From What Does Grace Save Us?

Thinking About The Purpose of the Cross.

It might be natural to conclude that every believer would answer this question the same. I’m no longer sure that’s true.

Depending on our religious roots, we probably use one of these terms for our becoming a child of God:

• Saved

• Redeemed

• Rescued / Delivered

There could be others, but you get the idea.

What is implied, in these terms, as the peril from which we are saved, redeemed, rescued, or delivered? “Saved” is usually the counter position of being lost, and is closely related to the contrast between eternal life and eternal punishment. “Redeemed” is usually associated with the purchase and release of an enslaved person – enslaved to sin in a religious context. “Rescued”, or “delivered”, are usually related to the eternal safety and rest of heaven, versus the torment of an eternal hell.

For most, the answer to our subject question is among the words written above.

In addition, there is likely a consensus that we all need grace, whether we’re redeemed, rescued, delivered, or saved. “Grace” is shorthand for the “grace of God”. God is the implied subject of each of those verb terms, and we are the passive objects of benefit.

Some have effortlessly concluded we are being saved from God, or from His wrath – somehow accepting that God’s grace, through Jesus, saves us from God’s wrath. In this common theology, a conflicted God in one form and nature saves us from a different form and nature of Himself!

Without using those exact words, my beliefs implied this conclusion.

How does that sit with you? If this is a new thought for you, I’m apologetic and gratified at the same time! Plenty have reached this implied understanding without my help. If so, I suggest we have distorted perspectives of God, Jesus, and humanity, and we own a humanistic view of soteriology – the study of the doctrines of salvation.

Is there a better explanation of what the gospel of the cross is all about?

I’m not sure I’m capable of putting fingers to keyboard and make my view make sense to someone else. Although it’s clear in my head, you may experience a garbled transmission.

But I’ll try… it won’t be perfect.

God created man in His image, to be a chosen, intimate, co-ruling partner, with Him, over His good creation. Rule means to love and to serve. Man rejected God’s grace, and loved / served / exalted himself. Ultimately, when humans rebelled, and were no longer images of God, we were exiled outside the perfection we corrupted.

Since that moment, God has been restoring goodness in His creation, while humans, even the “good ones”, continually get in the way.

But God remains faithful to His primary purpose, which is to uphold His own glory. Included in God’s glory is His righteousness – His always being just. An additional part of God’s glory is His freedom to be and do. In freedom, God has chosen to be just.

By definition, just = righteous.

So, as just, God sees an un-Godlike image – a failure we call sin. A god that doesn’t address our sin is not just – and failing to uphold His justice, He fails to uphold His glory. Practically, a god that identifies and names sin, and ignores it, is pathetic, and unworthy of our attention. The God of the Bible is always just, and always upholds His glory. That’s God.

Humanity, on the other hand, is unjust, or unrighteous, and chooses glory for ourselves. The best of us, in a context of moral goodness, fall woefully short of being the image of God as we were intended. As God evaluates Himself and His creation, and upholds His glory, any representation of humanity as His image, makes God a laughingstock, and unjust. We’re not image representatives of God. We don’t reflect His glory. All of us. There is not one who is righteous, or just, nor will there be. Seeing our natural selves in any way other than unrighteous, is a perfect example of our unrighteousness. That’s humanity.

So, how does a righteous God restore a good creation that includes an unrighteous human partner?

• He could punish the guilty. That would certainly be just, but there would be a creation without partner images – a failure to uphold His glory.

• He could ignore the guilty. That would certainly be merciful, and unjust, because rebellion would be ignored – a failure to uphold His glory.

• He could accept a sacrificial offering for humanity’s sins, but from who? None are righteous, and are incapable of even offering themselves for their own sin. Who could be an acceptable sacrifice for the sin of others? Not a human.

But, God, in His righteousness, became a human, and offered Himself for the sins of humanity. Jesus, God incarnate, is the sacrifice. Through Jesus, the righteousness of God is given to those who trust in Jesus’ blood. In this way, God’s wrath is appeased. Sin is addressed. God’s righteousness is upheld. Man becomes the righteous image of God. God is glorified!

God is righteous in His justice and in His mercy. He is just, and becomes the justifier of those who trust Christ – true images of God.

God did this for His glory and His righteousness. Period. As hard as it is to imagine, we were not the focus of God’s purpose.

When we see God and ourselves in this way, we begin to understand grace, and we have no room for boasting. In grace, God took the sin that was mine and gave it to Jesus, who had no sin; and He took His righteousness and dressed me, one who had no righteousness, in it. The term for this transfer of guilt and righteousness is called imputation. It’s here that I begin to see God’s purpose as restoration, not rescue.

I’m thinking this might be the essence of the gospel of the cross – restoration and renewal.

I would encourage a closer look of Romans 3:21-27 – it’s much better written.