The NON-WRATHFUL SEQUEL to the Cross is the show stopper!

The very nub of the Gospel is the non-wrathful immediate sequel to the cross.  God had every right to demonstrate yet more wrath from Heaven than Paul warns about in Romans 1:18-3:20 upon that heinous execution of His beloved and eminently worthy Son.  Yet He did not!  His just and rightful wrath might well have avenged their unjust and wrongful wrath, but God rather exerted His holiness by self-control, patience, mercy, kindness, and forbearance (“fruits” of the very Holy Spirit He yearned to see operating in His people!) and RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD INSTEAD!  [5/17/10]  Hurrah!!! However, that said, we must never forget that this was only a merciful reprieve that barely lasted a full generation before the dread prophecy of Daniel (9:26-27)–and of Jesus on the way to the cross (Luke 23:27-31)–was fulfilled in horrific detail upon those who still remained unrepentant. Literally hundreds of Jerusalem’s citizens were then crucified (according to the Jewish eye-witness, Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews), and there was certainly divine wrath at those crosses. [5/17/10]

God’s Resurrectionary Wisdom Graciously Outsmarts Oppressors

The derivation of the ancient Greek word for love (agape) may be conjectured as suggesting the conducting (ago) away (apo) of something wholesome ([h]agi-) or good (agath-) in, e.g., altruistic deeds of kindness, generosity, and even self-sacrifice.   But is it possible to practice love for very long merely from idealistic altruism?  For such self-emptying would seem self-impoverishing unless one has access to an enriching and replenishing source.  God alone is capable of reimbursing us for such sacrifices and offerings.  Thus, our trust is the key to keeping us loving because it relies on God’s giving us what we need to help others.  The Wholesome Spirit of God is His supreme gift to us, accessible abundantly now, even superabundantly, through the self-sacrificial death and Divinely restorative Raising from death of Messiah Jesus.  Our love for others is powerfully activated and energized by this Spirit poured out since Pentecost in divine overcompensation for Messiah’s unjust execution.  Such love is thus intentional, robust, and durable, overcoming many potential offenses in its object.  In this way it contrasts with fondness (phil-), which is an attraction sparked by evocative qualities in the object.  [4/24/98]

The resurrectionary justice of God was potently visible, even before Jesus was raised from among the dead, by the latter’s own vivid reactions to Roman oppression:  he hardly addressed the subject at all!  Instead he healed the oppressed, he expelled demons that oppressed, he fed those oppressed by hunger, he threw out oppressive Jewish moneychangers from the temple, he severely denounced  oppressive Jewish leaders, scholars, lawyers, priests, teachers, et al.  He thereby gave the oppressed an expectation and a motivation.  In fact, at Pentecost Jesus gave them his very own Spirit of wholesomeness and power.  God gave the oppressed who trusted Jesus a Divine power to counter the vicious effects of oppression, thereby proving stunningly that there exists a power stronger than the oppressor’s, one that can reverse the tragic effects of oppression even after they have taken effect!  This reality is a testimony against the pathetic posturing of all oppressors as well as a witness for the existence of God’s liberating Reign over this earth–one that is unexpectedly and immeasurably superior to the blustering interlopers’.  [9/13/98]

The penal payment theory of the Atonement appears to underlie the belief that every sin must be punished.  This may explain why some people have trouble understanding how God could forgive the brutally oppressive Ninevites when Jonah proclaims repentance to them (see Phyllis Trible on Jonah).  [10/15/98]  To be sure, a generation or so later Nineveh was, at length, destroyed, yet not before a vast number of residents had first been saved from its idolatrous ways.  [7/21/07]

Who “paid the debt” of the crime against Jesus, God’s own Son and chosen Messiah–a dasdardly crime of public mistreatment and gruesome execution, though he had done no wrong and was, not only in this respect but in all respects, absolutely innocent?  God the Father Himself “paid” that debt by more than  totally reversing the unjust sentence against him, penalty and all!  God undid his death and endowed him with an overflowing superabundance of life sufficient to give away for free to others!  This is the glory of God’s favor!  But for those who, in spite of learning about such incalculable and undeserved favor, refuse to accept it so as to start obeying Messiah’s teaching (superseding even Moses’ Torah), they are storing up for themselves only God’s terrifying fury and anger, which will eventually destroy them for the ages to come.  Although God is patient far beyond our deserts, yet He will not restrain His anger forever.  Vengeance will certainly be forthcoming if not met by repentance.  But, no, God was not waiting around for vicious humans to “repay” Him for their crime, for obviously that was an utter impossibility.  [12/21/98]