Some Transparent Honesty from Richard Dawkins!

STR.org:

A reaction of “Tell us what you really think, Dr. Dawkins” in response to his famous quote about the character of God (see below) turns out to not be as rhetorical as one might think. Dawkins clarified his position a bit on a recent episode of the Unbelievable? podcast in the midst of his conversation with a rabbi and a Christian:

JUSTIN BRIERLEY (host): “The God of the Old Testament,” you said, “is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully”…. Do you still stand by that description of the God of the Old Testament? 

RICHARD DAWKINS: Yes, I do…. 

RABBI JOSH LEVY: There is also a deeply, deeply ethical God, who 3,000 years ago is saying to the Israelites, “You have to care about the vulnerable in your society. You have to do your business honestly. You have to look after your workers. You have to care about the immigrant who comes into your society.” So to only describe the God of the Old Testament in that way, I think, is actually just simplistic and doesn’t help us to really engage with the Old Testament as a whole. 

RICHARD DAWKINS: Yeah, I accept that, of course. It was a passage that was semi-tongue-in-cheek actually, because, well, when I do public readings of my books, I do it with my wife, and we usually try to get a laugh from the audience early on in our performance because it sort of lightens up the atmosphere. And that passage, we always used when doing The God Delusion readings right at the beginning, because it does get the audience roaring with laughter…. So it was a sort of humorous passage, and I do accept that if you look through either the Old Testament or the New Testament, you can certainly find passages of wisdom, passages that one would ethically approve of tucked in amongst the others that one wouldn’t ethically approve of…. 

CHRIS SINKINSON: The problem, though, I think…is that, Richard, you are very good with rhetoric. You have a very powerful mastery of the English language, and that rhetoric can be very bullying sometimes. And…in terms of the passage, it’s clearly a very slanted view of how to read the text of the Old Testament. Most of us would take the clearer passages to interpret the harder passages. We would be talking about Leviticus 19—“love your neighbor as yourself”—before we’re looking at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. So, we would have an approach to Scripture that would weight things in such a way that that description of God just does not sound like the God who I believe in, or the God who I worship. So the rhetoric, I think, can generate a lot more heat than it does light. 

RICHARD DAWKINS: That’s probably fair, yes.

3 Simple Cautions When You Spot Error or Wrongdoing in Someone

Ray Ortlund:

1. If my only emotion toward a wrongdoer is rage, and I feel no desire for his or her redemption, I might need to step back and examine myself. Looking out over the city of Jerusalem, knowing the judgment they would suffer, Jesus didn’t gloat; he wept (Luke 19:41-44). Surely, there should be more tears among us.

2. If biblical warnings — for example, against confronting a wrong wrongly (1 Corinthians 6:1-8) — if hearing biblical warnings like this only makes me more angry, I may have crossed a line God doesn’t want me to cross. For any sinner, moral fervor is a dangerous emotion. But looking to the Lord and obeying him, however difficult, are always safe.

3. If the justice of God isn’t real to me, such that I cannot “leave it to the wrath of God” (Romans 12:19), I may have slipped into self-exaltation, taking God’s place as Judge. If so, then I am unable to “overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21), because my own heart is evil. And evil cannot overcome evil, no matter how evil the other person’s evil is.

Read the rest.


Books by Ray Ortlund:

• Proverbs:  Wisdom That Works
• Isaiah:  God Saves Sinners
• A Passion for God: Prayers and Meditations on the Book of Romans
• God's Unfaithful Wife: A Biblical Theology of Spiritual Adultery
• When God Comes to Church: A Biblical Model for Revival Today

The Wrath of God... We Can't Ignore It

Although many have tried to contrast the “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” with the God of the Old Testament, the naked reality is that no one in the Bible is reported to talk as much about hell as Jesus. Yes, he weeps over Jerusalem, but his compassion does not prevent him from uttering the woes of Matthew 23. Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost is an invitation to flee the corruption of the day (Acts 2:40): the “fleeing” is appropriate terminology precisely because, in line with the inherited theology of the Old Testament prophets, that corruption will surely bring judgment. Paul can describe the gospel he preaches as that which saves men and women from the coming wrath (1 Thess. 1:10). No New Testament writer has provided a more profound, terrifying, and yet strangely compassionate account of the wrath of God than Paul in Romans 1:18–3:20. And the last book of the Bible not only depicts, in apocalyptic imagery, horrific sequences of judgments, but peaks of “the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath”; those who worship the beast “will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torments rises for ever and ever” (Rev. 14:10–11). 

