One of the questions that has always laid heavily on my heart and that I'd never found a good answer for was: If God is all-powerful and full of love, then why did Jesus have to come down from Heaven and die for us? Why couldn't God just forgive us and do so without having to send His Son to die? Why not just forgive and forget so-to-speak?
In order to answer that question, Keller first begins by explaining what forgiveness truly means. He says that real forgiveness is costly suffering. He explains what this 'costly suffering' by using a "purely economic example" about a car and a fence. Allow me to paraphrase: Suppose someone borrows your car and wrecks it while borrowing it. You as the car owner have essentially two options - you can demand that this person pays you for the damages and repairs of the car OR you can refuse to let them pay you anything and chose to "let it slide." Keller also says that yes, there is sometimes a 'middle of the road' solution where both parties each pay for half of the damages. But the key here is to notice that in every situation, someone is bearing the cost of the damages. Either the borrower of the car pays for the repairs himself or you simply 'absorb' the cost of the repairs yourself and refuse to let the guy pay you. Either way, the debt does not simply vanish into thin air. Someone pays, whether monetarily or by losing some of the value of the car if you chose not to fix it.
So if you chose to 'forgive' and not allow the person who wrecked your car to pay you, and whether you decide to repair it yourself or to just leave it as is, you have chosen to bear the cost yourself for the other person's misdeed. Thus, forgiveness in this example is costly suffering. The misdeed happened and can't be undone. Someone has to bear the cost of it and absorb the damages. If you chose to do so yourself, it costs you something to forgive. I fear that I'm not doing this example justice; my friend Duane does a much better and way more eloquent job of explaining this concept than I've done here. But I pray that you are following along with me.
"Forgiveness means bearing the cost instead of making the wrongdoer do it..Forgiveness means absorbing the debt of the sin yourself," Keller writes. Ok, I asked in my head after reading this, I get this example and I agree with the fact that someone has to absorb the debt. And I do see that God did indeed absorb our debt when He sent Jesus to die in our places for our sins. But that still doesn't answer my question of why Jesus had to die. Why couldn't God just absorb the debt and be done with it? Why did someone have to die? And then I read it - the answer to this difficult question that had been bothering me for years.
"It is crucial at this point to remember that the Christian faith
has always understood that Jesus Christ is God. God did not, then, inflict
pain on someone else, but rather on the Cross absorbed the pain,
violence, and evil of the world into Himself...This is a God who
becomes human and offers HIS OWN lifeblood in order to honor
moral justice and merciful love so that someday He can destroy
all evil without destroying us. Therefore the Cross is not simply
a lovely example of sacrificial love...Jesus' death was absolutely necessary
to rescue us...Why did Jesus have to die in order to forgive us?
There was a debt to be paid - and God Himself paid it. There was
a penalty to be born - and God Himself bore it.
Forgiveness is always a form of costly suffering."
I couldn't believe it. The answer was right in front of my eyes the entire time, for all of these years that I'd been wondering about and bothered by that question. Of course I knew and believed that God exists as the Trinity and that Jesus is God and God is Jesus - and I know that that sounds nuts to some of my friends and family and no, I cannot explain it but it's in the Bible which was inspired by God Himself, ergo it's truth. So Jesus died on the cross to cover over my debt = God Himself died on the cross to cover over my debt. Why did Jesus have to die? There was a debt to be paid and God paid it.
Why did God Himself have to die, then? Because our God is a God of love but also a God of justice; He cannot deny Himself and therefore cannot allow sins/debts to go unpunished (because that's not justice). So the debt had to be paid and the punishment had to match the crime. Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death." My sins deserved death. Plain and simple. My sins are such a grievous offense to our holy and pure God that no other penalty would justly match them. As my dad likes to explain it, sin to God is like kryptonite to Superman. He simply cannot be around it; it does not agree with nor can it exist alongside his holy and pure nature. Thus, the only way to bring us into an intimate relationship with Himself was to get rid of our sins; we had to be cleansed from these sins in order to stand in His holy presence. Enter the Cross and God Himself coming down from heaven in the form of Jesus and taking the penalty for our sins onto His shoulders and dying on the cross so that we might be cleansed and made into "new creations" (2 Corinthians 5:17) and be worthy of standing in His holy presence and worthy to call Him "Abba" or "Father".
The second part of Romans 6:23 says, "...But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Through Christ's accomplishment on the cross, we are justified (which in RUF Bible Study in college I learned means "just as if I'd never sinned"). We are seen as pure and blameless, Jesus' righteousness and spotless character were imputed to (aka bestowed loving upon) us and we are now able to know God intimately since our sins have been "cast as far as the east is from the west" (Psalm 103:12). A final quote from this remarkable book to end this blog (read it, I promise you it'll answer some big questions and you'll be stronger for having read it!)...
"Why then, did Jesus have to die? Even Jesus asked that question.
In the Garden of Gethsemane He asked if there was any other way.
There wasn't. There isn't. On the cross, in agony, He cried out the question,
"Why?!?" Why was He being forsaken? Why was it all necessary?
The answer of the Bible is - for us."
Tim Keller
Thats awesome Brit. You need to read Tim Kellar's Generous Justice next. Its about social justice and caring for the poor and has been an answer to prayer. I will fill you more in later :)
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