volume 12, number 37, September 12, 2013

The Father Damned the Son

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us-for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree," Galatians 3:13

With so many professing Christians in America; with so many mega-churches, Christian Colleges, Theological Seminaries, Bible and Theological Conferences; not to mention Christian publishing houses and recording studios, why then do so many Christians tend toward narcissism? Why does so much of American preaching focus on "felt needs" and psychotherapy? Why are so many American Christians depressed? Why are so many Christian families dysfunctional? Why are so-called millennials leaving the evangelical church?

I suggest the reason is a truncated gospel that seems to permeate the American culture. This is not a new phenomenon. It began as early as 1820 with the man-centered preaching of Charles Finney who denied the doctrine of the imputation of Adam's sin (all are born as sinners because Adam, our federal head, sinned, Romans 5:12-14) and the consequent total corruption of man without Christ's redemptive work at Calvary. This, coupled with a desire to "fill the churches", has resulted in a continued watering down of gospel preaching. Man generally does not know how bad he really is, and many preachers fail to tell him the truth. This kind of preaching does not play well in our culture. It sounds negative, judgmental, harsh, cruel.

The Bible, however, our only authority, our only rule of faith and practice, tells us the sober truth about all people prior to regenerating grace. Man does not understand the truth. He does not seek the truth. All have turned aside from the truth. No one is righteous, not even close. Their throats are like an open grave with hundreds of rotting corpses, yielding the most vile stench imaginable. They deceive with their lips. Their mouths are full of all kinds of blasphemies, vile speech that destroys. They destroy people with their tongues, like the poison of a black mamba or King Cobra. Their feet are swift to shed innocent blood. They delight in destruction. Everything they touch turns to misery and destruction. They have no fear of God before their eyes. If they knew the truth of their condition-that before a holy, holy, holy, righteous God who will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, they now stand under the just wrath and condemnation of God, they face tribulation and distress all their days, and they, upon their deaths will be hurled into hell to suffer eternal torment away from the presence of the Lord and His glorious power-they would immediately do anything they could to remove the sentence of death and condemnation upon them. But they are at ease in Zion. They have convinced themselves that all is well with them. Consequently they have, at best, a perceived casual, flippant, jovial relationship with the Holy One. They have, perhaps, read in Scripture that God is a consuming fire, that He will judge His people, that it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God, but they simply do not believe this applies to them.

But why is this the case? They have not considered the horror of Christ's death at Calvary. Many martyrs were crucified, as Jesus was, and they stood boldly and triumphantly. And while crucifixion was indeed a horrible way to die, there have been far worse means of execution (being hanged, drawn, and quartered, for example). So what made Jesus shrink back momentarily from the horrors of Calvary as He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane? Jesus became a curse for us. Nothing was more heinous, more humiliating to a Jew than to die on a tree, in a public place (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). In fact the Jews largely rejected Jesus as Messiah because they could not possibly envision a King or Messiah dying in such a horrific manner. When Deuteronomy 28:15ff speaks of the curses which come upon all who do not obey the law of God, these curses fell upon Jesus, the sinless Son of God, and overtook Him. So, as we read the sobering sentence of judgment on all who disobey the law of God, install the name of Jesus-"Cursed shall Jesus be when He comes in, and cursed shall He be when He goes out . . . The Lord will send on Jesus curses, confusion, and rebuke in all He undertakes to do, until He is destroyed and until He perishes quickly, on account of the evil of His deeds . . . as the Lord delighted over Jesus to prosper Him, so the Lord will delight over Him to make Him perish and to destroy Him," (Deuteronomy 28:19, 20, 63).

When Jesus cried out on the cross, "My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken Me," (Psalm 22:1, Matthew 27:46) He was grieving the absence of His Father's comforting presence. His Father really had deserted Him. In fact, the Father had damned His Son, had brought all the divine fury and wrath of unmitigated zeal, holiness, and righteous indignation upon Him. Don't romanticize the cross of Jesus. This was the most horrifying spectacle the world has ever seen or will see. Nothing approaches it for abject terror. To put it another way, as the Father is angry with the sinner every day, as the Father hates the evil doer and those who shed innocent blood, for those few hours on the cross the Father hated His Son, was filled with unprecedented anger toward Him, and delighted in crushing Him, in rendering Him as the only guilt offering for sin. The Father deserted the Son at that time, not because He loved Him and could not bear to see Him suffer; but because all the sins of all God's elect, all the just wrath and condemnation they deserve, all the hell fire they should receive was placed on Jesus. Indeed, God made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).

If you are in Christ, if God has redeemed you by the blood of His Son, if Jesus died for you, taking upon Himself the unmitigated wrath of Almighty God, then you ought to be humbled to the dust. You ought to understand that you are under obligation to this marvelous, glorious Savior, the great lover of your soul. You are under obligation to give your bodies as living and holy sacrifices to Christ and His kingdom. You are under obligation to walk in gospel holiness, to hate sin and to forsake it. Can you see something of the hatred God has for sin in how He poured out His wrath on His Son? You are under obligation to give your money, your time, your gifts and abilities to get this gospel message to the nations. You are under obligation to open your mouth and speak of the glories and excellencies of the very one who has called you out of darkness and placed you in His marvelous light. And you must utterly and completely reject, once and for all, the damning, false notion that Jesus is merely one of many ways to God. There is no other savior. A truncated, touchy-feely "gospel" will not save. Neither will Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism. A so-called "liberal gospel" will not save either. Jesus is not merely an example. He is the substitute who took upon Himself the very wrath of God in our place. The Presbyterian Church (USA) recently removed the Getty hymn "In Christ Alone" from their hymnbooks. Why? They don't like the line about God's wrath, "on that cross, as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied." The Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song wanted to substitute the words, "the love of God was magnified." When the authors, Stuart Townend and Keith Getty, refused them permission to change the words, the PCUSA removed the hymn from their hymnbook.[1] Without the wrath of God we have no gospel at all. Therefore, my friends, glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14).

1. Christianity Today, August 1, 2013, "Wrath of God Keeps

Popular Worship Song Out of 10,000 Plus Churches"

<www.christianitytoday.com> The Southern Baptist