The Cross Is God’s Answer – Part 1

The Cross is God’s answer to the question, “Why don’t you do something about evil?”

In this post, I will be sharing excerpts from chapter 21 of Randy Alcorn’s book If God Is Good. This chapter focuses on Jesus, who is the only answer bigger than the questions. This chapter for me reinforced what this God-Man did for me. This is why I passionately love Jesus, the Savior, and answer to whatever we face. Moreover, because this chapter is so full of Hope and Encouragement, I decided to break it down into two separate posts. I pray this chapter brings you closer to the One who died for you.

Perhaps you have not made the choice to follow Jesus yet, after reading this post, hopefully, you will not wait any longer. Where you spend eternity is at stake.

Remember you can find posts of previous chapters under the heading Bible Studies in the menu above. Please leave your respectful thoughts and comments or prayer needs below. Unless otherwise noted, the Scriptures used are from the NKJV.

The Cross Is Where God’s Suffering Conquered Evil

Bart Ehrman writes,

“I came to think that there is not a God who is actively involved with this world of pain and misery – if he is, why doesn’t he do something about it?” [1]

But what if God did do something about it? What if what he did was so great and unprecedented that it shook the angelic realm’s foundation, and ripped in half, from the top down, not only the temple curtain but the fabric of the universe itself?

A powerful moment in The Passion of the Christ occurs when Jesus, overwhelmed with pain and exhaustion, lies on the ground as guards kick, mock, and spit on him. A horrified woman, her hand outstretched, pleads, “Someone, stop this!”

The great irony is that “Someone,” God’s son, was doing something unspeakably great that required it not to be stopped.

Had someone delivered Jesus from his suffering that day, he could not deliver us from ours.

God Allowed Jesus’s Temporary Suffering

Consider God’s history of reaching down to men.

“The Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy.” – 2 Chr 36:15-16

When men would not listen to angels or prophets, God sent his son.

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,  has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;  who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,  having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.” – Heb 1:1-4

Jesus came in humiliation; many imagined him conceived out of wedlock, a shameful thing in that era. He grew up in a town of ill repute: “Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’” – John 1:46

Isaiah 53:2 states: “…He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him.”

He worked as a humble Carpenter which made many people rule him out as the Messiah.

“Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands!  Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So, they were offended at Him.” – Mark 6:2-3

He lived in relative poverty. Jesus said: “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” – Matt 8:20

They called him a liar: “There was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, “He is good”; others said, “No, on the contrary, He deceives the people.” – John 7:12

Long before his crucifixion, he endured these indignities and much more.

The Guarantee Of Christ’s Atonement

Randy Alcorn states:

“As an unbeliever raised with no knowledge of God, part of what drew me to Christ is how the gospel accounts seem so contrary to typical human reasoning. Yet I found them completely credible. No human would make up such a story! It had (and still has) the ring of truth.”

Sometimes familiarity with the gospel story prevents us from understanding its breathtaking nature. The great book and movie of C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe offer particular help in understanding Christ’s atoning sacrifice. If you have not read the book or watched the movie as a child or an adult you need to, it’s awesome!

Aslan Creator of Narnia

Aslan, the all-powerful lion, created Narnia and all other worlds. After Lucy hears that her brother must die for his treachery, she asked Aslan, “Can anything be done to save Edmund?”

Aslan responds, “All shall be done, but it may be harder than you think.” Knowing the terrible suffering and death that await him, Aslan becomes very sad. But he can save Edmund only through his self-sacrifice.

Those serving Aslan’s foe, the white witch, roll Aslan onto his back and tie his paws together. Lewis writes, “Had the lion chosen, one of those paws could have been the death of them all.” Finally, the witch orders that Aslan, their rightful king, be shaved. They cut off his beautiful mane and ridiculed him. Aslan surrenders to his enemies, trading his life for Edmonds.[2]   

Likewise, Jesus felt overwhelming sadness in the garden of Gethsemane. He told his disciples “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” – Matthew 26:38 NLT

The soldiers who guarded Jesus mocked and hit him (see Luke 22:63). And in actual history, Jesus went to the Cross to die for us. That’s how much he loves us.

The drama of evil and suffering in Christ’s sacrifice addresses the very heart of the problem of evil and suffering. One day it will prove to have been the final answer.

The Cross: God’s Plan From The Beginning

Jesus is the perfect, permanent, and only intermediary between God and man.

During his suffering, Job cried out for someone who could understand. Someone who could bridge the apparently infinite gap between God and man. He lamented, “He is not a mere mortal like me…If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, someone to remove God’s rod from me so that his terror would frighten me no more.” – Job 9:32-34 (NIV)

But who could lay his hand on both God and man, to connect them in a loving relationship? Only the God-man. “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,” – 1 Tim 2:5 (NIV)

The Greatest Good in Human History Came Out of the Greatest Evil

On the Cross, Jesus suffered the worst pain in history. Yet that event will forever remain at the center of our worship and wonder.

The Cross exposes us for what we are. The punishment our evil warrants answer the question “How evil are we?” The Cross is a mirror showing us the heart-stopping magnitude of our depravity and offers a terrible glimpse of Hell’s misery.

The Cross is also a lens showing us God’s uncompromising holiness and wrath that demand such a price for sin. It’s also a magnifying glass showing us the sweeping vastness of God’s grace and love, that he would be willing to pay a price he knew would be so horrific.

The Cross is Everything

• Everything before the Cross points forward to it.
• Everything since the Cross points back to it.
• Everything that will last was purchased on it.
• Everything that matters hinges on it.

Children learn much about Jesus by watching Aslan on the stone table, knowing he could kill his mocking enemies with a single word, but instead allowing himself to be bound, laying down his life for Edmund.

