We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
A Cruciform Dialectic
One of the most important aspects of God’s action on Calvary, I believe, is this: God revealed himself not just by acting toward humans, but by allowing himself to be acted on by humans as well as the fallen Powers. God certainly took the initiative in devising the plan of salvation that included the Son of God becoming human at “the right time” for him to get crucified (Rom 5:6). And God was certainly taking the initiative as Jesus taught and acted in provocative ways that were certain to get him crucified. Hence, Scripture says that part of God’s “deliberate plan and foreknowledge” was to have Jesus handed over (Acts 2:23) to wicked people to do what God’s “power and will had decided beforehand” should be done (Ac 4:28).
At the same time, as active as God was in revealing his nature on Calvary, we must also notice that this revelatory act took place by God allowing wicked humans and forces of evil to act out their wicked and violent intentions against Jesus. Indeed, the physical and verbal assaults Jesus absorbed in the process of being crucified were actually just a microcosm of the sin of the world that Jesus absorbed on the cross, thereby allowing every human throughout history to act on him.
It is within this dialectic of acting and being acted upon that God communicates his true identity, and given that his true identity is humble, self-sacrificial love, it’s hard to see how it could have been otherwise. A deity whose essence was power could reveal himself by unilaterally acting upon others, but not the one true triune God whose eternal existence is an unending act of three divine Persons giving themselves wholly over to one another.
As the biblical narrative attests, and as Calvary makes most explicit, God is a God who humbly makes space for agents whom he has created to possess a degree of autonomous “say-so” in effecting what comes to pass—even to the point that their “say-so” influences, and in limited ways, thwarts, God’s “say-so.” Hence, God’s typical way of working in and through human agents is by means of influence, not coercion. God respects the relative autonomy, personhood and free will of people, to say nothing of angels. And this is, at least in part, why his way of rescuing us from the prison we have placed ourselves in is a slow, gradual, arduous process that involves a great deal of patience and self-sacrifice on God’s part. For the same reason, it is a process that involves God relying on his wisdom rather than merely relying on his power to accomplish his purpose, as the quintessential revelation of God on Calvary makes clear and as Scripture repeatedly stresses.
The cross is thus the full revelation of God’s character precisely because it wasn’t a unilateral action of God toward humans but rather came about, in part, by God humbly allowing human and angelic agents to engage in hostile activity against God. For this same reason, the cross was not merely a revelation of God’s power but also of God’s wisdom. God wisely turned the evil he absorbed into good, including the good of glorifying his Father by revealing his true self-sacrificial character and freeing humans from their oppression to sin and the devil.
Photo via Visual Hunt
Category: General
Tags: Character of God, Cross, Cruciform Theology, Love
Topics: Attributes and Character
Related Reading
Was Jesus Unloving Towards the Pharisees?
Some claim that Jesus spoke to religious leaders in ways that did not reflect the love of the cross. In his climatic encounter with the Pharisees in Matthew 23, Jesus’ words were undeniably harsh. He calls the Pharisees “hypocrites,” “blind guides,” “blind fools,” “snakes” and “a brood of vipers” (Mt 23:13, 15, 16,17, 19, 23,…
Revolting Beauty
In this sermon clip, Greg shares the story of how foster parents entered into the pain of a severely abused child and demonstrated compassion rather than judgment when she displayed puzzling and revolting behaviors. This moving story illustrates the way that God enters into our sin and our curse on the cross, and gives us…
When the Law Demanded the Death Penalty
The Sinai covenant is significantly structured around violence. It motivates behavioral conformity by promising rewards and threatening violence. Without the threat of violence, the law looses its “teeth.” If the law is an acquiescence to sin, then the divinely sanctioned violence that is associated with it must also be considered an acquiescence to sin. The…
On Mental Illness and Jumping from a Burning Building
seyed mostafa zamani via Compfight Ann Voskamp wrote this piece in the wake of the suicide of Rick Warren’s son. It’s disheartening to hear so many thoughtless and cruel comments by other Christians when tragedies like this strike. But here is a voice of knowing and compassion. Here is love. From Ann’s blog post: I…
The Cruciform Center Part 1: How Matthew, Mark and Luke Reveal a Cruciform God
In the previous series of posts I’ve argued that a merely “Christocentric” approach to God is too general, as can be shown by the widely different conceptions of God people arrive at, despite their claim to be “Christocentric.” The confession that Jesus reveals what God is like is simply too abstract, for it leaves too…
Love and Free Will
God could have easily created a world in which nothing evil could ever happen. But this world would not have been capable of love. God could have preprogrammed agents to say loving things and to act in loving ways. He could even have preprogrammed these automatons to believe they were choosing to love. But these…