Let's pray. Lord, thank You for this day. Thank You for who You are. Thank You for all that You do. Thank You for the cross. Lord, just help us as we continue to study in Your name, I pray. Amen. Okay, so we, as you know, are going through the cross and talking about it. We've talked a lot about how the cross is the central part of Christianity. We went and demonstrated that. And then we went through some interesting things that I thought was where we talked about, well, why did Jesus die? Not theologically why he died, why did they kill him? And we went through that. And after that, we went to the part where we discussed about our sin, about who we are. And so now we're dealing with the meaning of the cross from a theological standpoint. You know, before I start this section, so we've been talking about, one, remember we talked about last week, about there's that theory about how he satisfied the devil, that the devil owed, that the devil had power over God, and so that the early church believed that by dying on the cross that Jesus, we defeated the devil, we kind of tricked the devil. And that's kind of like, if you know the C.S. Lewis Narnia story, that's kind of how that is, where Aslan tricks the white witch. And we rejected that. And then last week we really talked about what we believe, which is fulfillment of the law, and also fulfillment of God's honor, and fulfillment of God's justice. In other words, there's this law that that God has, and that Jesus Christ, because we all broke the law, and our church emphasizes this, so we broke the law, so we had to pay the law, or our bill, our debt had to be paid, and Jesus went to the cross. And again, that's true, and I think Stott has an interesting take on this, an interesting way of dealing with this, but the problem is, and I even find myself having this issue somewhat, is that We can then, inherently or by accident, put God under the law, where now the law is over God, and God is subjected to the law. Well, look, I'd really like to free you guys, but I've got this law that's over me, and so we've got to do this. And Stott's point is, yes, the law is true, but we have to realize that the law emanates from God, it's a part of his character. But before, I'm going to do a quick little thing, see if I can find it. Before I, I think one thing it's good for us to always remember, because I think, maybe it's just me. Maybe it's me, but I think we're guilty, can be guilty of separating the New Testament from the Old Testament. And I just want to make this point. Moses is the burning bush. Moses has left Egypt because he murdered somebody, and he meets the burning bush. And then he gets this charge from God, who's in the burning bush. He has to take off his slippers, he's on holy ground. And then Moses said to God, chapter 3, verse 13, then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent you. So that's God's name, I am. And so then we go to the New Testament, John chapter eight. I think you probably all know where I'm going. Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, and Jesus is saying this to them about God. "'But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word. Your father Abraham,'' again he's speaking to the Jews, "'rejoiced that he would see my day.' And he saw it, and he was glad. So the Jews said to him, "'You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?' And Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. And so my point is, is that, I mean, and I think, you know, we've got a culture that affects us. The same God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. They are the same. It's not like Jesus is this peace-loving guy in the New Testament and you've got the harsh warrior God of the Old Testament. It's not that way. They're the same. I am. Jesus is saying, I am. I am the same God. The reason I am emphasizing this is because I think as we're going to go through this next section, it's a little difficult, a little tough to think about the God that we worship being like this. But this is who He is. And it's because we have a problem with it because we do not understand who He is and what holiness is and what righteousness is. And we don't understand what our sin is. We don't understand. We like to poo-poo things and say, oh, it's not that big of a deal. And so we're going to go through this next section and just remember that. You know, I think, you know, right now, Andy Stanley now is going to have this conference for parents of LVGQTRS, T-U-B-W-Y-Z people. And what he's done is, you know, he has been for years building this case where he separates the Old Testament from the New Testament. And now we're getting to where he's rejecting Scripture. But it's the same God. And the same God that died on the cross for us and shed his blood for us is the one that we need to, even as Christians, fear his holiness, and Scripture's clear about that over and over again, both in the New and the Old. So anyway, so we're talking about why Jesus died on the cross. What was the point of that? And we've, five ways theologians have expressed their sense of what's necessary before God. One, we talked about the overthrow of Satan by satisfying his demands, and it's interesting, I probably won't be able to find it, but this morning in Hebrews, it hinted at that, about satisfying Satan. I should have written it down, but it's in there. Today we