Stumbling Toward EternitySample

JESUS IS CRAZY ABOUT YOU

Are the words “Father, forgive them” a plea, a request, or a proclamation? God is revealed in Scripture as one. But as the revelation of Scripture un­folds, the one God reveals Himself to be a community within Himself, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We wor­ship and serve a triune God. We may not be able to explain the Trinity, but God’s triune nature is what makes sense of everything else.

Jesus is indeed our mediator, and God does get angry. He hates sin because it violates His character and robs Him of what He loves: You! But on the cross, the gentle Son is not pleading with an angry Father. He is presenting the heart of a Father who loves us despite ourselves.

This is a trans­formative truth for me. My Christian life did not begin to open up until I believed in the depth of my being that on my worst day, Jesus is crazy about me. It’s not just Jesus but the triune God who loves and who is love. As Jesus said to His disciples in the upper room, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

We cannot pit persons of the triune God against each other without doing damage to the Godhead itself. Jesus is the man who mediates and the God who forgives, the judge and the judged in our place. He is communicating the Father’s heart because He and the Father are one. As it is declared in the letter of Hebrews: “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Hebrews 1:1-3).

The forgiveness proclaimed in the Scriptures corresponds to the work of the cross. The good news is that God, in His freedom, chooses to love sinners in their sin. This is grace. This is God with us and for us. Jesus is not wrestling with the Father’s reluctance but proclaiming His heart to forgive. There is no God be­hind the back of Jesus.

What difference does it make in your spiritual life to know that Jesus didn’t have to talk God into forgiving you?