As people come into knowledge of Christian doctrine, a common objection will arise in one’s mind: if Jesus is God, and the Father is God, was the crucifixion just some big theatrical stunt pull by God? Why not just forgive us? Why the need for the apparent human sacrifice?

This answer would greatly benefit from a better understanding of orthodox Christian understandings of the Trinity (see this post for more on the Trinity), but I will continue on to respond regardless. As an extra credit assignment for the reader, try looking up the time at which each Old Testament passage I cite was written. This is to help drive home the idea that these Old Testament passages are not simply “Christian” writings.

Divine Suicide?

Now, let’s address several objections one at a time. First, did God commit suicide? Simple answer, no. Jesus was well aware of his mission, and makes it clear that he willingly lays down his life for the sheep.

“But John is the latest gospel! This is clearly legendary development!” Don’t worry, the Gospel of Mark has you covered.

Mark 10:32-34

³² And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, ³³ saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. ³⁴ And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.“

I will trust everyone’s good faith understanding that willingly giving up your life to save others is nothing like committing suicide.

Human Sacrifice?

Did God the Father need a human sacrifice in the form of God the Son in order to appease his wrath? I have often heard the phrase “cosmic child abuse” in relation to this topic, but is this a reasonable treatment of the Christian claim about what Jesus accomplished?

God is not like the other gods of old that regularly demanded human sacrifice, and I will show this through the Old Testament. Let’s first look at a common episode skeptics will point to: Abraham attempting to sacrifice Isaac at God’s behest.

Genesis 22:9-12 (ESV)

⁹ When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ¹² He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

This chapter as a whole is admittedly a difficult chapter for a lot of Christians. God commands Abraham to kill his one and only son, Abraham agrees apparently without a second thought, and then God seemingly changes his mind last second? What gives? I think to start we need to at least admit what the text says, and concede that in the end God did not want Isaac killed at all. We see that this was ultimately a test of Abraham’s faith.

Genesis 22:15-18 (ESV)

¹⁵ And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven ¹⁶ and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, ¹⁸ and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

Abraham had been promised that through his son Isaac, the whole world would be blessed. We even get to see God’s commitment to his promise when Abraham and Sarah try to produce the son in a fashion that God did not intend, producing Ishmael (see Genesis 15-17). When Ishmael is born, God is sure to provide blessings for him, but is still clear with Abraham and Sarah that it is Isaac who will provide the lineage for the world-wide blessings.

Abraham learned that doubting God’s promises is foolishness, and so we can now understand his lack resistance to the command of chapter 22. The book of Hebrews in the New Testament provides a great commentary on this episode.

Hebrews 11:1-2; 17-19 (ESV)

¹ Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ² For by it the people of old received their commendation.

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, ¹⁸ of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” ¹⁹ He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

Abraham did not know exactly what was to come when he heard God command him to sacrifice Isaac, but he certainly knew that God keeps his promises.

If there is still doubt over God’s posture towards human sacrifice, consider his absolute disgust with the people of Israel when they began to burn their new born infants alive as sacrifices to their false gods.

Jeremiah 7:30-32 (ESV)

³⁰ “For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. ³¹ And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. ³² Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. ³³ And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away. ³⁴ And I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall become a waste.”

Notice how angry these abominable acts make God. If human sacrifice were something he were truly ok with, why does he promise to lay waste to his chosen people when they do it? If God needed to say more, he explicitly details the judicial punishment for such a crime in Leviticus.

Leviticus 20:1-5 (ESV)

¹ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. ³ I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name. ⁴ And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, ⁵ then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech.

God is quite explicit in his disdain for human sacrifice to the point where he will even cut off those who do not actively put such criminals to death. I hope this shows more clearly how God views the sanctity of human life.