read the first four chapters of Hebrews, and he talked about this issue about satisfying Satan. But we rejected that because we know that Satan has no power over God whatsoever. So that's one. The other one was the idea of satisfying God's law, honor, or justice. And then lastly, satisfying the moral order of the world. So those are the five things we've talked about. Why would Jesus have to die on the cross to rescue sinners? satisfying God's law, honoring justice, satisfying the moral order of the world. And the issue with these points, although true to some extent, they're all true to some degree, yes, God had to satisfy his justice and his moral order and his law. If we're not careful, we can make it seem as if God is subordinate to these, to something outside of himself. In other words, God is under this moral law, or God is under the justice, and he's not. He's not under it. It's a part of who He is. But satisfaction is an appropriate word as long as we understand that He Himself God in his inner being is being satisfied, not something external to himself. In other words, Jesus dying on the cross had to satisfy something for God himself, not something that God was under, a subject to. So even though we use the analogy of us breaking laws in this country, it's not really the same because the laws don't emanate from us. We make the laws, whatever reason, because without getting all that, we have natural law, but we are under the law, but God, that law comes from Him, and it's a emanation of His character. Law, honor, and justice do not bind God, they are expressions of His character. And atonement is necessary because it arises from God Himself. Remember, we talked about Jesus did not die for you, He died for God. He died for God. Now, part of that is he did die for us, but ultimately Jesus died for God in meeting this inner part of who God is. Self-satisfaction in fallen man, he makes this point, is usually an unpleasant phenomenon. So if you and I live our lives to satisfy ourselves, Well, then you know what you're going to be? That's not a good picture. Actually, some of my patients live that way. And it's not good. In other words, you eat all you want to eat. You do any kind of whim you want to do. There's nothing that binds you as far as commitment. You just live for self-satisfaction. That usually ends up not being a good thing. It usually involves satisfying our passions and our instincts. And it shows a complete lack of self-control or humility. If you just live for yourself, self-satisfy. I'm tired of that woman. I want a new wife. It's all about me. I want to be free. I'm tired of living for other people. It leads to ruin and heartache in the world. There is no lack of self-control and humility in God. He is perfect in His thoughts and desires. So for God to satisfy Himself means He must be Himself and act according to the perfection of His nature or name. Understand, you and I, we're fallen creatures. So when we self-satisfy, we do it for selfish reasons or wrong reasons. But God is perfect. And again, it's hard for us to understand this because we're so fallen and depraved, but He's perfect. So when He self-satisfies, it's a wonderful and beautiful thing because He is truth and goodness and everything wonderful. So the self-satisfaction of God is not found in anything outside of Himself, but within Himself. So the law which he must conform, which he must satisfy, is the law of his own being. He cannot disown himself. 2 Timothy 2.13 If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. He never lies. God never lies. Titus 1.2 In hope, eternal life, which God, who never lies, promises before the ages began. And so really, it's impossible for God to lie, Hebrews 6.18, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie. And then God is not arbitrary, but I will not remove them from my steadfast love or be false in my faithfulness. God's not arbitrary. He chooses, He loves, and He sticks to it, and He makes a decision. And additionally, Deuteronomy 32, verse 4 says, he is a faithful God who does no wrong. And so God is always true to himself and who he is. In several ways, Scripture draws attention to God's self-consistency, emphasizing that because of that, He is obliged to judge sinners. He must remain true to Himself. He's not like us. We can be fake. You know, you can be one thing. All my patients, when they come to see me, not all, a lot of them, you know, they're one thing, and then when they go home, their family tells me, oh, they're miserable, they're in pain, they're having all these problems, and why don't they tell me? I mean, the one person you want to tell you're having a problem is me. That's my job. And we can do this for other people. We can be at the party, we can be one way, and want our family another way. But God can't do that. God is who He is, because He's perfect. So we use these different terms to show how God is true to Himself. And first, Stott says, is the language of provocation. Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament, that's what I Am is, a Yahweh, is described as provoked by Israel's idolatry to anger or jealousy. Deuteronomy 32.16, they stirred him to jealousy with strange gods. With abominations they provoked him to anger. Now remember, as we've talked about this many times, but it's always good to repeat it to get into our heads. You know, God chooses Israel through Abraham, and then we have these descendants come, and then he makes these covenants with them. We love covenants here. And then he makes this covenant with Israel at Sinai, where they covenantally tie themselves to God, and say, we promise to do all these things, and you will be our God, we will be your people, and you will dwell with us. And that's what happens. I know I've talked about this many times, go to Exodus, at the end of Exodus, after they do all that, we have the tabernacle, here the Spirit of God comes and dwells with them. Well then, you know, if you read your Old Testament, which is great to do, they completely, you know, they have some high points, but most of the time they're blowing it. Most of the time. The book of Judges, they're always going after other gods, constantly. And so eventually, though, God, over time, decides He's going to judge them because of their continual violation of the covenant they made with Him. They promised to do something, they didn't do it. So the prophets, we've talked about the book of the prophets, starting with Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and Daniel, and Hosea, and all those. They're really God's prosecutors going to the people of Israel and saying, look guys, look, you promised to stick with God, you promised to obey Him, and you don't. You promised that your heart was going to be close to Him, and it's not. You do the rituals, but you don't even think about it, you're doing your own thing. And so there are prosecutors, and they're constantly bringing this up. You're going to get judged, it's going to happen, you violate the law, this is what happens. And so this idea of Israel constantly provoking God by being, by worshiping idols and completely disobeying Him. And you know, He talks about how they would, you know, who does this? He says, you, you know, I've provided all this. I bring you out of Egypt. I bring you into this other land. You conquer this people and then you start worshiping their God. Who, that doesn't happen. You know, when people attacked Israel, they didn't start worshiping Yahweh. They still worship their gods, but yet Israel continued to chase other gods that they defeated. And so the prophets of the exile, remember they get, so just go through your Bible history, the northern 10 tribes are taken away into Assyria, gone, don't know what happened to those people, they're all integrated, moved around, gone, gone, gone. We got the lower two tribes, and then they are exiled into Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar comes, three different waves, and he takes those people and he takes them back to Babylon. He leaves the poor in Jerusalem and Judah, but most of them are taken to Babylon, and they are the people of the exile. So you have Jeremiah and Ezekiel who are talking to the people of exile. They've been punished, they've been taken away from their land because of their continual just ignoring God and doing what they want and worshipping false gods. And he was always, these prophets, as they talked to Israel and preached to them, are using this language of, you provoked God, you provoked him. Not that God, it's not that God was irritated or that his patience had worn out. No, the language of provocation expresses the inevitable reaction to God's perfect nature to evil. Within God, there is a holy intolerance of idolatry, immorality, and injustice. And it wasn't just about the idolatry, it was everything. You know, the way they treated people, the way they had false scales, everything. Evil alone provokes God. If evil did not provoke Him to anger, He would forfeit our respect, for He would no longer be God. And we've talked about this. It applies to your own life. If something bad happens to you, if someone does something wrong to you, I mean, I'm not talking about, you know, cuts you off or gets in front of you in the left lane, which is probably one of the greatest evils you could do. But, I mean, really evil. Really evil. I mean... Scourge of the land. But I'm talking about something like, you know, I mean, injures one of your family members or kills, you get angry. You would be angry at that person. That's a normal response. We went through the When we went through the characteristics of God, the attributes of God, we talked about anger and wrath, about really until sin entered the world, that attribute, how did that, did that ever have to come up? But his anger is a direct response to evil. And that's, evil alone provokes him. And that's a part of who he is. The second is the language of being provoked is the language of burning. So, the Old Testament in the Bible depicts God's anger as a fire and speaks of its, quote, kindling, quote, burning, quenching, and consuming. Yahweh is said to burn with anger when his people disobeyed his law, breaking the covenant. That is why he said he is to burn with it. Or his anger said to break out and burn like fire. Deuteronomy 29, 27. Therefore, the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, bringing upon all the curses written in the book. Or Jeremiah 4, 4 says this. Now remember, Jeremiah is talking to this disobedient people who continue to worship false gods and reject the God that loves them. and who they had covenanted themselves with him, circumcise your heart to the Lord. Remove the foreskin of your heart, O men of Judah, inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds." His