, Gandhi understood the Bible at this point – that the cross has a subjective influence on us. In other words, he says that the cross is touching, it is a touching example of self-sacrificing love and will lead us out of the slavery of selfishness. I will return to the topic of selfishness even later. Because it is very important for Gandhi and Eastern religion. These religions say that the cross is useful because it is an example that moves me subjectively to bring me out From the slavery of a life that I live only for myself, and into a liberated life for others. And Gandhi says, I can accept that – and he understood that the Bible doesn’t just say it’s an example – he just said that’s what he can objectively accept.
It is similar to what some people say: ‘I can accept the idea that the death of Jesus objectively in some way relieves me of guilt and changes the structure of the spiritual universe for me.’
What I am trying to explain here is that the theme objective (died to repay the debt) and subjective (died to set our hearts free) They go together. They are total. The idea of redemption is the objective goal that happens outside of me, and then there is the subjective point that I experience within myself. If they are not together, something is missing and it doesn’t work.
Let me explain the first part better on the topic ‘Why did he die to pay off the debt and be the ransom’.
I still hear this objection:
Why did God need Jesus to die?
Why couldn’t he just forgive us?
Why does the biblical God seem to need to be reconciled by the human sacrifice?
Why did God need Jesus to die? Why can’t he just forgive us? Why does it seem that God needs to be reconciled by human sacrifice like some old primitive God? This is a very understandable question.
If you don’t have it yourself, then you have friends who have it, so you need to hear that answer.
Inside the question are some assumptions that are very problematic. I’ll show you. I will give you an illustration here.
Car
Imagine having a car in your garage. As you approach the garage, you hear a noise and see a young man beating your car with a huge baseball bat. They pound your car and destroy your car. He has already succeeded – all the windows are broken, the car is immobile, it is destroyed. And so you run fast for a police officer. And he will come.
The man who breaks your car will see you both coming – and now for illustration, let’s assume, he’s honest – and says, ‘I can’t believe I did! I’m sorry I did. I’m really sorry! Will you forgive me?’
And the policeman turns to you and says: ‘Leave it alone’.
And you say, ‘Give me the baseball bat!’
And the policeman says, ‘You’re vindictive. Leave it alone, leave it alone.’
I’ve been thinking about the illustration a bit, and in real life we’d really be vindictive, wouldn’t we? You would say, ‘Absolutely no! I will not forgive you in any case. Arrest the person!’ A typical person, including you and me, in fact almost everyone, would be filled with anger and probably a personal desire to somehow harm that person.
But try – for the purpose of this illustration – to somehow realize: ‘Ah, it’s not my car’, (or something similar) like: ‘It’s my neighbor’s car!’
In other words, imagine – ‘I thought it was mine, both are blue’. Imagine that you could suddenly get rid of your vindictiveness somehow. And the policeman will tell you: ‘He’s sorry. Why can’t you just forgive him?’
I would like you to see in this illustration that Forgiveness is a huge problem. it creates a huge conflict in us and It’s never a simple thing. Even if you get rid of vindictiveness, you still can’t or don’t want to forgive. So I’m trying to show you that forgiveness is a big problem.
Not only, even if you are a loving person, but Because you are a loving person.
It’s a huge problem. Do you see it? No one can just forgive. For two reasons:
A. It’s impossible to just forgive and let it go
The policeman says to just let it go. You know why it doesn’t work? Every evil costs something. – there’s a shame, there’s a cost. In this example, he will either pay for the car or someone else, or you will pay for your sloppy car yourself. the point is that Someone has to bear the cost of what happened. The costs will not disappear, they will not fly into the air. You can’t just let it float. Someone will have to be responsible for it. In fact, there is no evil that can really be forgiven, even forgiveness actually means carrying that evil, take responsibility for costs. No one can just forgive and let it go.
But there’s still The second thing. Think about it. – If you love the young man, would it be good for him to just tell him, ‘let it go’? Would it be good for him? Would it be good for society and for the people in your city or its family?
b. If you like the young man, wouldn’t be right or good to forgive him.
If you like justice itself, it wouldn’t be good.
