If we accept the Loving-God Theology and Jesus' own concepts of a loving God, we must reevaluate the purposes of his incarnation, life, and death. This may take us aside in our discussion but in the end it will give us a far broader understanding of how magnanimous and expansive God's love is for us as exemplified in Jesus' life.
Preliminary Issues.Why did a Son of God come to this planet in the life of Jesus? Why did he take the form of a human? Why did he take the hazardous challenge of developing from an embryo to a fully-grown man? Did he come to this planet for us only? Why did he die? Why did he die as he did? What purposes were served by his death? Was there any purpose at all? Was his death an awful, despicable action taken by vengeful men, rather than a requirement of a vengeful god?
In light of Jesus' loving-God concepts, what place do sacrifice, atonement, and redemption have as beliefs about an eternally loving God? Why were these concepts developed? What purpose did they serve when they were developed and accepted by Christendom? What purpose do they serve now?
All the reasons why Jesus, a Son of God, came to this planet may never be known that would help us more fully explain his life and death. Few writers have asked, "Did Jesus, as a Son of God, come into a human lifetime for any purpose that would aid his own spiritual evolution? ”While answering this question would be outside the scope of this essay, making a vivid comparison may aid readers to more fully comprehend the gravity of what a Son of God did by coming to this planet.
The life of Jesus. When this Son of God came to our minuscule planet, he made the stunning transition from a timelessly-eternal spiritual being of unlimited intelligence and power to a fragile physical being with a limited physical lifetime of almost non-existent power and energy. What would it feel like for you or me to make a transition of similar magnitude? Imagine how you would feel and what your thoughts would be if you voluntarily made the transition from a fully mature, intelligent human as yourself to a newborn Dalmatian puppy. Or to a tadpole in a pond.Or to a worm in a rotten apple. Or to a leaf-eating caterpillar and then to a butterfly. Try to put yourself into each of these situations as a conscious being of very limited awareness and intelligence. That's the kind of transition, but with even greater magnitude of difference, that this Son of God made when he moved from pure, all-powerful spirit into a physical embryo in Mary’s womb.
It would be a profound understatement to say that he humbled himself as a Son of God to become a material human. By making the incredible transition from a co-creator in the universe into the form of a mortal, he humbled himself to a degree none of us can imagine for ourselves. Perhaps that is why, for nearly two thousand years, we have been struggling with the interpretation of his life, and why we still haven't grasped the magnitude of what he did and the reasons why.
What is more stunning is that Jesus came to teach us how to create a loving, co-creative relationship between our Creator and ourselves. That much seems obvious in light of his three-year ministry telling people about basic loving relationship skills that also would aid their spiritual journey.
The death of Jesus is a topic that is germane to more fully determine if the Loving-God Theology and Jesus' own loving-God concepts are applicable to the interpretation of his own death. Although Jesus said a good deal about the nature of God and knew far ahead about his death, he said nothing in his own words about it in terms of sacrifice, atonement, or redemption. Paul, on the other hand, had a lot to say about the life and death of Jesus. Let's begin by reviewing what Paul said, since he is the most influential early interpreter of Jesus' life and death. Remember, Paul had never met Jesus to have a discussion directly with him to understand clearly why all of these events took place!
For most of us, events that are many centuries old have lost their drama. How easily we forget what tremendous impact a meaningful event had upon the individuals who experienced it. Consider, for instance, the personal impact the death of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., the shooting of the Pope, Anwar Sadat, Indira Gandhi, John Lennon, or other notable public figure had on their immediate advisors, staff, supporters, family, and close friends. Consider your own reactions to a sudden or violent death of a family member or closefriend.Imagine that personal shock multiplied many times if you knew that the person you revered was a Son of God!
Play the role of Paul with me for a few moments. In order for us to understand how and why Paul interpreted the purposes of Jesus' life and his death as he did, we must become Paul and feel what Paul felt. Early on, Paul was known as Saul, a well educated Jew who fiercely persecuted the Christians. One day as he was on his way to Damascus, Saul had a spiritual experience. In an instant, he was in the center of a light so bright that it blinded him for three days. In the light he heard the words, "Paul! Paul! Why are you persecuting me?"
Stunned, but not incoherent, he asked in return, "Who is speaking, sir?"
