God’s REIMBURSING the Lord Jesus SUPEREXCESSIVELY is What Did the Trick!

The death of Messiah on the Cross for sins became effective for mankind when God reciprocated that sacrifice with His Own OVERWHELMING REIMBURSEMENT for the cosmic injustice of it. In particular, the outpouring of the Wholesome Spirit of God richly on all who believed, at Pentecost, was the ‘firstfruits’ of the vast harvest to follow as a result of the staggering wisdom and productivity of God’s plan of rescue. This outpouring of the Spirit of agelong life in answer to Messiah’s vicious execution was only the earnest, pledge, or down payment in kind, of the just award (dikaioma) of Messiah’s suffering of abuse. The fruit made it all worth while, in effect, even justified the abuse, from the long view. “He shall see his seed; he shall prosper his days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand; he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied: by the knowledge of himself shall My righteous Servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul unto death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he [instead of avenging himself] bore the sins of many and [even!] made intercession for the transgressors [pleading, ‘Father forgive them for they’re not aware that they’re doing!‘]” Luke 23:34, Isaiah 53:10-12. [5/23/06]

To concoct the notion that the wrath of God was revealed from Heaven at the Cross of the Messiah because Romans 1:18, et seq., follows Romans 1:16-17 is to commit the fallacy of guilt by association…a fallacy at least partly responsible for Messiah’s crucifixion in the first place!

What in fact is happening in this carefully wrought association of words is a clear CONTRAST between the righteousness of God revealed in the Proclamation (whose exposition picks up again only at Romans 3:21) and the indignation of God revealed from Heaven throughout earth’s sordid history. That anger of God in history is uniformly destructive, but the righteousness of God in the Proclamation, by contrast, is God’s power for SALVATION! [5/23/06]

It’s clear from what happened after the Cross that God refused payment for sin from His Son, but instead (i.e., “in its place”!) payed back His Son for all his losses (which were staggering) and his appalling anguish, SUPEREXCESSIVELY. God is no cheap skate, scrooge, much less a Shylock! At the Resurrection we behold only the very beginning of the fruits of his Son’s suffering of abuse. Our entire salvation—the New Heavens and New Earth, our new vivified bodies, the works!—are encompassed in his reward! Now THAT’S JUSTICE FOR YOU!  [5/24/06]

77 Questions about the Atonement (Q&A #67)

67.     Isn’t faith something from ourselves, so doesn’t God have to reject it as being tainted by depravity?

Not a problem.  Merely hearing the powerful Explanation of God about Jesus, along with all its intrinsic corroboration, generates faith; therefore that Explanation itself is God’s real dynamo for our salvation.  Faith must be based on evidence and proof or it’s misplaced and will make a person ashamed for exerting it without proper foundation.  That’s why the phenomenon of faith in God’s Proclamation actually gives credit to that Explanation for generating the faith in the first place.  Sweet!  And besides that, the faculty of believing is part of human nature, so is structurally good, not depraved.  What it attaches to makes all the difference.