The Soul That Sins Shall Die

And yet, sin is a serious offense. Sin is more than just a religious word for “offending God” (though it certainly is that). Sin is the root of all things that cause us pain and suffering in this world. There are some more obvious examples like murder where it is easy to see how refraining from that sin can immediately benefit those around us. But what about things like white-lies? Eating pork? Tattoos? Are left-handed people doomed? (These are all “sins” I have heard from believers and non-believers alike).

First, I think it would help to know how the New Testament authors describe sin. The Greek word typically translated as sin is hamartia. This word is best defined as “missing the mark” or “falling short”¹. So we see that the earliest Christians understood sin to be much more than just disobeying orders. Sin included every and any thing that led to us being less than the perfect image bearers God always intended us to be. So refraining to do a good deed is just as bad as giving into a bad deed. All of the small details matter. 99% perfect is anything but. Unfortunately for all of us, the standard couldn’t be set any higher.

Now typically it is believed that God punishes us for sinning, but what if the “punishment” was more accurately described as a consequence? If one was to drink poison willingly, would their resulting death be a punishment for drinking the poison or simply a natural consequence of their action? Now I am not trying to pull the rug out from under you; God certainly judges and punishes/rewards accordingly. However, I think that simply stopping there falls well short of the full picture. Let’s see how the consequences of sin are often described.

Genesis 2:16-17 (ESV)

¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.“

Notice the seeming neutrality in God’s part in the death. He doesn’t say “I will kill you if you eat of the tree”, but rather at least implies that death will be a natural consequence of eating from the tree. God certainly punishes them, but the punishments are not death (read the whole of Genesis 3). Man is cursed to toil endlessly and women receive painful childbirths, and yet God still cares for them at this point.

Genesis 3:21

²¹ And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Seems a strangely kind thing to do if God is just in a fit of rage looking to pour his wrath out on a couple of sinners. Let’s see another passage in the Old Testament.

Ezekiel 18:20-23 (ESV)

²⁰ The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. ²¹ “But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. ²² None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. ²³ Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?“

Again, the death and wickedness of sin seems to be described as something a sinner simply reaps upon themselves. I especially love verse 23, as this shows God’s heart towards us: “Stop sinning! You are killing yourselves! I would rather you turned from your evil ways than see you die!”

Romans 5:12-13 (ESV)

¹² Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— ¹³ for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.

Romans is a New Testament book, so we are at a point where further clarity is being provided. Death spread to all mankind through our sins. Now death here doesn’t have to only literally mean physical/spiritual ends to our existence (though it certainly includes that). I believe this captures all things death-like: sorrow, fear, pain, anger, betrayal, and so on.

But notice a very important distinction is made. Sin is not counted where willful knowledge of the sin is absent. And yet, the death wrought by sin is still present. While there are a multitude of sins we are simply unaware of, they bring on death and decay all the same.

Why did God set things up like this? I will do a more thorough defense on why God would create a world like this, but just know for now that the only alternatives would likely be either a world of robots, or keeping us collectively infantile inside a baby-proofed crib. I understand that you will likely have objections to this, but the world is what it is. Talking about “what could have been” doesn’t provide us with much help.

Understanding Atonement

So there is a sin problem, God doesn’t want us to suffer the consequences of our own actions, but he cannot arbitrarily remove said consequences. If the situation is as bad as Paul states it is in Romans 5, then the situation seems hopeless! If not one person can perfectly refrain from sinning, then what can we possibly hope for? Short answer: atonement.

The Old Testament teaches us that God personally walked along a chosen people: the people of Israel. Surely if God is personally overseeing a group of people, they will do good… right? The truth is actually quite the opposite. In almost every book of the Old Testament, we see the nation of Israel at odds with God. They were sinners just as much as any other nation on Earth.

The one thing that Israel had over the other nations was a formal system of atonement. This was the temple institution of animal sacrifice. The Jews would regularly offer up the lives of innocent animals to “pay” for their sins. It was a means by which the people can demonstrate their genuine remorse over their sins, and it also gave a clear reflection of the seriousness of their sins. In a time where livestock was a much more closely tied to one’s personal wealth and survival, having to give up the best of your herd would definitely “hurt your pockets”. It was to teach them to stop sinning in a way that carried much more weight than simply hearing “stop sinning”.

