God Is Self-Sacrificing
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God Is Self-Sacrificing
My sister, Vicki, is an intelligent and observant person—one of the brightest people I know. She has been in the church all of her life—active in a youth group in high school, a Sunday school teacher as an adult and a member of the choir for three decades. In her lifetime she has heard hundreds of sermons. If anyone ought to have heard a clear message about the importance and true meaning of the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus, it is her. But surprisingly, she somehow managed to miss it. (Or perhaps those who stood in the pulpit failed to communicate it clearly.) She is not alone. Many people cannot give a clear and articulate explanation of why Jesus became human, died and rose again. In all honesty, the same was true of me for many years, even though I had degrees in religion. I could offer the basic explanation (Jesus died to save us from our sins) but I did not understand its inner meaning.
Vicki and her husband, Scott, took a class I was teaching on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. A significant part of the course included deep reflection on the cross. She looked at the material we would be covering and said very honestly, “Jim, I have to admit. I’ve never understood the cross. It has always bothered me that Jesus had to die. And it bothered me that God would let Jesus die. It almost seems like child abuse.” She went on to explain that the cross seemed unnecessary—that God could have easily “forgiven the world” simply by declaring the world forgiven, or by teaching people how to love one another. Then Jesus would not have had to suffer. There would be no need for blood.
Have you ever wrestled with why Jesus had to die for us? If so, explain.
I completely sympathized with her. The cross of Jesus, from one perspective, seems to be a dark and gruesome event. And yet, every Roman Catholic church has a crucifix—a cross with Jesus’ physical body on it—and most Protestant churches have a cross on a steeple or in the sanctuary. Many of our hymns are songs of praise for the cross (for example, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”). The death of Jesus is front and center in Christian theology, and yet so many of us fail to grasp its significance. Understanding why Jesus chose to live among us and to die for us helped me better understand the nature of our good and beautiful God.
FALSE NARRATIVE: WE WORK OUR WAY TO GOD
As noted in a previous chapter, we live in a performance-based world. We get what we have earned. All of the world’s great religions (except Christianity) are based on this same principle. Humans must do something in order to obtain the favor and blessings of their god(s), either through worship, sacrifice, right living or all of the above. This seems logical when we reason from our own experience. The world we live in works this way: do good things, good things happen; do bad things, bad things happen. In Hinduism and Buddhism this is karma. Order your life properly, follow the precepts, offer the proper sacrifices, and God will reward you with blessing. Finding God is largely up to you. This is not only logical, it is also appealing because it allows us to remain in control.
JESUS’ NARRATIVE: GOD WORKS HIS WAY TO US
The book that helped me understand why Jesus became human and had to die on the cross is On the Incarnation, written by Athanasius1 (c. 296-373), the bishop of Alexandria. Today he is credited with helping the church understand why the incarnation (God becoming human), death (the crucifixion) and resurrection of Jesus were necessary to reconcile humans to God. So after talking with Vicki about her struggle to understand why Jesus had to die, I went back to Athanasius’s classic book with her questions in my mind.
I turned my questions and Athanasius’s answers into a dialogue2. So imagine that we have traveled back in time to ask Athanasius some hard questions about the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus.
JAMES: Athanasius, a common question people ask is, Why did Jesus have to become a human being and suffer and die on the cross? Why didn’t Jesus just teach us about how to live in a way that is pleasing to God?
ATHANASIUS: That would have worked if mankind had not fallen into complete corruption. If we humans had merely broken a law we could repent of it. If our problem were ignorance, then education would be our solution. But the human problem is much deeper than that. We are corrupt and depraved. It is like a disease that cannot be cured by willpower or knowledge.
JAMES: How did we get into this predicament?
ATHANASIUS: It’s a long story, but I will tell it as simply and briefly as possible. God created humans in his image, which means that they can reason and create, and they can know God. Adam and Eve were created in freedom for fellowship with God, yet they were given only one commandment with which to show their love and appreciation and obedience to God: they could not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This tree symbolized the desire to be God, for only God truly knows good and evil. They were warned that “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Genesis 2:17). Well, they did eat of this tree, and they died in a spiritual sense right away, cast from God’s presence, no longer able to live in the easy fellowship of Eden. And consequently they began to die physically. Not only would they one day physically perish, but they were now living in the state of corruption.
