The work of Christ 4 / Revelation

 

I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no saviour. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed – I, and not some foreign god among you.  You are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘that I am God. Yes, and from ancient days I am he.  No one can deliver out of my hand. When I act, who can reverse it?’

 

(Is.43:11-13)

 

I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.  And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.  I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.

(John 17:4-7)

 

 

In a previous study we began to unpack the idea that while the Cross revealed the love of God, much more than love is revealed.  God is revealed in fullness, in His manifold glory.  If we can speak of Jesus as the revealing of God, ‘the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being’ (Heb.1:3), then we can speak of the cross as the place where that revelation is at its deepest.  There are things shown us about God on the cross that we would not and could not have perceived in any other way.  For this reason, many believe that we must start with the cross if we can ever hope to develop a truly ‘Christian’ understanding of the God we worship.  We can only truly know Him at the cross.  This is in part because knowledge of God is relational, and relationship is only made possible at the cross.  But more than that - at the cross God discloses and defines Himself.  Martin Luther argued that our understanding of God at Golgotha is ‘not a single chapter of theology, but the key signature for all Christian theology’. 

 

The cross is an intrinsic part of God’s glorifying Himself (e.g.Jn.12:27-33).It is, of course, the demonstration of His love (Jn.3:16; 15:13;Rom.5:8; I Jn.4:9-10); but also His righteousness (Rom.3:25); His humility (Phil.2:8); His generosity (II Cor.8:9); His justice (Rom.3:26); His wisdom and power (I Cor.1:18-31); His grace (Eph.1:6-7); His mercy (I Tim.1:16) and so much more.Much of this we may have thought of before, but I wonder if we have thought of the cross as revealing God’s hatred?

That sort of language might cause us to catch our breath, the ‘hatred’ of God, but the language is found in the Bible (e.g. Dt.12:31; Dt.16:22; Ps.5:5; Ps.11:5; Ps.45:7; Is.1:14; Is.61:8; Jer.12:7-8; Amos 5:21 etc), and in the Church’s teaching and reflection.  The celebrated American theologian and pastor Jonathan Edwards wrote:

 

“Never did God so manifest His hatred of sin as in the death and suffering of His only begotten Son. Hereby He showed Himself unappeasable to sin, and that it was impossible for Him to be at peace with it.”

 

God’s settled, measured, personal, hostility and emotional rejection of all that is opposed to His glory and our good is demonstrated most fully at Golgotha.  Even when ‘sin’ is borne by His own Son, still that is not enough to cause Him to stay His hand.  The God who is revealed at Calvary cannot and will not allow sin to go unpunished.  As we saw in a previous study, the Gospel centres on the realisation that this wrathful God chose to be loving.  This is the core of Christianity: that Christ Jesus came to save sinners.  From what?  God’s wrath against their sin.  It is by bearing God’s wrath that Christ reveals His love for us.

 

And of course, the cross reveals not just the truth about God, but about us, and about the reality of what we have become as sinners, and the guilt that our sinfulness incurs.  Any religious attempt to deal with sin and guilt that doesn’t demand the intervention of God is simply inadequate.  It cannot work, for it does not take the phenomena of sin with sufficient seriousness.  Here we see God’s utter determination to deal with sin; and consequently of His absolute commitment to ‘redeem a people for Himself’ (Tit.2:14).  And to do so without compromise to His own integrity.  To surrender one aspect of who He is to satisfy another would be the violation of His holiness - the fundamental reality of all who God is.  God would cease to be, or at least He would cease to be God.

 

Above all else it was this demand within God Himself that necessitated the cross.  In the face of human sin, His Justice is unsatisfied; His love unexpressed; His anger unplacated; His mercy unfulfilled; His power constrained; His wisdom disappointed and His righteousness unsatisfied.  This infinite tension within the life of God Himself is resolved in the cross.  Apart from any individual attribute, we are shown the depths of God’s being as the Son cries out and gives up His spirit (Matt.27:50).  In the final analysis the cross reveals God’s commitment to His own ineffable glory and infinite perfection.  It is His genius that His revelation simultaneously means our salvation. 

Questions:

 

How would you respond to someone who said they couldn’t worship a God - in any sense - who was capable of ‘hate’?  How comfortable are you worshipping a God capable of ‘hating’?

 

Could God have loved sinners if Jesus hadn’t died for us?  Does God love people who don’t accept Jesus’ death for them?  Is God’s love for the Church different from His love for the world (Jn.3:16)?

 

Why is it important to know that Jesus is the Word become flesh (Jn.1:14) as we reflect on the reality of the cross?  If Jesus isn’t who the Bible says He is (the Word of God), could the cross achieve what the Bible says it does (atonement)?

 

Read I John 4:7-21:

 

In v.7, is John saying that everyone has been born of God and knows God - after all, everyone loves?  Can we say that people who aren’t Christians don’t know love, or how to love?

 

If ‘God is love’ (v.8 & 16), how can we speak of God hating (see above)?

 

How does the death of Jesus as ‘an atoning sacrifice for our sins’ (v.10) reveal and demonstrate God’s love?  How would you explain this to someone who wasn’t a Christian?

 

Is John implying that before we come to Christ we aren’t alive (v.9)?  How do we relate this to our experience of people who aren’t Christians?

 

If Jesus is the revealing of God, then (based on this passage) how can God be known now, if Jesus is no longer physically present on earth?  How effective a means of revelation do you think it is?  Could it be made better?

 

How would you counsel someone (again, based on this passage), who said they were struggling to love someone in the Church?

 

Memory Passage:

 

Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.’  Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’ Jesus answered: ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

 

John 14:6-9

 

For further reflection:

 

We’ve already seen how Christian thinkers such as Luther saw the Cross as the defining moment of God’s self-revelation in Christ.   Here, God is hidden in the midst of suffering, and cannot be known until we have entered such suffering.  ‘God’, Luther writes, ‘can only be found in suffering and the Cross’.  Suffering then must become part of a Christian’s life.  It is not an unfortunate (perhaps avoidable?) element of human experience.  It is where God is most fully understood to be God, and therefore, where we most fully see our humanity.  For Luther, we can only fully know ourselves, as well as only fully know God, in the midst of suffering.  Only here, as we participate in the cross, do we find self-understanding: ‘It is impossible for a person not to be puffed up by his (sic) good works unless he has first been deflated and destroyed by suffering and evil until he knows he is worthless, and that his works are not his but God’s’. 

 

From this perspective, Luther argues that we can only ever know the true nature of anything as we consider it through the lens of Calvary.  A ‘theologian of glory’ thinks they can work out life for themselves, and that true knowledge, understanding and fulfilment is found in power and majesty and status.   When such an un-redeemed person envisages God, it is exclusively in these terms, and the orientation of their life shows they desire these for themselves.  But God, who defines all reality, teaches us His power is found in humility, in service, in giving His life as a ransom for many (Mk.10:45).  This subverts everything we think we know about the world and about what it means to live in that world.  What we naturally think of as good turns out to be evil (Is.5:20; Lk.16:15).  The cross, it seems, reveals our foolishness as much as it reveals God’s wisdom (I Cor.1:18-31).