The point that cannot be escaped is that God’s wrath is not some minor and easily dismissed peripheral element to the Bible’s plot-line. Theologically, God’s wrath is not inseparable from what it means to be God. Rather, his wrath is a function of his holiness as he confronts sin. But insofar as holiness is an attribute of God, and sin is the endemic condition of this world, this side of the Fall divine wrath cannot be ignored or evaded. It is not going too far to say that the Bible would not have a plot-line at all if there were no wrath.

- D.A. Carson, The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism

Why Rejecting The Best New Hymn of the Last 50 Years is Unloving

Michael Horton:

The majority on the PCUSA hymnal committee apparently favor the subjective or moral theory of the atonement: Christ died on the cross to show us how much God loves us.  Surely this display would persuade us to repentance.  To illustrate this view, Leon Morris used the analogy of a person responding to a drowning friend by jumping into the river and drowning himself. The demonstration might express one’s love, but it doesn’t do anything to actually save the friend. 

Strictly speaking, Christ’s death has no significance for God according to this view.  He loves and accepts people regardless of their guilt. God has no enemies.  We may need to be reconciled to God, but God does not need to be reconciled to us.  We simply need to be reminded how much God loves us.  Thus, the death of Christ could only serve as an object lesson.  And what a cruel one indeed!  After all, if Christ’s death was unnecessary for satisfying God’s righteous law, then it is the symbol of senseless slaughter. 

The Apostle Paul says that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Rom 5:8-9).  Christ’s death manifests God’s love for sinners only because it actually propitiates God’s wrath.  He took our place— fulfilling the law, bearing our sentence for violating his law—and thereby removed every legal basis for our condemnation.  It is this point that the committee voted to omit, and yet it is precisely what makes the cross the manifestation of God’s amazing love. 

In other words, God’s love is manifested and magnified in Christ’s death only if it is more than a demonstration or object lesson.  Christ’s cross can be a demonstration of God’s love only because in it God reconciled enemies to himself forever.  “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Rom 5:10). Now that’s good news!

Read the rest.  

No Squishy Love

Timothy George:

Sin, judgment, cross, even Christ have become problematic terms in much contemporary theological discourse, but nothing so irritates and confounds as the idea of divine wrath. Recently, the wrath of God became a point of controversy in the decision of the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song to exclude from its new hymnal the much-loved song "In Christ Alone" by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend.  The Committee wanted to include this song because it is being sung in many churches, Presbyterian and otherwise, but they could not abide this line from the third stanza: "Till on that cross as Jesus died/the wrath of God was satisfied." For this they wanted to substitute: "…as Jesus died/the love of God was magnified." The authors of the hymn insisted on the original wording, and the Committee voted nine to six that "In Christ Alone" would not be among the eight hundred or so items in their new hymnal.

Further on:

The problem comes when we use an anthropopathic term like "wrath" and apply it univocally to the God of eternity. Before long, we have constructed "a god who looks like me," to use the title of a recent book of feminist theology.  Then caricatures of divine wrath proliferate:  God having a temper tantrum or acting like a big bully who needs to be “appeased” before he can forgive or, as is often alleged with reference to the atonement, practicing cosmic child abuse.

But God’s ways are not our ways, and God’s wrath is not like our wrath. Indeed, in his brilliant essay, “The Wrath of God as an Aspect of the Love of God,” British scholar Tony Lane explains that "the love of God implies his wrath. Without his wrath God simply does not love in the sense that the Bible portrays his love." God's love is not sentimental; it is holy. It is tender, but not squishy.  It involves not only compassion, kindness, and mercy beyond measure (what the New Testament calls grace) but also indignation against injustice and unremitting opposition to all that is evil.

Read the rest.  