anger is always in response to evil, and it was never, ever uncontrolled. Contrary to Israel's early life. Earlier, this is how God dealt with them, before they got to this point. Psalm 78, 38. Yet, he being compassionate, atoned for iniquity, he did not destroy them. He restrained his anger often. but when he can no longer endure, Jeremiah 44, 22, the Lord could not bear your evil deeds and abominations that you committed. Therefore, your land has become a desolation and a waste and a curse without an inhabitant to this day. Ezekiel 24, 13 through 14. On account of your unclean lewdness, because I would have cleansed you and you were not cleansed from your uncleanliness, you shall not be cleansed anymore till I have satisfied my fury upon you. I am the Lord. I have spoken. It shall come to pass. I will do it. I will not go back. I will not spare. I will not relent. According to your ways and your deeds, you will be judged, declares the Lord your God. And so again, we're talking about the cross. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? And we're dealing with this act of God having to, his being and his response to evil and sin. It's all demonstrated through the Old Testament. And that's why I wanted you to, early on, realize that Jesus is a part of this. This is all, this is the same God. Jesus is all the same as this. And once God's anger was righteously aroused, 2 Kings 22.26 says this, still the Lord did not turn from burning of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations which Manasseh had provoked him. So if you remember, God had made this promise with David, hey look David, I'm going to be your God, you're going to be my king, and the king's going to come from you. And this is the two promises. You're going to begin the line, and I'm going to preserve Jerusalem. That's what we're going to do. I'm going to do this. And so then, as Israel, the northern tribe, the northern ten were pulled away, you're left with Jerusalem and the line of David, still in Judah. God had made this promise, the Davidic covenant, ultimately going to be fulfilled in Jesus Christ, but he made this promise. Well, what kind of was the last straw as far as when God's anger was provoked is when Manassas, one of the descendants of David, brought false idols into the temple. He brought these things first. It was one thing to have the temple and then have the other places where they worshipped these false gods. Here, Manassas takes these false idols and brings them into the temple, and they start doing worshipping to these gods in God's house. And that's when God has this, this is when He basically decided, okay, I'm going to judge you and you're going to be exiled now to Babylon. Now one of the great stories of the Old Testament also is that Manassas repented and Manassas came back to the Lord. The damage was already done because he'd already provoked God and he'd already, you know, just because you repent from your sin doesn't mean there's still consequences. So once God is provoked, it's not easily quenched. Instead, His anger, quote, burned against them and they were consumed. As fire leads to destruction, so Yahweh's anger leads to judgment. There is something to God's essential moral being that is provoked by evil and ignited by it, proceeding to burn until evil is consumed. And again, I would say, if you look at your life, if you're a halfway moral being, the same thing's true for us. I mean, that feeling you get inside when, you know, like last week when those two kids just ran over that guy minding his own business. He's riding his bike, and they just for fun, they're videotaping themselves, watch this, boom, they kill him. I mean, doesn't that make you angry? Doesn't that make you, those two need to pay. Well, God is way more infinitely righteous than we are. What is His response? And when He sees this going on all over the world all the time, and in relation to this where He sees His people who He has chosen specifically and had a relationship when they are doing this kind of thing, His anger is provoked and He burns. The third, so we've got this idea of being provoked, there's this idea of burning. The third word we use is satisfaction itself. God must be himself. What's inside of him must come out. Demands of nature and character must be met by appropriate actions on his part. The chief word here is the Hebrew word, I guess it's Kala, K-A-L-A-H, which is used by Ezekiel to describe God's anger. So Ezekiel used this word Kala, K-A-L-A-H, it's a Hebrew word to describe God's anger. It means complete, to an end, finished, accomplished, spent. It's used in the Old Testament to indicate the end of something. It's either destroyed or finished in some way. Stott makes this point, look, time, work, and life all have an end. All of our lives have an end. You can cry and cry and cry, eventually your tears will stop coming. You can try to work and do some work, eventually your physical exertions will be spent. You are done. You've done too much. The same thing with God. Not that he's spent, but it's going to be completed. Through Ezekiel, Yahweh warns Judah that he is about to accomplish, he's going to satisfy or spend his anger on or against them. They have refused to listen to him and have persisted in their idolatry. So now at last he says this in Ezekiel 7, 7-8, The time has come, the day is