To help us see a 2 Corinthians 5:21 a little more graphically:
Son of Man! Why have you behaved so? You have cheated, lusted, stolen, gossiped—murdered, envied, hated, liked. You have cursed, robbed, overspent, overeaten—fornicated, disobeyed, embezzled, and blasphemed. Oh, the duties you have shirked, the children you have abandoned! Who has ever so ignored the poor, so played the coward, so belittled my name? Have you ever held your razor tongue? What a self-righteous, pitiful drunk—you, who molest young boys, peddle killer drugs, travel in cliques, and mock your parents. Who gave you the boldness to rig elections, foment revolutions, torture animals, and worship demons? Does the list never end? Splitting families, raping virgins, acting smugly, playing the pimp—buying politicians, practicing extortion, filming pornography, accepting bribes. You have burned down buildings, perfected terrorists tactics, founded false religions, traded in slaves, relishing each morsel and bragging about it all. I hate, I loathe these things in you! Disgust for everything about you consumes me! Can you not feel my wrath?
Not all of my readers will agree with this theology. But I find what Joni Eareckston Tada and Steve Estes present here to be quite compelling. Christ became our substitute and as doing such He bore the wrath of God and was treated by God as if He had done all of the things listed above (and more).
I leave you with this…
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? --Romans 8:32
Was this quoted in "I kissed dating goodbye" by Josh Harris? I think I first read it there when I was a 17 year old kid. I had been going to church for years and years and had never heard the gospel explained like that before. It profoundly affected me. I talked to my friends about it, I asked my pastor if it was true, I couldn't get it out of my mind. The cross began to make sense, it wasn't just an abstract and shocking display of love, but it was the rescue of sinners from the righteous wrath of God by the sin-bearing Substitute.
ReplyDeleteI love the quote. Thanks for giving me a flashback!
p.s. That was about the only thing I liked from "I kissed dating goodbye!"
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI'm not certain if Josh quoted that or not. I got it from Stephen Altrogge's new book The Greener Grass Conspiracy.
I am glad that this was edifying to you! And I'm also glad that you are a reader.
Thanks for the comment.