Coming To Terms With The Wrath of God

Tim Keller:

Because [a cup of poison] was the method of execution for many people,…the Hebrew prophets came to use the cup as a metaphor for the wrath of God on human evil…. For example…Isaiah 54: “You will drink the cup of His fury and stagger.” So the reason why [Christian martyrs] who died for what they believed in didn’t die the way Jesus is dying—didn’t fall to the ground, didn’t find this horror coming down—was that they didn’t face the cup. They didn’t face the justice of God against all human wickedness and evil, which was just about to come down on [Jesus]….

It was in the Garden of Gethsemane that I came finally to grips—I made my peace, as it were—with the wrath of God. Now, it might shock some of you that…a preaching minister was struggling with the very idea of a God of wrath, a God who sends people to Hell…. And then it was studying the Garden of Gethsemane when I finally came to peace with it because I realized this: The reason why people get rid of the idea of Hell and wrath is because they want a loving God…. They say, “I can’t believe in Hell and wrath because I want a more loving God.” And I came to realize in the Garden of Gethsemane that if you get rid of the idea of Hell and wrath, you have a less loving God.

Because if there is no wrath by God on sin, and there is no such thing as Hell, not only does that actually make what happened to Jesus inexplicable—Jesus staggering the way He is, asking God, “Is there any other way,” [and] sweating blood means that He was wimpier than hundreds of His followers, if there was nothing like [God’s wrath]—but…the main thing is, if you don’t believe in the wrath and Hell, it trivializes what He’s done…. If you get rid of a God who has wrath and Hell, you’ve got a god who loves us in general, but that’s not as loving as the God of the Bible, the God of Jesus Christ, who loves us with a costly love.

Look what it cost. Look what He did. Look what He was taking. You get rid of wrath and Hell, He’s not taking anything close to this. And therefore, what you’ve done is you’ve just turned His incredible act of love into just something very trivial, very small….

And by the way, if the anticipation of these sufferings—if the very taste of these sufferings—sent the Son of God into shock, what must it have been to drink them to the bottom?

Books by Tim Keller:

• The Prodigal God  
• King’s Cross 
• Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything 
• The Reason for God  
• Counterfeit Gods  
• Generous Justice

Revolt and Relief on Good Friday

Mike Cosper:

One of my favorite passages of the Bible is Genesis chapter 15. There, God and Abraham participate in an ancient-near-East covenantal rite; a ceremony that many commentaries note was relatively common at the time. God asks Abraham to bring him a cow, a ram, a goat, a turtledove and a pigeon. He cut them in half, laying the pieces across one another, and waited until nightfall.

The idea was fairly simple (and incredibly powerful). Two people would stand in the midst of the halved animals and make their vow. Implicitly, one was saying, “May this happen to us should we break our vow.”

But God breaks from the custom here, and if you notice in the story, Abraham makes no vow; only God does. Abraham stands and witnesses as God’s presence, represented by a smoking fire pot and a torch, pass between the pieces.

I find it startlingly easy to imagine myself there. You can see the flames flickering in Abraham’s eyes, their warm glow causing the pooling blood and exposed viscera to shine like jewels under the dark, starry sky. God revealed himself as light in the darkness, and He foreshadowed a violent solution to the world’s biggest problem.

There’s surely a mix of revolt and relief in Abraham’s mind. Though the sight of butchered animals was anything but foreign to him, I still imagine that the sheer, bloody violence of it all must have made his stomach turn. And yet, there was great relief. God alone appeared amongst the carcasses. God alone made a promise. God alone put a price on his Sacred Head, saying, “may this happen to Me should we break our vow.”

It’s a relief for Abraham, because he knows he doesn’t have it in him to keep the promise. God has promised him countless descendants, but he’s an old man. Only God can give him children. Only God can change his future, filling it with his children. Only God can remain faithful to the promises made, as Abraham’s own story demonstrates.

And though God asked Abraham to prepare for the ceremony, God takes it upon himself to make the vow, saying, “I’m going to do this. Singlehandedly, I’ll get it done.”

