Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Was Jesus punished primarily for sin??

Was Jesus punished primarily for sin??

I am super excited to have come across these videos as for some time now, this has been the very thing on my heart. A couple years back in a conversation with a friend, he mentioned in passing, how the view held in many "grace" circles that the Sole purpose of the Cross was to appease our sin before God, by having the Father smash/punish the Son on our behalf was rather cruel. Even though it had great benefits for us, it had led him to ask questions of the Fathers Nature..... can this be True Love??.... an Exacting Father at a distance enforcing required Legal punishment on the innocent?

I didn't think much on his comments at the time, but as the months have gone by and Holy Spirit has shown me more of Fathers amazing Love for us all, He has also reminded me of my friends' statement. All of a sudden, I saw that His Love for me made no sense unless He was fully, personally involved in my Redemption - and not buying me back using His Son's life. He was Fully, Intimately involved because that's how valued we are to Him!!



Some (incorrectly) say:
"The Father cant look upon sin, so Jesus had to come to fix that....", Or "Jesus had to appease the Fathers wrath towards us"

Firstly,
Sin is not the Issue!! Sin was never the issue... for God loved and died for us "while we were still sinners!!!!!
The REAL issue was our SHAME that sin caused!! (Adam in the Garden - hiding and shameful).
Shame prevents us from RECEIVING and living in relationship with Father that He always intended.

Religion teaches us that "God cannot look on sin???".... However, the reality tells us something exactly opposite! "Adam, where are you...." He said. God was looking for the sinner....
Not to punish him, but to walk in communion with him as He had done since his creation.
(Placing them outside the Garden was not to punish them, but rather was an act of Love so He could restore us back before they could eat of the Tree of Life and forever be in a state of separation from God in their own hearts).

He came to seek and save the Lost.... we all like sheep have gone astray... but He goes out to look for us. FRIENDS... God (Father, son and Spirit) looks at the sinner, and deeply loves him!! Religion teaches that God is angry with sinners... Yet Jesus, who only did what the Father did and said, was found to be the "friend of sinners". How mixed up have we got it these days??!!

His love for the entire world (sinners), convincingly displayed in the most profound and greatest way - a man laying him life down for his friend - even though his friends are all enemies and sinners... This Love act on the Cross has the power to remove our shame and guilt so that we can receive Him again as our Husband - and we, His Bride.
The Cross Divorces us from the Law by our Co-crucifixion with Christ (Rom 7) - ending that Old Contract of Death, Shame and Condemnation. Instead our Marriage with Christ involves NO condemnation OR Shame because sin (the cause of our shame) is removed as far as the east is from the west and remembered no more.
Our marriage is one on the grounds of Grace. He did it all, we only Believed it and received it as a Gift.

In fact - when we feel any sense of Shame, we have begun to drift from Grace. The word in Greek for "Shame" actually means: "DIS-GRACE" (an undoing of Grace)
If we are living in Shame, we have forgotten the Good News of the New Covenant. - The Good News boldly tells us that God has "Scorned and Despised" shame because it separates YOU from him - not Him from you. - Nothing in all of creation has the power to do that. We are on his mind 24/7.


His love empowers us to love others. We cannot truly trust Him if we dont see His unconditional love for us. For example, Paul (Saul) - The Christian Killer - has a face to face encounter with Jesus - who's followers He is murdering and instead of receiving wrath- as he would have expected, he receives the exact opposite.... He receives UNCONDITIONAL LOVE and a clear revelation of the cross .... and changed! He was Compelled by Gods Love for people as He had experienced it himself.

He saw Gods nature in fullness revealed - not just the shadow of the Old Testament, and that He is ABBA and He is LOVE.

He did it all... He was there on the Cross, in all His Fullness. It was not the Son alone taking the punishment for our sin and fulfilling the Joy of our reconciliation to Himself, but God was IN Christ, reconciling the world to Himself!
Jesus even said that this was so, just before the Cross He said... "the Father is in me and I in the Father". He wouldn't miss being a part of the action that had been planned since before the foundation of the world!! He loves us too much to miss our Home coming!

Enjoy the Videos:







Loads of Love
Andrew