And that’s why we get stuck here and it’s really very remarkable. unabled The more loving you are (not the more vengeful you are), the bigger the problem, forgiveness becomes. The kinder you are, the more forgiveness becomes an unsolvable problem. Because on the one hand it is not loving to punish him, but it is not even loving not to punish him.
therefore Anyone who says, “Why can’t God simply forgive” assume that if He were a loving God, he would simply forgive. And I am trying to tell you that even on our human level we realize that Forgiveness is an unsolvable problem. How much more does it apply to God!
If we – at our low level of goodness, kindness and love – experience it as an intractable problem, if we realize that we cannot just forgive without someone paying for it, then what it must be for God!
The answer is that this is a huge problem (if I can use this term). It’s a cosmic problem. You and I have a sense of justice that makes it hard to just forgive. However, God’s nature is justice, which we (naturally and we) perceive.
You know, when you and I say, ‘Leave it alone’, then we have all the other kinds of problems. Problems in society, problems in the young person’s life, etc.
So If God simply said, ‘Leave it alone’, then how would we know that violence and cruelty are bad? How would we know that this is not just a cultural social rule invented by people with cars?
This is a very important thing. – In other words, how do you know that it is not just a cultural convention of rich and capitalist oppressors? How do you know that the idea that violence is bad is not just some social norm? How do you know it’s real? Because there is a real sense of justice.
If there is a god, there is real justice.
and therefore, If God said, ‘Okay, let it be’, then he would actually say that there is no difference between good and evil, that it is random.
Who are you to say what is good and what is bad and what needs to be punished and what is not.
In other words, it’s a huge problem. So you can’t say: ‘If God was really loving, he would simply forgive’ if you yourself cannot forgive!
So what did God do? -the answer is that came to pay the debt himself. Word ‘He came’ It is really important because he did not use the word ‘go’ here. What do I mean? – In the objection that people say: ‘Why does God need Jesus to die? Why can’t he simply forgive? Why does it seem that God needs to be calmed down by a human sacrifice? – He doesn’t need it, because it is not said that Jesus goes to give his life as a ransom for many, He does not go from us to God to appease a reluctant God. byAfter all, I /said Jesus/ I’m ..He came To the world because… to give your life as a ransom For many. Marek 10:45)
He came to make this sacrifice. came to pay our fine. He came, To pay the debt himself. He came, which means that he himself submitted this proposal.
I know it can be a bit complicated because we are getting to the Holy Trinity, but I’ll say it carefully, I thought it through. God suffered infinitely in the Son. God suffered infinitely in the Father. paid this price. He is not the son who suffers to reassure the angry reluctant father. God the Father and God the Son – both – suffered infinitely and paid this price.
We know that Jesus experienced on the cross what it is like without the Father. But let’s not forget what the father experienced on the cross without a son, which is equally terrible. They both went through it.
Don’t avoid the complexity of the cross! I mean, if you are saying why God cannot simply forgive, you have a one-dimensional God, as if cut out of paper. It’s more one-dimensional than you are because you can’t forgive either, even you’re more complicated. You are filled with love.
Love means I can’t, I don’t want to punish, because I love, but I can’t not punish because I love.
God who only forgives is not a holy God. God who will not forgive is not a loving God. And God, who cannot forgive, is not a wise God. He can’t satisfy Love and Justice.
But in the cross we have absolute wisdom, absolute love and absolute holiness, all fulfilled and satisfied at once. Jesus Christ fulfilled and satisfied the holy love of God, which is in him and which It opens the way to a relationship with God.
So this is the fulfillment of an objective goal, something that is happening outside of us. But that’s not all.
He didn’t die just to pay off the debt.
The subjective reason why he died is,
to free our hearts.
You may have heard how some clergy explain Christ’s death strictly objectively and proceed as follows. They say it’s like you’re in court and a verdict is handed down and you’re convicted. (Perhaps a fine for a traffic violation.) But Jesus comes and pays for you, and then you are free.
And this is a view of Christ’s death from a completely objective point of view. It’s okay, it’s true, that’s part of it.
