7/8/15 Carlos about 30
“What kind of a father
would allow his own son to be spat upon, tortured and killed? If God is so good, he shouldn’t have done
that. Couldn’t he have found a better
way to get his message across?” This
was one of several key questions a man named Carlos had for me as we talked at
the park today. Carlos’ parents were
Baptist and Catholic before they both became Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Carlos
felt that he knew enough about all three religions to reject them all and just
settle into trying to be a good person without them. Yet he still had some good questions and was interested
in talking about them. I had just
explained that the key difference with the Jehovah’s Witnesses was that they believe
Jesus was a separate being created by God rather than part of God Himself,
creation rather than Creator. The
importance of this difference was a natural way to begin to answer Carlos’
question. If people assume God made
Jesus as a separate, created being, then I could see why they might question God
be if he created a separate being to suffer the way Jesus did. But if, in the person of Jesus, God took that
punishment for us, in effect God Himself suffering in our place, then there would
be no place to judge God for taking out his wrath on someone else. I went on to talk about God’s purposes – to be
glorified in displaying His attributes in all their perfection – and how two of
His attributes, His love and His justice, cannot both be perfectly expressed
outside of the cross. Why the cross? “He
did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just
and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” The same God whose love for justice declared he
would punish sin is the same God whose love for people took that punishment for
us. All other religions teach that their
higher power has to compromise both love and justice in order to allow people
to “pay” for their sins with good deeds, but biblical Christianity says that at
the cross both love and justice are displayed without compromise. In Christ God receives the glory He deserves,
and we receive the Savior we don’t deserve.
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