JAMES: But God could have just forgiven them, right?
ATHANASIUS: No, God could not go back on his commandment. But God could also not let his precious creation be destroyed. What then was God, being good, to do? That was the divine dilemma.
JAMES: But was there no way that the humans could save themselves? Could God demand that they repent?
ATHANASIUS: No. Repentance could not change what they now were in their nature, which was corrupt. Even if they ceased from sinning—which they could not—they would still be corrupt on the inside and under the law of death.
JAMES: So, what is the solution to the problem?
ATHANASIUS: It is not what, it is rather Who that was needed to solve the problem. Only the Word of God himself, Who also in the beginning had made all things out of nothing, could solve the human problem. For this purpose, then, God, who is not limited by a physical body or under the power of sin, entered our world. He took to himself a body, a human body even as our own.
JAMES: But why? Couldn’t God have appeared in some other form? Why did he have to have a human body?
ATHANASIUS: Jesus took on a body like our own because human bodies were liable to the corruption of death. He surrendered His body to death in place of all, and offered it to the Father. This He did out of sheer love for us, so that in His death all might die, and the law of death would thereby be abolished. Thus he would make death disappear as utterly as straw from fire.
JAMES: So, he took on a body so he could die? Is that right?
ATHANASIUS: Yes, corruption could not be removed other than through death. For this reason, therefore, Jesus assumed a body capable of death. It was by surrendering to death the body which He had taken, as an offering and sacrifice free from every stain, that he abolished death for His human brothers and sisters by the offering of the equivalent. He fulfilled in death all that was required.
JAMES: You stressed the words “offering of the equivalent.” I don’t understand what you mean.
ATHANASIUS: Complete corruption—which is the state of human beings after the Fall—can only be reversed by the sacrifice of complete incorruption. Jesus was sinless.
JAMES: What does that do for you and for me?
ATHANASIUS: Jesus reverses the original Fall by doing for us what we could not do for ourselves! By the sacrifice of His own body Jesus did two things: He put an end to the law of death which barred our way, and he made a new beginning of life for us, by giving us the hope of resurrection. Jesus, you see, destroyed death.
JAMES: Let me switch to a related topic. Why did Jesus have to die the way he did—on the cross? Couldn’t he have died another way and still accomplished the same goal?
ATHANASIUS: Jesus had to die a very real, undeniable, public death that everyone could see. If there were no witness to His death, no one would believe His resurrection. He would be regarded as a teller of tales.
JAMES: But why did he have to die in such a shameful way? Crucifixion is the most painful and humiliating form of execution the world has ever known. Couldn’t he have died a more honorable death?
ATHANASIUS: I know you abhor the cross, as you should. But note this: a marvelous and mighty paradox has occurred, for the death which they thought to inflict on Him as dishonor and disgrace has become the glorious monument of death’s defeat. Though they tried to kill him in shame, the cross stands for all eternity as a symbol of the glory of God. And one final point, how could he have reached out to the entire world if He had not been crucified, for it is only on the cross that a man dies with his arms outstretched?
Was there anything that Athanasius explained in the dialogue that you found helpful or that gave you a new insight?
THE RISK OF NOT BEING LOVED IN RETURN
God, who is completely free, chose willingly to enter into our world as a vulnerable child and to endure insult, torture and execution as an adult. God did not have to do this. If Athanasius is right in saying that the only way to solve the human problem (corruption, alienation from God, loss of the image of God) was by God stepping in himself, that still does not mean that God had to do it. There is nothing that compelled God to save us in this way. In choosing to save us in this manner God risked unrequited love. What would happen if humans rejected his love?
John tells us, “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him” (John 1:10-11). This is a powerful passage because it contains several essential truths. First, “the world came into being through him.” God created the world through Jesus, and Jesus continues to hold the whole world together:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15-17)
Second, “he was in the world.” God freely chose to enter our world, breathe our air, and subject himself to all of the pain and suffering in human life. Third, “the world did not know him.” The glory of the second person of the Trinity was hidden. God did this through extreme humility. And finally, “his own people did not accept him.”