But this metaphor of ransom says: ‘I died not only to do something objectively outside of you, but also to subject you subjectively out of slavery.’
How does Christ’s death lead us out of slavery?
I’m reading the Buddha’s biography right now, and what amazes me about Eastern religions is that Eastern religions and Christianity pretty much agree on that, Why are we all enslaved.
All these religions believe that the normal state of every human being is to be spiritually enslaved by what? tho By selfishness!
You might think, ‘We all know some people who just want power or money or something like that.’ And of course they are selfish.’ But all these religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, say: ‘Well, you know, Some people are obviously selfish, but you have to look below the surface to see how you are doing.”
You might say, well, I’m not like that, I give and volunteer. I also spend all my time with this sick person and I still listen to him, I am a very caring person.
Here is what Gandhi and Buddha (and Nietzsche) say: Why are you so nice? …why do you act so nice, why do you look so selfless? – after all, it’s for selfish reasons, you need to be needed! …why are you in this relationship? You say because I’m in love. In fact, you need to feel attractive.
All religions agree on something we have deep inside and that our ego is a bottomless pit, we need confirmation, we need recognition. We need comfort We need strength to prove our own worth. (Comment: Which is just human, there is nothing wrong with it in itself. The problem arises when we primarily look for it elsewhere than with God.) Everything we do, even good things, are ways of making sure we are okay. For inner satisfaction to say, “I’m a caring person, I’m a soup shop volunteer, I’m not like a lot of other people. But we can’t say it out loud, because then we wouldn’t be humble, we’d be proud. And why don’t you want others to think you’re A proud person, for selfish reasons.
It’s just that all the religions tell you that you have to be free from selfishness.
And look at Gandhi, he said: ‘This wonderful image of selfless selfless love on the cross touches us and leads us out of slavery.’ But you know what he was wrong about? He says that the cross subjectively gets you out of selfishness, but does not believe that it is paying off the debt objectively.
You can think about it for a while. In my opinion, if it’s just an example, then it’s not liberating. At best it’s crushing at worst it’s crazy.
For example, Gandhi says, ‘Look at this wonderful example, don’t you care that it forgives its enemies? ‘Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing!’ See him forgive his enemies and love them. It’s so inspiring, it’s a liberating example for you.” – In fact, if you think about it, it is not.
I hate such examples because I would never be able to do anything like that (forgive like Jesus), only then I feel worse. But I know I should be like that. And when Gandhi says: ‘Let’s be like that’, I say to myself, oh my god, it just makes me feel even more guilty, I’m crushed by it.
But when I see Jesus forgive me. When I see him up there praying for me to forgive me. When I see him paying an objective debt, Then subjectively it begins to set me free.
Let me ask you a question to illustrate with the next made up story.
Jump into the river
Let’s say a few of us are walking together on the sidewalk, along the river. And I will say: ‘As your pastor, I want you to know how much I love you. I really care about you, you go to our church and I want to show you how much I love you. Let me show you now. And I will throw myself into the river and drown.
Wow, how did he love us, you think, it’s a wonderful example of self-sacrificing love? – No, of course not! You say to yourself, my God, the poor thing was mentally ill or something like that. Are you horrified by this or maybe it offends you.
But what if we walk along the river and you fall into it? You will be swept away by the ice current and I will jump into the river and save you, but I will die in the process. That’s different, isn’t it?
it therefore follows that If there is no kind of danger, it is not good to sacrifice your life.
Therefore, my example of jumping into a river to show my love for you is not a good example. It’s not just a crushing example, it’s a bad example.
Buddha and Gandhi are right that we all have this deep ego problem. We live selfishly, we are driven to hate criticism, we need people to love us, we are too dependent on our children, we are too dependent on our parents, we are too dependent on our friends, we are too dependent on our appearance, we are Too much driven to success, we are insecure, we live selfishly. What will heal us?
The Bible says our problem is not in pride in general, but in the fact that we became estranged from God. we are cut off from the ground up of our value. And here is the meaning of the cross. – The cross does not give you an offer, it gives you a story, a true story, a story about redemption.
Continuing in Part 2