I imagine that standing in the glow of the fire pot and torch felt a lot like standing at the foot of the cross, watching the One who made the world bleed, agonize for breath, and finally die. It’s no wonder the sky turned black. There, God kept his word, and the price of a broken covenant was exacted. He took it upon himself, and as he died, he said, “It’s finished.”

As we gather on Good Friday with our churches, remembering that dark day, we share in Abraham’s revolt and relief. The cross is revolting, Good Friday is a day to look with horror upon the violent results of our sin in God’s world. But it’s a relief too. The promise was kept, and we know that what God began, he’ll finish.

Books by Mike Cosper:

• Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey 
• Rhythms of Grace: How the Church's Worship Tells the Story of the Gospel

The Curse Motif - R.C. Sproul

Tetelestai!

Melinda Penner:

On the cross, Jesus fulfilled the Law of Moses by satisfying the demands of it. By doing that He paid our certificates of debt we each earned.

The certificate of debt is a concept that lies behind Paul's comments about the certificate of debt in Colossians 2:13-14: And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

In Roman times, this certificate was a list of crimes committed against the state that required "payment," much like an indictment in our legal system today. The Romans gave Jesus a certificate of debt when He was sentenced to die; it was nailed to the cross: "Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews" (John 19:19). When the crimes were paid for, the certificate was canceled and was stamped with the word tetelestai, meaning "paid in full."

Paul says that Jesus "canceled out" (paid) our certificate of debt (v14).

Jesus' last words, His victory cry on the cross was, "It is finished!", literally in Greek was "tetelestai!" "He said, 'It is finished!' And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit." (John 19:30). "Paid in full." What was finished? His work of redemption paying for our certificates of debt against God.

Jesus' Insomnia and Ours

Powerful and important words here from Dr. Moore.

Russell Moore:

When the disciples screamed in the face of a storm, Jesus slept (Mk. 4:37-38). When Jesus screamed in the face of a cross, the disciples slept (Mk. 14:37,41).

Why could Jesus sleep so peacefully through a life-threatening sea-storm, and yet is awake all night in the olive garden before his arrest, crying out in anguish? Why are the disciples pulsing with adrenaline as the ship is tossed about on the Galilee Lake, but drifting off to slumber as the most awful conspiracy in human history gets underway?

Peter, James, and John rebuke Jesus for falling asleep on the boat: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mk. 4:38) Jesus rebukes them for falling asleep as he prays before the cross: “Could you not watch one hour?” (Mk. 14:37)

Jesus isn’t the anxious sort. He tells us, remember, to be anxious for nothing, to take no thought for tomorrow (Matt 6:25-34). So why is he awake all night, “greatly distressed and troubled” (Mk. 14:33). In the storm, Jesus dismisses the disciples’ terror with a wave of the hand. In the garden, he screams, with loud cries and tears (Heb. 5:7), until the blood vessels in his face explode.

It is because Jesus knows what to fear. Jesus knows to fear not him who can kill the body, but instead Him who can cast both body and soul into hell (Matt. 10:28). Jesus doesn’t fear the watery deeps, which can be silenced by his voice. But he knows that is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Danger doesn’t keep Jesus awake; the judgment of God does.

The disciples are just the opposite, and I fear I am too. They are worried about relatively meaningless things, things that need only to be given over to the attention to Jesus. But they are oblivious to the cross that overhangs the cursed world around them, and within them.

I lose sleep quite often over the things Jesus tells me I should not worry about: my life, my possessions, my future. Such is not of the Spirit. Why is it easier for me to worry about next week’s schedule, and to lose sleep over that, than over those around me who could be moments away from judgment? Why am I more concerned about the way my peers judge my actions than about the Judgment Seat of Christ?

The Spirit of Jesus joins us to him in his Gethsemane anguish. We groan with him for the revealing of the sons of God, for resurrection from the dead (Rom. 8:23-27). We like him, through the Spirit, come to terms with the crosses we must carry. And, through it all, we cry with him, “Abba, Father!” (Mk. 14:36; Rom. 8:15).

The next time you find yourself unable to sleep due to worry, ask whether you’re in the Galilee waters or the Gethsemane garden. Ask yourself whether your wakefulness is of the weakening flesh or the awakening Spirit.