Ok cool, the system is essentially resolved! Try your best to not sin, but if you do just offer up your best lamb and all is good. Here’s the problem: the sacrifices just wouldn’t stop. There was always more and more sin to pay for. The system went from a temporary band-aid into a Sisyphean task. The sin problem didn’t seem to have an ultimate solution after all.

And yet, God instituted the sacrificial system. Look back at Genesis 3:21. What did God clothe Adam and Eve with? Animal skins! He sets the paradigm of animals dying so that humans may live. Well, God certainly could have come up with a better system it seems, because this one clearly isn’t working out for a singular, tiny nation of people. How much worse would it be for the entire world?

A Prophesied Change of Plans

God works in mysterious ways… or at least that is something a Jew might have said on this subject of atonement. Especially now, since they no longer have the temple institution necessary to carry out sacrifices. Thankfully, the entry of Jesus Christ into history provides us with an explanation. The temple sacrificial system was always meant to end some day. Remember Abraham and Isaac? Let’s look at Genesis 22 again. First, notice what kind of animal Isaac is expecting for the sacrifice.

Genesis 22:7-8 (ESV)

⁷ And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” ⁸ Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

So Isaac is expecting a lamb (the typical animal chosen for sacrifice), and Abraham let’s his son know that God himself will provide the lamb. Now let’s see what actually happens.

Genesis 22:9-14 (ESV)

⁹ When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ¹² He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” ¹³ And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

God provides after all! But a ram, not a lamb? With thorns around its head? Also notice what Abraham calls the place: “The Lord will provide“, not “The Lord has provided”. Now the first name technically is fine, but why not use the past tense to provide a clearer pointer to an exact event that happened? By saying “The Lord will provide“, we can fairly interpret this to mean the Lord has not ultimately provided, but will provide one day.

So God is going to provide something more one day. The temple sacrifice system is clearly not good enough, so a reasonable implication is that once God provides this new sacrifice, it will lead to a change in the way things are done. Thankfully, God just straight up says that he is planning exactly that.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 (ESV)

³¹ “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, ³² not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. ³³ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Wow, a new covenant is foretold in the Old Testament! It even explicitly mentions a complete forgiveness of sins (iniquities) through this new covenant. But how exactly will this work? Can God just break from his end of the deal, even if the Israelites had broken theirs? No, God does not break his deals so lightly.

2 Timothy 2:13 (ESV)

¹³ if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.

The old covenant ultimately started with Abraham (at the time still called Abram), so maybe we can get hints from when that covenant was begun.

Genesis 15:7-21 (ESV)

⁷ And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” ⁸ But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” ⁹ He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰ And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. ¹¹ And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
¹² As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. ¹³ Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. ¹⁴ But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. ¹⁵ As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶ And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
¹⁷ When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. ¹⁸ On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹ the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

The style of treaty struck here between God and Abram takes on the form of what is called a suzerain-vassal treaty, a typical treaty style of Ancient Near East cultures of the time. Here are the essentials of such a treaty: the suzerain is the dominant party who promises to protect the vassal. The vassal is the submissive party who has to obey the suzerain. The animal carcasses cut in half are used for a vivid visual symbol of what will happen should one of the parties break the treaty: “If I break this treaty, may I become like one of these carcasses”. Notice that God actually keeps Abraham from passing through himself (see verse 12) while he (the smoking fire pot and flaming torch) passes through. It is almost as if he is saying “Abraham, I don’t want to have to kill you if you break this covenant. Therefore, I will keep you from that part of the oath and take on the penalty myself.” It would seem that God needs to die in order to formally break off from his old contract and start a new one.

If you are thinking that this is too much of a stretch, let’s read from the book of Isaiah. First, who is the one who will help put away our sins (see this footnote for further discussion on Isaiah 9²)?

