God in Christ

"God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself..." - 2 Corinthians 5:19

This is perhaps one of the most significant verses in all of Scripture. This is how Jesus viewed the historical event of His crucifixion, and it's how His followers viewed it shortly after (give or take three days). John Stott has this to say about God in Christ:

"...in order to save us in such a way as to satisfy Himself, God through Christ substituted Himself for us. Divine love triumphed over divine wrath by divine self-sacrifice. The cross was an act simultaneously of punishment and amnesty, severity and grace, justice and mercy."

Karl Barth says it more succinctly:

"The passion of Jesus Christ is the judgment of God, in which the Judge Himself was the judged"

A friend of Dr Autry phrases it like this: The Judge took the judgment on Himself.

If the resurrection is the news that many of us hope is true, the cross is the news that many of us wish to be untrue. Paul calls it a "stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks". For those today looking for a reason to reject Christianity, here it is: God on a cross. The cross of Christ can antagonizes us, or it can reveal the truest love mankind has ever experienced. The paradox and the beauty is when it does both; when it is seen that "severity and grace" meet at the cross.