And the voice replied, "I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting!" [Acts 9: 3-20].
For those few moments, Saul was on the receiving end of a conversation with Jesus — the same Jesus who had already been killed by arrangements made by the Sanhedrin. In asking Saul this one question, all of Saul's questions and objections of Jesus' authenticity were answered. In doing so, Jesus had, metaphorically, let Saul see "the wiring under the board." Saul realized, 1) Jesus was who he said he was; 2) knowing this, he had to embrace and endorse the authenticity of Jesus and his ministry with the same energy that he had once denounced them. Saul was a converted believer. He was a new man, and he renamed himself Paul.
For Paul, the fact of Jesus' presence on earth as a Son of God was doubly profound: 1) Jesus was born on earth; and 2) Jesus died on earth. Remember, although Paul now supported the life and teachings of Jesus, his beliefs were deeply rooted in the Jewish culture, religion, and education. He had an immense faith in the power of God, his God. Now he had an immense faith in his Son, too. Paul was fully aware that God was all-powerful. Nothing could move against the powers of God in heaven or on earth. Neither could anything move against Jesus, since Paul knew that he was a Son of God. Yet, Jesus, as a human person was crucified on the cross.
Surely, Paul was profoundly puzzled with three overwhelming questions that needed to be answered: Why did a Son of God come to earth? Why did God and Jesus allow himself to be crucified on the cross? God or Jesus, being all-powerful, could have stopped the development of events at any point in time. Why didn't they?
As Paul tried to unravel this immense problem, probably his next question was, "How could such a momentous, profound event NOT be willed by God, since God is all-powerful, knows all, and is present everywhere and could have easily stopped the crucifixion?" Paul would have heard about Jesus' own words while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, "My Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done" [Luke 22: 42; Matthew 26: 39, 42, 44; Mark 14: 36, 39], which could be easily interpreted to mean, "God wanted it so.”Because it was obvious that God allowed the death of Jesus to occur: Paul must have concluded that God willed the death of Jesus. Most people would have drawn the same, logical conclusion — and millions have!
Reviewing our earlier arguments, we know that God is love and all that God creates is of love. The death of Jesus was an event created by several men. God had nothing to do with Jesus' death because those men individually used their free will to make that decision. Many times daily, we live out the proof that we have free will and that God does not interfere in our decisions.
Again as Paul, you would probably form the next question, "Why was Jesus' death willed by God?" A lamp begins to flicker in Paul's head when came to the conclusion that Jesus must have died to *atone for the sins of mankind, and of individuals. It seems logical, doesn't it? As Paul knew, individuals, even mankind, were regarded as wholly sinful.
* atone - to atone for, expiate, propitiate, appease, make amends; redeem, repair, ransom, absolve, purge, shrive; do penance, pay the penalty; sacrifice, immolate-…,
Paul would have said to himself, "It all fits! People are sinful; only Jesus a Son of God is without sin. The answer to why a Son of God came to earth and died as he did was to wipe away the sins of all people by the sacrifice of his life."
This answer made perfect sense to Paul. Sacrifice was in keeping with Hebrew history and Jewish religion. In very early Jewish history, individuals were sacrificed. Later, animals were substituted to atone and appease God for the sins committed by individual believers or by the tribe. It would have been logical then for Paul to accept the idea that the crucifixion of Jesus was a sacrifice. "What a relief,” Paul must have said, "Jesus did die for a reason! He is our Savior!"
Further, the logic of the sacrificial concept also fits neatly with the ancient Hebrew God-concept: A wrathful, vengeful god, whose love was conditional and needed to be appeased. For centuries, that was the god that Jewish believers and Paul recognized and worshipped, and is, even today, the god of contemporary Judaism and traditional Christianity.
Paul's logic was tight, with what appeared to be no holes or flaws. It fit historically. It fit Jewish religious and cultural history. Further, it fit the needs of the followers of Jesus, and as importantly, the needs of new believers to understand why Jesus, a Son of God, died on this planet. At the time, Paul's answer gave rationality to an otherwise irrational, illogical, and unreasonable event of immense personal and theological proportions.But, today, we know these explanations are truly irrational and illogical. God did not will his Son’s death, but allowed it to occur.