near, a day of tumult. Not a joyful shouting on the mountains, now I will pour out my wrath upon you, and spend my anger against you, and judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations." So this idea of pouring out and spending go together. What is poured out cannot be gathered again, and what is spent is finished, what is spent is gone. The same two images are found in Lamentations 4.11, and Lamentations is about Jeremiah. Jeremiah wrote that, has to do with what happens in Jerusalem because of their sin. The Lord gave full vent to his wrath. He poured out his hot anger. Only when Yahweh's wrath is spent does it cease. What exists in Yahweh must be expressed. and what is expressed must be completely spent. That's who God is. That's what the Old Testament is. That's how the Old Testament describes our God. So to sum up, God is provoked to jealous anger over people and their sins. Once kindled, His anger burns and is not easily quenched. And three, He unleashes it, He pours it out, and He spends it. This vocabulary vividly portrays God's judgment as arising from within Him, from His holy character. So why? Why did God do this, or have this particular relationship? Why was He provoked? Why did He burn anger? Why? It was because of Israel's apostasy. The prophets concentrated on Yahweh's anger and consequence of judgment. Again, all the prophets, once you start in Isaiah and go on, these men are all prosecuting God's case against them. It's like a court. You did this, you do this, you do this. You're guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, and you don't even care. But this, this guilt, this God's anger is set against a background of God's love for Israel. He talks about this in the prophetic books, about how He loved them, He nurtured them, He took care of them. This special relationship which God had initiated and sustained also came out of His character. We have to remember that not only does this anger and wrath against sin come from God's character, but so did His love for Israel. The special relationship which God initiated and sustained came out of His character. He acted for the sake of His name. So why did God have a relationship with Israel? Why did He love them? Well, this is what He says in Deuteronomy 7-8. excuse me, 7, 7-8, when he's talking to them, he says, it was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you or chose you. For you were the fewest of all peoples. It's not because the God, but it is because the Lord loves you in keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out of within the mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. No explanation is given other than he loved them, that's why. And it's not, I love you because you have beautiful blue eyes and I just love the way you throw a baseball. Or, I love the way you all used to camp and treat each other, that's why I love you. It had nothing to do with their actions. He just loved them. Same is true for our salvation. If you know Christ as your Savior, it has nothing to do with who you are. It's because God loved you for whatever reason. We don't know why. And we're thankful for that, obviously. So against this cloth, this idea of His anger, is this love He has for them. So the fourth way in which Scripture emphasizes the self-consistency of God uses the language of His name. God always acts, quote, according to the nature of His name. He deals with us according to our works, and He deals with us according to His name. not invariably, or otherwise He would destroy us immediately. So, Psalm 103.10 says this, He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. Exodus 35.6 says this, this is when Israel has sinned, they've worshipped the golden calf, Moses is up there for 40 days, 40 nights, he's getting the book of the covenant, The people are down here, they say, Aaron, we're bored, make us a gun, and they get all these gold earrings, and somehow he puts together this gold calf, and he says, this, he violates the second commandment, this is Yahweh, this golden calf, and they start worshipping and doing all kinds of bad stuff. And then God judges him, he gets frustrated, you know, he judges them, he's going to get rid of them. Moses, acting as a picture of Christ, intercedes for Israel and says, no, no, no, don't do this, don't take them out. He intercedes. And then Moses wants to see God's glory. And God says, well, you can't see my glory, anybody who sees me is going to die. But God gives him part of his name, who he is, who is God. His name is descriptive of who God's character is. We're going to read this again in the future, the rest of it, but the first part says, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. So although He does not always treat us according to our works, He does, however, always treat us according to His name, in a manner consistent with His revealed nature. So on one hand, He's gonna judge sinners, but also He has steadfast love. That's part of His nature. Patience, He's long-suffering. That's why He doesn't burn against the sin from the get-go. He has this patience. Remember, patience, we talked about this, is this idea of when you're patient, When you're in the checkout line, you're trying to get out fast, and the lady pulls out a checkbook. You have to restrain yourself. Andy, when you're in the left lane behind, you have to be patient. You're restraining yourself. And that's what God is, restraining himself. That's part of his character, too. So although he does not always treat us according to our works, he does, however, always according to his name. which is in a manner consistent with God's revealed nature, what He's revealed to us. Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, He restores my soul, He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. That's why He leads them in paths of righteousness, for His name's sake, God's name's sake. This contrast is deliberately shown in Ezekiel 20, 44, where he says, And you shall know I am the Lord when I deal with you for my name's sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord. And so Jeremiah 14 demonstrates this idea about how God is always true to His name. You can read it later. But Jeremiah 14 speaks of this devastating drought. So in verses 1 through 6, there's no water. The cisterns are dry. The ground is cracked. Farmers are in trouble. The animals don't have anything to eat. It's bad, bad, bad. No water. And so the people, they cry out to God in Jeremiah 14, 7. And they say, though our iniquities testify against us, our sins are kind of causing all this, oh Lord, Act, O Lord, for your name's sake." Act according to your name. Basically, they say, look, although we can't appeal to you based upon who we are and what we've done, we will appeal to you on who you are and what your name is. Israel knew they were God's chosen people, and they begged Him to act in a way that was consistent with covenant and steadfast love. In verses 8 and 9, they say, we bear your name. In other words, we carry your name. We are your people. Yeah, we've been terrible, but we're your people. Treat us according to your name. This is contrasted with the false prophets in verses 13 and 16 who preach a perversion of peace without judgment. You know, that was one of the big problems. You had two prophets. You had the right prophets. Jeremiah was saying, look, guys. You're violating God's law, you're gonna be judged. It was clearly stated back here in Deuteronomy, if you don't, I mean, He told you from the beginning. And you had the false prophets, oh, no, no, everything's gonna be wonderful. Keep doing what you're doing, it's wonderful, peace, we're gonna have prosperity, don't worry about a thing. So you had this contrast between these false prophets and the real prophets. Jeremiah prophesied sword, famine, and plague, verse 12, but he also looked beyond judgment to restoration, convinced that Yahweh would, quote, act according to His name, in verse 21. The same theme is in Ezekiel 36. He promises to restore them after judgment, but he was candid about his reasons of why he would restore them. Ezekiel 36.22 says this, Therefore, say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations which you came. So despite them having profaned His name before the nations, God let the nations know that He was Lord and He was the Living One. Ezekiel 36, 23, And I will vindicate the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, for which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God. Even though you I vindicate, My holiness before their eyes. Acting for the sake of His name, He demonstrates that He is true to His name. So in light of all this, we can understand why God, it's impossible for God to do what God commanded us to do. What do we mean by that? Well, Jesus, one of the big things Jesus told us is that we need to deny ourselves. But God cannot deny Himself. Why is that? Why is it that God will not do, why can't He do what He told us to do? Well, really the main reason is because God is God and not man, let alone fallen man. We have to deny or disown everything within us that is false to our true humanity. So when Jesus tells us to deny ourselves, it's denying ourselves of those things that make us fallen so that we could be more like Adam before the fall, or even better, more like Jesus who never fell. By denying ourselves, we are rejecting those things. that make us unhuman, because we're not as human as we should be. We're made in the image of God, but that image has been marred by our sin. And so, yes, we are human, but because of our sin, we are not what we are intended to be. But there's nothing in God that is incompatible with His true identity. And therefore, there's nothing for Him to deny. There's nothing for Him to deny. So, it is in order to be true to ourselves that we have to deny ourselves. It is because God is never other than His true self that He cannot and will not deny Himself. And this is exactly what Jesus did in Philippians 2, 7 and 8, right? We are to take on the, we are to be like Christ. Paul says this, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. In other words, he was willing to let it go. but made himself nothing, taking upon himself the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by death, even death on the cross." So Jesus had to deny some of himself in order that he could die on the cross for us. So he cannot repudiate himself because he's perfect, God cannot contradict himself, this is his integrity. So we are constantly aware of our human consistencies. We're always aware of the way we are. That's so uncharacteristic of him. Or, you're not yourself today. I expected better of you. If it works, this doesn't happen anymore, but if I had a patient I was worried about in the