Books by Russell Moore:

• Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ
• Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families & Churches
• The Kingdom of Christ: The New Evangelical Perspective

Revenge and Wrath: Not Ours

Jared Wilson:

When we become eager to enact God’s wrath through personal vengeance, it’s often because we distrust God’s ability to deal with injustice Himself. Or we distrust Him to do it in a way that satisfies us. When we lash out, fight back, take up zealous causes, angrily pontificate, feud on Facebook, tsk-tsk on Twitter, and berate on blogs, aren’t we, in essence, saying God needs us to set people straight? All too often what we’re really protecting isn’t God’s honor, but our reputation or influence.

Jesus’ approach to personal wrongs would have us conquer the injustice by embracing its satisfaction at the cross. So instead of attacking the guy who takes our shirt, we offer him our coat, too. I’ll admit that Paul’s questions in 1 Corinthians 6:7 sting a bit: “Why not rather put up with injustice? Why not rather be cheated?”

If the cross is true, if God is sovereign—why not?

Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for His wrath. For it is written: Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay, says the Lord (Romans 12:19).

The reality is that whatever wrath remains to dispense after the satisfaction of the cross will be dispensed by Jesus Himself upon His return. The Book of Revelation doesn’t portray a passive, excuse-tolerating King who gives everybody a hall pass whether they love Him or not. Instead, He arrives on a white horse with a sword, vanquishing His enemies. But He does this, not us. So if we will truly trust that vengeance is His, that he will repay, we have all the power in the Spirit to let it go.

And honestly, that’s what some Christians need to do right now: Let. It. Go. Because God won’t leave any loose ends.

Read the rest.


Jared's Books:

• Gospel Wakefulness
• Gospel Deeps
• Your Jesus is Too Safe

Dealing with Bitterness

Shawnda Kovacs:

Do you struggle with bitterness? Even if it's here and there or everyday? This 5 minutes of Gospel pointed toward bitterness might be a gift of freedom for your soul!

It's minutes 40:35 to 45:40

(RSS click through to view)

Rightly Directed Rage

Dane Ortlund:

What Jerry Sandusky did was a horror. If that was my boy who came home with wet hair, and had been brutalized in that way, I am not confident that I would be able to restrain myself from calmly killing Sandusky in the middle of the night. Slowly. I am not trying to be funny. If that were my son--God help him.

Now--brothers and sisters--that horror we feel is right. The thirst for personally executed revenge is not right. But the revulsion, and thirst for justice, is right. We would be wrong not to feel it.

But the horror we feel over this is not only appropriate, it is also a glimpse into the horror of our own sin. I am not leveling out all sins. Some are worse than others. But the revulsion, the rage, that we rightly feel toward that sick man is a picture of the repulsiveness of our own sick rebellion against an infinitely beautiful One, and the rage he would be right to direct toward us.

Read the rest.

A Good Deal Depends Upon our Conception of the Wrath of God

This is a guest post from Chris Brauns.

Leon Morris:

A good deal depends upon our conception of the place and nature of the wrath of God. If this is regarded as a very real factor so that the sinner is exposed to its severity, then the removal of the wrath will be an important part of our understanding of salvation; whereas if we diminish the part played by the divine wrath we shall not find it necessary to think seriously of propitiation.

See also R.C. Sproul and Saved from God

When The Necessity of the Cross Seems Obvious

All inadequate doctrines of the atonement are due to inadequate doctrines of God and man. If we bring God down to our level and raise ourselves to his, then of course we see no need for a radical salvation, let alone for a radical salvation to secure it. WHen, on the other hand, we have glimpsed the blinding glory of the holiness of God, and have been so convicted of our sin by the Holy Spirit that we tremble before God and acknowledge what we are, namely ‘hell-deserving sinners’, then and only then does the necessity of the cross appear so obvious that we are astonished we never saw it before.

— John Stott, The Cross of Christ, 109

(HT:  OFI)

More Reflections on Jesus and Justice

Mark Driscoll writes to a man in his church who discovered his wife had cheated on him with his close friend.

