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A Christopher Wright Sermon Summary  In His great love, God sacrificed Himself on the cross, pouring His blood in place of ours [1]. But why? Why does God love us? Can we ever understand?
God loves the Israelites not because they are important [2] or righteous [3], or even because He is their God [4]. He loves them for reasons only known to Him. Similarly, only God knows why He loves us and has mercy on us [5]. So, just be amazed and thankful [6]. The cross has phenomenal effects. Through it, God has forgiven us, freeing us from sin’s control [7]; justified us before Him [8]; reconciled with us [9], enabled us to reconcile with others [10]; and has given us new life [11]. His crucifixion has removed our guilt before God and bears our shame of covering up our real self, removing our shame before others [12]. How the cross achieves this is a mystery. We can’t fully understand why the Father, working with the Son, ferociously assaulted and killed His beloved Son to appease His own standard of justice. One reason may be that God hates evil. The Father handed Christ to the wicked [13] to be tortured and killed. The Father also separated Christ from Him. The New Testament said the cross was in accordance with the Scriptures (or the Pentateuch) [14]. Christ also linked His death to Solomon temple’s destruction [15], drawing a parallel between crucifixion and Israelites’ history. Because of their rebellion, God handed the Israelites to wicked people. They were exiled and nearly annihilated, with the temple destroyed. God separated Himself from Israel [16]. Yet, while the Israelites were sinful, Christ was innocent. Similarly, because of our rebellion, God has separated Himself from us and handed us to the wicked. And we suffer from them. Though we can argue that God doesn’t want to turn us into puppets, do we deserve to be punished when it was God who made the moral universe? Can we exonerate God from all involvements? We can’t fully comprehend God’s sovereignty and our responsibility. But what we can see is God’s love on Calvary. We can see Christ being cut off from the Father and bearing God’s judgment of our sin so we can reconcile with God [17]. A summary of Chapters 6-8 of “The God I Don’t Understand: Reflections on Tough Questions of Faith,” regarding “Questions Regarding the Cross,” by Christopher J.H. Wright. [1] 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, Luke 22:19-20, Isaiah 53:5-6 [2] Deuteronomy 7:7-8 [3] Deuteronomy 9:4-6, Ezekiel 16:48-52 [4] Deuteronomy 10:14 [5] Ephesians 2:3-7 [6] 2 Samuel 7:18; 1 Chronicle 29:14-15 [7] Ephesians 1:7, 1 John 1:7-2:2 [8] 1 Peter 2:24, 2 Corinthian 5:21 [9] Ephesians 2:11-13, 19; Romans 5:10-11 [10] Ephesians 2:13-18 [11] Ephesians 2:4-5 [12] Isaiah 54:4, Ezekiel 36:16-32 [13] Acts 2:23, Ezekial 11:9 [14] 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 [15] John 2:19-22 [16] 2 Thessalonians 1:9 [17] 2 Corinthians 5:21
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