hospital, I've been rounding, and this patient's not doing well, and I'm trying to figure out how we're going to go, and I walk in, if I don't walk into the office and go, hey, how y'all doing? They're like, what's wrong with you? Is something wrong with you? What's wrong with you? It's like, no, I'm just thinking about my patient. There's nothing wrong with me. It's not like you. And we do that to other people. You're not yourself today. What's wrong?" You know, that kind of thing. I expect better of you when people disappoint you. I didn't expect they would do that. He did what? But God is always himself. He's never inconsistent. If he ever acted inconsistently, he would cease to be God. No, God is God. He never deviates one iota, even one tiny hair's breadth, from being entirely himself. So we have this language that deals with God. Again, we're all about the cross. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? And we're trying to build up this case for what it is. And we know that God's response to sin, which we are all guilty of, is that He's provoked. He has burning anger that is satisfied fully. And then we got the idea of Him defending His name. He's got to act with who He is. His name portrays who He is. So we have this section, the holy love of God. What does this all have to do with the atonement? What does it have to do with Jesus dying on the cross, the atonement? That is how God chooses to forgive sinners and reconciles himself to him, must be consistent with his character. How God is going to do this must be consistent with his character. It is not only that he must overthrow and disarm the devil in order to rescue his captive, it's not only that he must satisfy law, honor, and justice, in moral order, but God must satisfy himself. Those other aspects are true regarding his law of modern justice, but God must be satisfied in every aspect of his being, including his justice and his love. He asks if when we attempt to distinguish between these attributes of God and set one above the others, are we in danger of going beyond Scripture? In other words, when we start putting one above the other, are we going above Scripture? Is it correct, as P.T. Forsythe asked, there's no mention of divine strife between God's attributes? Is there any talk about that, that you had this strife within God? He discusses the strife of parenthood, you know, when we discipline our kids, this hurts you, boy, this hurts me more than it hurts you, you know, that kind of thing. You have a child you love, you don't want to hurt them, but part of disciplining them is inflicting a little pain on them to get them to go the right direction. This conflict you have within yourself, you love them, but you need to discipline them. Scripture uses anthropomorphisms to describe God. Hosea 11 uses a bold human model to demonstrate the pain of parenthood attributed to God. So remember, God treats Israel as his child. He refers to Israel as his child or son. He taught them to walk, he took them in his arms, verse 3 of chapter 11, and he bent down to feed him in verse 4. Yet his son proved wayward and did not recognize his father's tender loving care." So God's like a parent here. Israel was determined to turn from him in rebellion, verses 5-7. He deserves to be punished, he's rebelled from his parent, but can his own father bring himself to punish him? So Yahweh speaks. How can I give you up, O Ephraim? Ephraim's another name for Israel. How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Adonai? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me. My compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger. I will not destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not a man. The Holy One in your midst, I will not come in wrath. Here we have a conflict of emotions, a strife of attributes within God. The four how-can-I questions demonstrate the conflict within God regarding what He ought to do, but what He cannot do because of His love. I ought to do this, I ought to do this, I ought to do this, but I cannot because I love you. And the change of heart in Him is this inner tension between His compassion and His fierce anger. There are other biblical places that reveal this duality within God. Exodus 34, 6-7. This is this verse we read earlier, the first part. Now we're going to read the second part. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, Lord, the God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin. But who will by no means clear the guilty? visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. Psalm 85, 10, steadfast love and faithfulness meet, righteousness and peace kiss each other. In John 1, 14 we have this, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen His glory, glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Truth, you've got to judge what you see. Grace is unmerited favor. We've got this conflict. Paul, writing to the Romans, says this in Romans 11, 22, contemplating God's dealing with the Jew and the Gentile. He says this, Note then the kindness and severity of God, severity to those who have fallen, but kindness towards you. Ephesians 2, 3, and 4, Among whom we once lived in the passion of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, we were nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. And then two, the great but God, being rich in mercy because of his great