Isaiah 9:2-7 (ESV)

²  The people who walked in darkness
    have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
    on them has light shone.
³ You have multiplied the nation;
    you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
    as with joy at the harvest,
    as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
⁴ For the yoke of his burden,
    and the staff for his shoulder,
    the rod of his oppressor,
    you have broken as on the day of Midian.
⁵ For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
    and every garment rolled in blood
    will be burned as fuel for the fire.
⁶ For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the increase of his government and of peace
    there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
    to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

It would appear that Isaiah’s servant figure takes on some divine prerogatives. Now what will happen to this servant³?

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 (ESV)

¹³ Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
    he shall be high and lifted up,
    and shall be exalted.
¹⁴ As many were astonished at you—
    his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
    and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
¹⁵ so shall he sprinkle many nations.
    Kings shall shut their mouths because of him,
for that which has not been told them they see,
    and that which they have not heard they understand.
53 Who has believed what he has heard from us?
    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² For he grew up before him like a young plant,
    and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
    and no beauty that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by men,
    a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.
⁷ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he opened not his mouth.
⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
    and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people?
⁹ And they made his grave with the wicked
    and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.
¹⁰ Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
    he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
¹¹ Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
    make many to be accounted righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
    and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
    and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Arguably the clearest prophetic passage in the entire Bible, detailing not just the death of the messiah but also why he dies: to bear our sins.

The Signs of Change

I hope I haven’t lost you at this point. In fact, I imagine you can see where this is going from here, but let’s summarize what we have at this point. Humanity has a sin issue that we can’t seem to resolve on our own. It’s like we are trying to wash ourselves clean by rubbing ourselves with a mirror. Our good and bad deeds only reflect our nature; they cannot possibly change it. God still cares for us and wants to see us live and flourish, but the sin issue needs to be dealt with. The temple sacrifices aren’t doing the trick, but they (alongside other explicit passages) seem to be pointing us in the same direction: God is going to create a new covenant one day where sin is properly and fully dealt with. This will be enacted with one final sacrifice, a sacrifice that necessarily calls for death, and seemingly the death of God himself.

Justice and Mercy

It is ok my reader, I hear your objection: “Why doesn’t God just forgive us?” Here is an answer you might not expect… he could. God is God, he does as he pleases. Now usually that kind of logic puts an image in our head of an arbitrary dictator who “pleases” to do evil. But that doesn’t necessarily follow. Someone can do “as they please”, and still have everything they do be good because they take pleasure in doing good. I personally believe that God takes pleasure in “doing good”, but what does that mean exactly? Let’s walk through a thought experiment as a means of illustrating what God might be doing when it comes to mercy and justice.

Let’s imagine we are in a courtroom. A judge is deciding how to sentence a criminal (could be a murderer, petty thief, rapist, etc.). Now this particular judge loves to forgive people. The judge understands that people make mistakes sometimes, and that giving them second, third, fourth chances is only fair to account for natural human error. At what point do we say that this judge is corrupt? Now let’s say the criminal being sentenced is the judge’s child. Now the judge making sure their own child doesn’t get hit with years of prison is certainly loving of them, but clearly there is no justice to be found with such a judge. How should the victims of these crimes react?

Let’s now imagine the other extreme. We have a judge who is textbook perfect. This judge gives out exactly the right sentence to every person; he will not let any justice go unserved in his courtroom. This judge has three children, each committing some serious crimes. Now this judge is not going to stop serving perfect justice just because he has his own children in front of him, so he throws the book at them and they all get maximum sentences. Do you think his children are wondering if their dad ever loved them? Why didn’t this judge, out of his love for his kids, show them a bit of mercy? Try telling that to the victims.

Are we stuck with one of these two extremes? Thankfully, the answer is no! This is part of the beauty of the gospel: it is the “good news” of mercy and justice finding perfect harmony in the person of Jesus Christ.

