The Good News of Good Friday

While the church is coming up on Good Friday and Easter, people generally began preparing their hearts for the season. I couldn’t help but seize this opportunity to share the good news of the cross. The cross is truly good news- the place where all our joy, peace, and wholeness are consummated in God’s act of redemption. 

Unfortunately some people won’t see it this way. Bad theology has taught people that self-loathing is part of humility; The worse we see ourselves- the more God is elevated.  This couldn't be farther from the truth. God wants us to enjoy him. The cross is where we became free of sin. He is sick and tired of us denying his work by our false humility and sin-consciousness. This Easter is a season where we can truly glorify him by rejoicing in who he has made us- a New Covenant people; a Royal Priesthood; a Holy Nation; God’s special possession who have been completely removed from darkness and placed in the embrace of his marvelous love. So why don’t we always experience the love of God? Easy- bad theology.

I’ve grown up in a charismatic culture where people love “spiritual warfare”.  I’m aloud to make fun because it’s my own culture and I deeply love these people. One thing I like about charismatics- they’re aggressive. They yell at demons (bind the spirit of this, release this, yada yada yada). Take down principalities (even though our Lord is the head of all principalities and powers, sigh) and break strongholds. My all time favorite is the breaking strongholds. The average charismatic sees a demonic stronghold like the red rover wall in a roller derby race. Combine enough vocal strain with will power and undignified praise and you get a breakthrough- the point at which the gospel actually works, and the power of the Cross starts to work. If my sardonic posture is offensive, please excuse me. I simply don’t believe that’s what the Grace Apostle was talking about. We do, however, know that strongholds are real- Paul mentioned them:

We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.  We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God.

There you have it. The Devil's biggest stronghold is human reasoning, or bad theology. There is a tremendous amount non-gospel mixture woven in with our weekly worship- especially as we approach Good Friday.  If your typical Easter weekend lacks unspeakable joy, a new theology may be long overdue. 

The single biggest obstacle to a happy Good Friday is Penal Substitution. This is the biggest error of the Western Church. Penal Substitution is the overwhelmingly popular doctrine of atonement (at-one-ment = you and God are no longer enemies) in the Western Church. I would say 99% of Christians don’t even know there is another option. 

Penal substitution is a staple of Billy Graham, Bible- Belt religion (and the entire Latin tradition). It is generally presented as this- God created man. Man sinned. The Father was offended by Adam. His justice demanded he open up a can on Adam. He could not possibly forgive man without getting payback. To loosely quote Jonathan Edwards (this is off the top of my head- sorry Johnny Boy) “God’s bow is bent towards the heart of man. His arrow is hungry for blood. As the arrow is released, Jesus steps out in front of man and takes it in his place.” This is what we can refer to as human reasoning. Jesus was substituted as our penalty. This is in no way encouraging or good news, nor does it help us with our sin problem. This theology does, however make sense to the natural mind. Many of us have grown up with angry fathers who would have abusively beaten us if not for our compassionate mothers. Isn’t it just logical to assume that God is like that? The Father is the just disciplinarian, and then Jesus comes to our rescue. 

An excellent book on this is Derek Flood’s Healing The Gospel. Derek describes his initial experience with evangelism after being groomed in this stuff.... 

Jesus died for You!

Why did Jesus have to die?

Because of our sin.

What if we haven’t sinned?

“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” No one can keep the law.

But if no one can keep it how can we be blamed for that?

Because “the wages of sin is death” and so justice requires that you be sent to be tormented in Hell for all eternity.

That’s awful!

Yes, but there’s good news: God has provided a way out by sacrificing his Son.

God killed his own son?

Yes, that’s how much he loves you.

Why would that make anything better?

Because it satisfies God’s need for punishment. Sin must be paid for with blood because “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness”

I feel ill.

Can’t you see this is God’s mercy and love?

Don’t you want to repeat after me and let him into your life?

I think I have to go now....

If you haven’t noticed this dialog describes a God who is keeping a ledger on you sins. He also really wants to bust you for every last one of them. This is not the gospel. The God in this narrative is not the father of the Lord Jesus Christ- he is utterly opposed to him. When you hear this message be kind. Be respectful. The person preaching this message probably has a genuine love for Jesus- but they are very, very wrong about how Jesus has loved us. This pseudo-gospel leads to depression, self-hate and dead works. 

The atonement isn’t a doctrine that can be quickly summed up. A lifetime of poor theology can’t be erased overnight. If you’ve grown up in church, there are several mental shifts you need to make. Take a second to view the chart below:

	Angry God Mindset	Happy God mindset
Justice =	punishment	making things right
Mercy=	Leniency, inaction	the act of restoration/making thing right
Mercy and Justice	Rigid Dichotomy	Acts of Mercy= Means of Justice
Sin =	action- bad choice	condition- inward disease
Sinful behavior=	Act of Disrespect towards God- subject to vengeance	Behavior which causes pain (like sticking hand in a blender).
The Cross-	Changed God’s view of us	Changed our view of God

The Atonement is a subject we will continue to learn about for all of eternity. I don’t want to make it sound like I have it all figured out, but when the Holy Spirit opens our minds (something he often does through dusty old books...) we can see what the scriptures plainly teach. There is a simplicity to the gospel for those that have eyes to see. Here it is- our sin killed Jesus. How? Not through the Fathers wrath but through ours. When Jesus died- he didn’t just die for us. He died as us. He became our sin that we might become the righteousness of God. 