love, which he loved us. This wrath and love duality. Emile Bruner wrote of God's dual nature as the central mystery of the Christian religion. God is not simply love. His nature cannot be boiled down to one attribute. This is what the liberal church, God's love. He would never punish you. He wants you to be who you are. Be true to yourself, because God is all love. That's not God. That's not the God of the Bible. It might be the God of your fairyland. The central problem with modern opposition is the atonement of the cross. That's why they hate the idea. Because for God to have wrath means he doesn't like things. Which means I can't be true to myself. This is due to the fact that the idea of divine holiness has been swallowed up in that of the divine love. This means that the biblical idea of God, in which the decisive element in this two-fold nature of holiness and love, is being replaced by this modern, unilateral, monistic idea of God. I'm almost done. I'm going to read a quote. Yet, the dualism of holiness and love, of mercy and wrath, cannot be dissolved, changed into one synthetic conception, without at the same time destroying the seriousness of biblical knowledge of God, the reality and mystery of Revelation and Atonement. Here arises the dialectic of all genuine Christian theology, which simply aims at expressing in terms of thought the indissu- the dissolvable nature of His dualism. The cross of Christ is the event in which God makes known His holiness and His love simultaneously in one event. His holiness He had to judge, but His love He had to act to save us. The cross is the only place where the loving, forgiving, merciful God is revealed in such a way that we perceive that His holiness and love are equally infinite. In fact, the objective aspect of the atonement may be summed up thus. It consists in the compilation of inflexible righteousness and its penalties in transcendent love. We must never think of this duality in God as being not irreconcilable. God is not at odds with Himself. He is a God of peace and not inner turmoil. It is difficult for us to keep this image of God in our head. One who must punish evildoers and the lover who must find a way to forgive them. Yet he is both at the same time. G.C. Burkhauer said, quote, in the cross of Christ, God's justice and love are simultaneously revealed. God's justice against sin, but then his love enough to die for us. God die for us. Calvin, echoing Augustine, was even bolder. That God, in a quote, he says this, in a marvelous and a divine way, he loved us even when he hated us. They are alternates of the same reality. I thought of this verse, Romans 5.10. If while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, so much now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved in his life? God died for us while we were... Think of the person you despise the most for whatever reason. You shouldn't, but we do. And then imagine yourself dying for that person because you love them so much. Bruner said this, for the wrath of God is the love of God in a form in which the man who is turned away from God and turned against God experiences it. I've got a few more quotes to read and then we'll wrap up this chapter. Christianity, he wrote, This is Forsyth. It's concerned with God's holiness before all else, which issues to man as love. This starting point of supreme holiness of God's love rather than its pity, sympathy or affection is the watershed between the gospel and theological liberalism. My point of departure is that Christ's first concern in Revelation was not simply for forgiving love of God, but the holiness of such love, the holiness having to deal with our sin. Again, he said this, if we spoke less about God's love and more about His holiness, more about His judgment, we should say more when we didn't speak of His love. And then again, without a holy God, there would be no problem of atonement. It is the holiness of God's love that necessitates an atoning cross. This vision of a holy God will rescue us from having characters of Him. You know, the big Santa Claus in the sky, the big fuzzy guy that just lets everything go. He is neither an indulgent God who compromises His holiness in order to spare or spoil us, nor is He a harsh, vindictive God who suppresses His love in order to crush us. So when you have this Andy Stanley moment, this is this idea of separating the Old Testament from the New Testament. and having the idea of a vindictive, mean God who doesn't want you to be who you are. No, none of us want to be who we are because we're all sinners bound for hell. I mean, you know, your sin may be homosexuality, it may be greed, it may be thievery, it could be envy, whatever, it doesn't matter. You need to be rescued from that, not embraced. Because of the harsh reality, the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. and that the cross is an unspeakable act of love in dealing with God's holiness. So how can God save us and satisfy Himself at the same time? How does this happen? Well, that's the next chapter. He sacrificed, substituted Himself for us, and that's what we're going to talk about. Let's pray. Lord, we thank You for this day. Thank You for Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ, and what He did for us on the cross. I pray You now be with our worship service, may it work for You in spirit and truth. In Your name I pray, Amen.