The Death That Brings Us Life

At this point I don’t feel the need to do much exposition, for the New Testament is abundantly clear enough for me.

Mark 10:32-34 (ESV)

³² And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, ³³ saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. ³⁴ And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”

Mark 10:45 (ESV)

⁴⁵ “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Romans 3:21-31 (ESV)

²¹ But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— ²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. ²⁶ It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
²⁷ Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸ For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. ²⁹ Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, ³⁰ since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. ³¹ Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Philippians 2:5-11 (ESV)

 ⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Hebrews 1:1-4 (ESV)

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. ³ He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ⁴ having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Hebrews 8:6-7 (ESV)

⁶ But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. ⁷ For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

Hebrews 9:13-15 (ESV)

¹³ For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, ¹⁴ how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
¹⁵ Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

1 John 2:1-6 (ESV)

2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. ² He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. ³ And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. ⁴ Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, ⁵ but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: ⁶ whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

The Righteous Judge Vindicated

Let’s wrap up by reconnecting to our thought experiment concerning different types of judges. How does the God of the Bible fit in the picture? Here is essentially how I see it.

God is a just judge, he cannot simply “forgive” sin by simply sweeping it under the rug. At the same time he is supremely loving (1 John 4:8), and does not wish to see any of us justly punished for our sins/suffer the consequences of our actions (because we would not survive). These purposes seem to be diametrically opposed to each other, and yet I mentioned earlier that Jesus Christ somehow performs a perfect union of mercy and justice… how so?

God, through the person of Jesus Christ the Son, offers to pay the penalty we rightly owe, but in exchange we need to allow him to redeem us from our sinful nature by following him as his disciples. No one can say the punishment for our sins has not been suffered, for Jesus Christ suffered the worst of it on the cross on our behalf. No one can say that believers in Christ “get off scot-free”, for we are expected to die to our old, sinful selves and become intentional followers of Christ.

Romans 6:1-4 (ESV)

6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? ² By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

And if anyone chooses to reject Christ and consequently suffers the right penalty of their own sins, no one can call God the judge wrong for doing so. For in rejecting Christ, one declares: “I do not seek the redemption and renewal of life offered through Jesus, but rather I would like the ability to continue freely committing my crimes without the convictions that come with being a follower of Jesus.”

“God sees our hearts! He will know that I had good intentions, but just didn’t commit to obeying Jesus for good reasons.” What is “heaven” if not an eternity with God⁴? Therefore how can you expect God to bring you in if you reject Jesus Christ, who in his very nature is the same God you think will accept you into heaven? Should he bring you to himself against your will? If you could get to heaven while actively avoiding Jesus, do you still think he would have suffered what he did? Is not his death (his manner of death even) surely the evidence we need to know that the path to God he set down is the only one that actually works?

Choose Jesus Christ, he is the only one who saves.

1. https://biblehub.com/greek/266.htm ↩︎
2. I am aware there is some debate as to how Isaiah 9 should be appropriately translated (especially on the phrase “Mighty God” or “El-Gibbor”). Depending on the translation/interpretation choices one does not get a clear ascribing of divinity to the servant figure of Isaiah. I believe there is enough context clues to make a strong argument for this servant being described as having attributes that are greater than what a simple human would have (“Everlasting Father”, “there will be no end”, “from this time forth and forevermore”). ↩︎
3. Isaiah is a very large book of the Bible. It mixes together future messianic prophecy with current (to the time of Isaiah) prophecies and judgments and is simply not as straight forward as “the first half is talking about the time of Isaiah, the second half is about the future messiah”. There is more explicitly written about the messianic “servant” figure between Isaiah 9 and Isaiah 53, but this would likely need to be a post of its own to explain how what I am doing is not “cherry-picking”. ↩︎
4. The Christian doctrine surrounding Heaven is actually somewhat deeper and more complicated than most people (including most Christians) know it to be. It will have to be another post some other time, but just know that the idea of our spirits being in Heaven with God is actually not our final destination. ↩︎