Have you ever felt unrequited love? Can you imagine God allowing himself to experience this pain? Explain.
Unrequited love might be the most painful of all human experiences. To love someone and not be loved in return is a deep hurt, an excruciating ache. God experienced the pain of unrequited love. Some people object to the notion that God could feel pain—or feel anything at all. Their narrative tells them that God is impassable, meaning he cannot be moved. This narrative seems to protect God’s power. But if God loves others (“God so loved the world” [John 3:16]), he must also necessarily feel the pain of unrequited love. I have noticed that the people who have trouble believing God could feel pain or joy also have trouble believing Jesus could feel pain or uncertainty—or even joy. Did Jesus laugh? Did he ever feel awkward? Did Jesus ever get his feelings hurt? The Scriptures tell us that he experienced human life in its fullness, so I suspect he did.
My friend Rich Mullins once wrote a beautiful song about Jesus called “Boy Like Me/Man Like You.” In it he wonders if Jesus, as a child, felt the same things we do:
Did You grow up hungry?
Did You grow up fast?
Did the little girls giggle when You walked past?
Did You wonder what it was that made them laugh? . . .
Did You wrestle with a dog and lick his nose?
Did You play beneath the spray of a water hose?
Did You ever make angels in the winter snow? . . .
Did You ever get scared playing hide and seek?
Did You try not to cry when You scraped Your knee?
Did You ever skip a rock across a quiet creek?
Rich told me one day that his favorite line in the song is the one about making snow angels. Why? He said, “I love the image of the One who made the actual angels as a little boy making angels in the snow.”
How can self-sacrifice be a sign of strength, not weakness?
I think we have trouble with God feeling joy and pain because we think they are beneath God. Being vulnerable, we think, seems weak. But maybe not. Maybe vulnerability is true strength. Maybe sacrificing yourself for the good of another is not a sign of weakness but is the greatest power the world ever knows.
NO GREATER LOVE
The question, “Why did God do this for us when we did not deserve it?” still needs to be explored. Edward Yarnold responds: “Why did the Father will [the crucifixion]?3 . . . May one suggest that the answer is that human nature is made in God’s own image? The law of the grain of wheat reflects God’s own nature: the glory of God himself lies in self-giving. The members of Christ’s body, then, share the life of the Head, who bears a crown of glory which is still a crown of thorns.”
At the heart of the universe is this one principle: self-sacrifice is the highest act. The grain of wheat must die in order to give life. The cosmos reflects the nature of the God who created it. Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
How is self-sacrifice the highest act of all?
Self-giving seems like a weakness. But it is an aspect of love. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 we read, “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way.” Most of us live with the false narrative that strength is found in domination and control. But these are not the highest forms of power. God’s power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). The power of the seed emerges only when the seed dies. The power of God is demonstrated most clearly on the cross.
God the Son enters our world in the lowest of all conditions, lives an utterly ordinary life for thirty years, experiences everything we experience, points the world to his Father in his teaching and in his life, and then willingly performs the ultimate sacrifice: he gives his life for all of the world, the Lamb of God taking away the world’s sin. “I will sacrifice myself for your good” is the sentiment of God. And we, in our small moments of sacrifice, feel something of what God feels (freedom, release, exhilaration, purpose, meaning), if only for a few moments.
WHAT MORE COULD HE HAVE DONE FOR US?
Author and speaker Brennan Manning has an amazing story about how he got the name “Brennan.” While growing up, his best friend was Ray. The two of them did everything together: bought a car together as teenagers, double-dated together, went to school together and so forth. They even enlisted in the Army together, went to boot camp together and fought on the frontlines together. One night while sitting in a foxhole, Brennan was reminiscing about the old days in Brooklyn while Ray listened and ate a chocolate bar. Suddenly a live grenade came into the foxhole. Ray looked at Brennan, smiled, dropped his chocolate bar and threw himself on the live grenade. It exploded, killing Ray, but Brennan’s life was spared.
When we talk about the power of God we often think about the mighty acts God has done, and not the incarnation and the crucifixion. Why?