Sin is not an action. It is a disease- hamartia- a noun. It’s a cancer of the soul that makes people do sinful actions. That’s what Romans 7 is about. Sin was not something we wanted to do. It was something that controlled us. We were wicked. We were sinful. We had Satan’s nature living inside of us. 

In the West we are traditionally taught that the Father is too holy to look upon sin. Jesus had to step into our place and shield God’s eyes from us. That’s an interesting doctrine, considering Jesus spent most his earthly ministry with hookers, Mafioso tax collectors, and drunks. I guess the Father is more Holy than Jesus. Maybe that’s why Jesus took the plunge and came down to earth. Are you starting to see how perverted this theology is?

The purpose of the Cross was not to change God’s opinion of you. It was to change your opinion of God. The Way, the Truth, the Life, Love- The Father, Son, and Spirit- exposed our sin- so what did we do? We hid. God wanted to go on a walk with us in the Garden of Pleasure- we hid from him. God wanted to make us his people- we rebelled and worship idols we made with our hands. God wanted get in the boat and bless our fishing- we said, “get away from me Lord, I’m a sinful man, I don’t deserve to catch a fish.  God wanted to come down to earth and love us and what did we do? We rejected him. We mocked him. We Crucified him.  God was not beating his Son because of our actions. The wages of our sin were all fully released upon the one who had no sin. In the words of Karl Barth The Judge was judged. The sinless Lamb who was one with Love himself felt all the rejection of mankind. How? We rejected him.

We love to talk about the violence of the cat of nine tails. Sure that was horrible, but I would dare say it is worse to have your own bride say to hell with you, give me a murderer, I’m going to Crucify you. We forget the emotional torment Christ was subjected to- the rejection he experience under his own people- the shame of being stripped and spit on. His closest friends denied him. His own family rejected him. He completely experienced the weight of our sin. Sin is a disease which causes us to feel rejection, hatred, loneliness. He felt it all.  While being completely one with the Father and in the Father, he felt completely abandoned by the Father. He felt completely forsaken by God. The Father was literally in Christ reconciling the world to himself, yet Christ was consumed by the weight of our sickness until he breathed his last. He became sin that we might become the righteousness of God. One may ask, how does his death play to our advantage? Because he died your death. Gods plan was never to clean you up by morality club sermons and WWJD bracelets. God’s plan was to kill that old sinful you and raise you from the dead- perfect reflection of himself.

Just as Adam sinned and sickness spread through all mankind, through Christ righteous action, righteousness has likewise spread to all mankind. Jesus was willing to fully embrace us in our sickness and confusion. I, like all of us, have had personal attacks against my character throughout my life. When someone accuses me of something utterly contrary to my character, I have two options. One is to reveal to them the truth and expose there sin and ignorance. Option two is to accept their false conclusion and love them in spite of it. This is the option Christ took concerning us. 

God’s love is never forceful. He never seeks his own way, but always meets us where we are. This is the righteousness of God. God was faithful in Christ to love us  while we were yet sinners, hostile to him. Because of this act of righteousness, the Glory (presence through the Spirit) of the Father raised Christ from the dead. And Christ was not raised alone- he took all of humanity with him. All of mankind has now been seated at the Father’s right hand in Christ. Whether they know it or not, believe it or not, experience it or not- one has died for all, therefore all have died. Here is the true beauty of the Cross- he died your death. Now you live his life. He experienced our pain, our sickness, and our rejection at our hands. He took that suffering upon himself and died to it for us. No matter how hard we reject him or try to run away, his verdict is set. He has fully embraced us in the cross, carrying our sickness down into the grave and raising us whole to the Father's right hand. 

In this way Christ overcame sin and death. In Christ, mankind has literally been woven into the fabric of God. The old man who experienced sin and death has been killed. We killed him. This is the wisdom of God. By embracing us in our mess, the old nature was circumcised, forever freeing us from the bondage of sin. When Christ died we died:

 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. ⁷ For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. ⁸ And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. ⁹ We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. ¹⁰ When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. ¹¹ So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. 

In him you also were circumcised—not, however, with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal of the fleshly body, that is, through the circumcision done by Christ. ^2:12 Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead. ^2:13 And even though you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless made you alive with him, having forgiven all your transgressions. 

This Easter season ask the Holy Sprit to show you the love of God as revealed in the cross. It doesn't look like depression or grief. It looks like joy unspeakable and full of glory. No matter how hard you have said no to Christ, he has already said yes to you. Look to the Cross as your acceptance by God. Above all, focus on your already present union with him. Remember Col 2. In his death everything that held you back from the Glory of the Father was circumcised. Your sinful nature kept you hiding from God’s presence. Christ came and literally killed that old nature.  When the spotless lamb was slain, your sinful nature was slain. Your pornography addiction was slain. Your heart disease and anger problems and loneliness and depression were all beaten and spit on and whipped right out of you. There is nothing left to separate you from God’s holiness. You’re now one with Christ’s perfection. 2000 years ago you bled into one flesh with your bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ. When his flesh was torn, every curtain of separation was completely destroyed for all eternity.  

You have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer You who live, but Christ lives in you. So the life you now live in the body, you live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God.

Grace and Peace!

Dan Hodges