Luke, as your friend and pastor I am deeply grieved by the sins your wife and your former friend committed against you. I can only imagine the righteous anger that wells up in you on the occasions that you see in your imagination the things your alleged friend did with your wife in your own bed. When you are haunted by the thought of your friend betraying you with a kiss, it will be important for you to get some time to prayerfully talk it through with Jesus Christ. As Hebrews 4:15 says, Jesus can and does “sympathize” with you. You will remember that Jesus had a good “friend” named Judas who also betrayed him with a kiss. Rather than ever repenting of his sin and begging for forgiveness, Judas went out, threw a rope over a tree, and hanged himself. In Acts 1:18–19, Peter tells us that Judas’s body burst open and his bloody intes- tines spilled out. Subsequently, the place where Judas hanged himself after betraying his friend with a kiss was called the “Field of Blood.”

I am sure that, as a man who appreciates justice, the temptation to make your former friend bleed in his own “Field of Blood” for what he has done is very strong. I would encourage you not to let your anger lead you into sin but rather to remember that one way or another you will get your blood from him also. Either he will come to repentance of his sin and faith in Jesus so that he can be saved through Jesus’ blood shed on the cross, or he will stand before Jesus to be condemned. On this point, Romans 5:8–10 is insightful:

[8] but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. [9] Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. [10] For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Paul’s words speak of what Jesus has accomplished for you through his shed blood. Conversely, they also speak of what your friend will not enjoy if he fails to repent of his sin and receive Jesus.

Read the rest.

Grieving, Rejoicing that Osama bin Laden Is Dead

Christopher Morgan:

Osama bin Laden is dead.

How do we as Christians respond?

As I watched the news reports, various passages came to mind–everything from Jesus’ teaching on loving and praying for enemies, to James’ forceful picture of a future slaughterhouse coming upon oppressors of God’s people. The more I reflect on it, the more I realize that my internal tension is similar to another one I have felt many times before–a tension related to the biblical doctrine of hell.

Read the rest.  

Denny Burk on The Death of Bin Laden

Denny Burk:

I think Christians are right to contemplate how jubilation (like we see on TV right now) is consistent with Ezekiel 33:11, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.” So I can understand why Christians may be asking, “If God is not delighting in the death of the wicked, then how can we?” I think there is confusion on this point because this verse is easily misunderstood. The second part of the verse is key to understanding its meaning. The text is not trying to say that God neverdelights in the death of the wicked. Rather, the verse means that God prefers for sinners to repent rather than to perish. If they refuse to repent, God delights in His own justice enough to punish them appropriately (e.g., Psalm 1:5-6; 5:4-6; 68:2; Isaiah 13:1-22; Jeremiah 18:11). We have to be willing to praise God for His justice one way or the other (Psalm 139:19-22; Proverbs 11:10; 28:28; Revelation 19:1-3).

Read the rest.  

Justice Comes For Us All

Justice has come.  Justice has been done.

Justice will come for all of us unless we repent.

[13:1] There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. [2] And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? [3] No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. [4] Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? [5] No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” - Luke 13:1-5

God Saves Us From Himself

Moved only by his own character, God sent his only Son into the world to save sinners from the judgment they deserve. At the end of the day, it was not the Jews who crucified Jesus or even the Romans. It was not even we who put him there, although it was because of our sin and guilt that he hung in derision. Ultimately, God crucified Jesus. “Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,” not because God is sadistic, but because of his great love for those who would be rescued by this selfless act, “and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied” (Is 53:10-11). Although Jesus freely gave his life up to the Father as a sacrifice that he was not forced to give, it was a death penalty that God executed as the just judge of the universe. Turning his eyes from the mutilated body of his Son, now carrying the sins of us all, the Father abandoned Jesus Christ so that he would never have to abandon us in our deepest trial or most heinous sin. God saved us from himself in order to save us for himself forever.

– Michael Horton, Saved From God, Modern Reformation, March/April 1996

(HT:  Joe Thorn)

I remember John Piper saying this many years ago in a sermon on Romans (can't find the link), "God gives to us (righteousness), what he demands from us (righteousness), in order to save us from himself (wrath of God)."