When Brennan became a priest he was instructed to take on the name of a saint. He thought of his friend, Ray Brennan. So he took on the name Brennan. Years later he went to visit Ray’s mother in Brooklyn. They sat up late one night having tea when Brennan asked her, “Do you think Ray loved me?” Mrs. Brennan got up off of the couch, shook her finger in front of Brennan’s face and shouted, “Jesus Christ—what more could he have done for you?!” Brennan said that at that moment he experienced an epiphany. He imagined himself standing before the cross of Jesus wondering, Does God really love me? and Jesus’ mother Mary pointing to her son, saying, “Jesus Christ—what more could he have done for you?”
Brennan Manning admitted that he has wondered, Does God really love me? even though he knows the Christian story. Have you ever wondered if God really loves you? If so, what might be one way to help you find a clear answer?
The cross of Jesus is God’s way of doing all he could do for us. And yet we often wonder, Does God really love me? Am I important to God? Does God care about me? And Jesus’ mother responds, “What more could he have done for you?” In our best moments, those times we willingly sacrifice our own needs for the good of others, we are participating, as Edward Yarnold said, in the image of God. We were made in God’s image, and he willingly sacrificed himself for others. The more we come to know this God, and the more we understand our true nature, the more natural self-sacrifice will become for us.
Stories of those who sacrifice for the good of another resonate deeply with the human spirit. We see such stories in literature and film. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis has Aslan, the great lion who is the Christ figure, tricking the White Witch (Satan) by offering his own life to pay the price of Edmund’s transgression. The White Witch happily agrees, thinking she has defeated Aslan and his kingdom forever. But the White Witch does not know the “Deep Magic,” namely, that an innocent who dies willingly for the guilty creates a force of energy more powerful than death. That is the great paradox of self-sacrifice.
THE PARADOX OF SELF-SACRIFICE
When Jesus left his heavenly throne and assumed our humanity and ultimately faced execution, he went from being the most powerful being to the weakest. Paul explains this using the beautiful words of an early Christian hymn:
Though he was in the form of God,
[Jesus] did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:6-11)
Describe when someone made a sacrifice for your well-being. Think of a time when you sacrificed for someone else. How did you feel? Could this be a sign that you are “made in God’s image”?
That is the paradox of self-sacrifice: by emptying and humbling himself and becoming obedient, Jesus was “highly exalted.” When Jesus was asked who the greatest is in the kingdom of God, he replied, “Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4). The greatest are those who serve. This narrative is directly opposed to the teachings of the kingdom of this world, where the greatest are those who are served.
Forgiving someone makes us appear weak and vulnerable, but it actually reveals strength and power. When victims forgive they become victors—not over others but for others. Our weakness prevents us from being able to forgive. Our fear keeps us from surrender and sacrifice. But people “in whom Christ dwells” learn to live and to give as Jesus did. Jesus is not merely a model to emulate or imitate, he is a source of strength to rely upon. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13).
HEAVEN CAME DOWN AND KISSED THE EARTH
Let’s return to my sister Vicki and her question, “Why did Jesus have to die?” Jesus did not have to die, Jesus chose to die. The Father, Son and Spirit worked in harmony to reach out to a fallen and broken world in order to restore it. God did for us what we could never do for ourselves. The cross is a symbol of God’s love and sacrifice. Jesus assumed and healed our human condition, and in doing so he demonstrated the depths of God’s love for all of creation.
Here is a key principle of the kingdom of God: What we let go of will never be lost but becomes a thing of beauty. No wonder the manger and the cross are two of the most beautiful images this world has ever seen. In the incarnation God, who created millions of spinning galaxies, chose to become vulnerable, and in so doing, heaven came down and kissed the earth. In the crucifixion God, who could not die, subjected himself to death, and in so doing lifted the whole world to himself.
After six months of studying and reflecting on the cross, on the nature of a God who self-sacrifices, Vicki wrote me a beautiful letter explaining how she had finally, at the age of fifty-six, understood what the cross was all about. She attached the letter to a gift. I opened it and found inside a beautiful work of art in the shape of a cross, which I proudly put on my shelf in a place where I see it regularly. Every time I glance at it I give thanks to God who willingly died for us. Jesus was right when he prophesied, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).