An insight from G. McFarlane , my tutor from college.
What is the meaning of Jesus' death?
No doubt you have some answer to give on the subject. After all, if you have the LST Review in your hands there is a good chance that you are: a. Christian; b. from the evangelical stable, and so will have something to say about the cross of Jesus, because our entire faith and identity are formed by our understanding of Jesus' death and resurrection.
It is sad, then, that there is, perhaps, no more contentious a subject in Christian theology than the subject and meaning of the Cross of Jesus Christ. For some, it is the symbol of self-sacrificing love; for others, it represents the dark side of human nature and God's angry response to it; for others, it represents victory over cosmic and demonic powers that would otherwise destroy us; and for some, it embodies one man's offering up of a true 'sorry' to God for humanity's rebellion and sin.
The truth of the matter is that there is no single understanding of the death of Jesus Christ. Rather, there are several different perspectives on the one subject. After all, the more complex the reality, the more diverse and different the ways of expressing and communicating it. Just think how boring it would be to have only one 'take' on women - or men! We are complex beings, and require different forms of self-description. How much more should this be the case when we describe the means by which Creator God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, brings us back to himself?
Here, then, is the rub: the cross, in some way, brings us back to God. But just what do we mean by this? Central to the whole discipline of systematic theology is the maxim: What I think determines what I do. If we think that the Cross represents God punishing Jesus for our sin, as though Jesus were some kind of whipping boy, then inevitably we think of God either as a severe Father or Judge: He is seen in stern and reprimanding ways. He becomes distant and our relationship with him tends to be one in which we try not to get 'on the wrong side of Him.' Ultimately, this breeds people who think the way to get along with God is to do things that will keep him happy and pleased with them, as though they have to keep God happy by being 'good.'
Alternatively, if we understand the Cross as the place where God shows how far he is willing to go in order to be our friend, where He affirms our worth by breaking the virus of sin and giving us a life that is vibrant and creative, then we see Him completely differently. This understanding tends to breed churches where people grow in friendship with the Father without fear of getting on the wrong side of Him and that, in turn, spills over in their own inter-personal relationships.
Now, obviously, I paint a caricature of both understandings of the cross. However, the point remains: how we understand the solution to our problem (sin) will determine how we think we should live (church). One of the great privileges of teaching theology today is the growing awareness that Father God is for us and that the cross is where He deals with all that separates us from His loving intentions.
I think this is good. Why? For much of our evangelical history we have presented the gospel in terms of 'guilt.' We are guilty before a holy God. And so we are. The problem today, however, is that our western culture no longer operates on the level of 'guilt.' Therefore, interpretations of the Cross that focus on guilt will not get through to people who do not think they are really all that bad.
Guilt arises from an understanding of relationship: I sense I am guilty because I know that I have done something wrong in relation to someone else. However, when people have no proper knowledge of God the sense of being guilty in relation to him is difficult to understand. One of the greatest cries of people's hearts is their desire for relationship, of being loved in this big, impersonal and individualistic world. They know that they are lonely. They know that they lack intimacy. They just don't know where to go to get it. Money doesn't really solve it - you just worry that it will run out; sex solves it only for a night; power seems to corrupt; and drugs do your head in!
Against this context, the good news is that the love of God is stronger than all the little deaths our loneliness brings. The evidence is that Jesus dies on a cross, acknowledges that our alienation from God comes with a tab, and goes on to show that his life is stronger than our rejection and attempts at independence. Dogmatically, such an approach underscores the reality of sin: there is a divine response to it; it really does matter. Yet, alongside this, there is also an underscoring of the purpose of such a response: to bring us into relationship with our Father God.
Here at LST we believe unequivocally in the relevance of the cross in a sad, post-modern western culture. It means that beyond the deathly influence of our individual lives lies a greater reality. It is the power of God's love to transform all that breaks and damages our humanity. It is the chance of belonging in communities where the power of the cross is at work, where self-giving love rather than self-serving operates and where God's Kingdom begins to break into the lives and communities around.
© LST Review
Used with permission from London School of Theology taken from the Evangelical Alliance website
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