The temptation to end it all must have been overwhelming. With no more than a thought, just the unspoken word Come, Christ could have called upon waiting armies to strike down his torturers and bring him instant relief.

The Greatest Wonder of the Cross

Jesus said, “Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?” – Matt 26:53

Perhaps the greatest wonder is not that Jesus went to the Cross but that he stayed on it. Why did Jesus suffer the relentless beatings before the Cross? Why did he hang on it for six hours rather than six minutes or six seconds?

Perhaps as a reminder that suffering is a process. God does not end our suffering as soon as we would like. He did not end his Son’s suffering as soon as he would have liked. Therefore, we stand in good company.

It’s one thing to suffer terribly, and another to choose to suffer terribly. Evil and suffering formed the crucible in which God demonstrated his love to mankind.

God’s love comes to us soaked in divine blood. One look at Jesus, at his incarnation and the redemption he provided us, should silence the argument that God has withdrawn to some far corner of the universe where he keeps his hands clean and maintains his distance from human suffering. God does not merely emphasize with our sufferings. He actually suffers. Jesus is God. What Jesus suffered; God suffered.

God’s Love Was Proven by the Cross

The messianic text in Isaiah 52:13-53:12 depicts the worst suffering one person has ever endured. Remarkably, Jesus’s suffering wasn’t because of his own sin: it was for “our” infirmities, “our” sorrows, “our” transgressions, “our” iniquities. Alcorn asks, “Before you read the passage, ask God to let the weight of his word fall upon you.”

“Many who were appalled at him…his appearance…disfigured beyond that of any human being… his form marred beyond human likeness… He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain… He was despised, and we held him in low esteem… He took up our pain and bore our suffering…punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted…pierced for our transgressions…crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed… The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, he was led like a lamb to the slaughter…it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer.” – Isa 52:13-53:12

Holocaust Survivors Speak Up

Holocaust survivor Rose Price says:

“My mother and the rest of my family were murdered in Treblinka. I was in three camps in Poland and three camps in Germany and the beatings were constant. Every time we were hit the guards would tell us it’s all Jesus’s fault, he told us to hit you, Jesus hates you.”

This was Rose’s view of Jesus for many years. Then she says:

“I picked up my daughter’s Bible and started reading it and reading it and reading it…. And after I just couldn’t find any more excuses, I noticed that he was the lamb…. And he didn’t kill me, he didn’t put me in a camp, he didn’t kill my family. He died for me; did you know that? He died for me! He loved me this much. That he gave himself for me.” [3]

Marion Parkhurst, another Holocaust survivor, studied Isaiah 53 and the Messiah’s suffering on her behalf. Marian finally realized that she could no longer deny: the prophet spoke of Y’shua, Jesus. Marian says,

“After I started believing in Y’shua all the hate left me…. and that was very important because hate is really destructive, it destroys you eventually.” [4] 

As a girl, Dr. Vera Schlamm and her family suffered in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp she said,

“Being drawn to Jesus and yet feeling I couldn’t believe in Jesus as a Jewish person, you know, having gone through the Holocaust and all that. How could I go into enemy territory, you know that’s the thinking. And yet when I read that “We turned our faces from him,” I couldn’t deny that the whole chapter [Isaiah 53] was talking about Jesus…. They had the Scriptures out in the temple where I went and the next Friday night, I got the Scriptures out and looked for Isaiah 53 and there it was, same thing. And then I thought, how could I how come I never heard that before?” [5] 

Ruth Horack says, “I spent three and a half  years in the worst concentration camps.” Later she considered the Scriptures, Speaking of Messiah and his sacrifice for us. She says,

“And I thought about it and thought about it. And then I said to myself how could we have blamed Jesus for what happened to our people?” [6] 

Those who have suffered most are most deeply touched when they grasp Christ’s suffering for them.

God Is Not Weak and Vulnerable

Though many recent writers have spoken of God’s vulnerability and weakness demonstrated on the Cross, we must see this truth in the context of God’s sovereignty. Christ chose this “weakness.”

Christ humbled himself. His obedient death on the Cross reflects a deliberate weakness.

“Therefore, My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” –  John 10:17-18

Jesus willingly chose to suffer as a victim. Scripture portrays a God so strong he can take on weakness to overpower all opposition and accomplish his eternal purposes:

• “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” – 2 Cor 5:21
• “Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God
  and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” – Phil 2:7-8 (NLT)
• “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,” – 1 Pet 3:18 (ESV)

That Christ Jesus the eternal son of God would choose to endure the Holocaust of the Cross to pay for sin, that he would take on the suffering of all people in Golgotha’s Killing field, changed the way that Randy Alcorn looked at suffering and evil, and how it reflected upon God’s character.

The proven character of Christ demonstrated in his sacrifice on our behalf makes him trustworthy even when evil and suffering overwhelm us. When you feel God’s silence, or think him absent, look at Christ, the “lamb… silent before the shearers” (see Acts 8:32 NLT).

Jesus shouts to us without opening his mouth:

“I do care. Don’t you see the blood, bruises, and scars? Whatever you may think, never doubt that I care for you.”

The Question

Be sure to check out part two of today’s post The Cross Is God’s Answer.

Have you come to Jesus? Have you seen him? If not, brace yourself. Because once you see Jesus as he really is, your worldview, your goals, your affections, everything – including your view of evil and suffering will change.

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• ^[1] Bart D. Ehrman, God’s Problem (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), 128.
• [2] C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (New York: HarperCollins, 1978), 151-155.
• [3]Rose Price, Survivor Stories: Finding Hope From An Unlikely Source, Purple Pomegranate Productions, Jews for Jesus video, http://store.jewsforjesus.org/ppp/product/210.
• [4] Marion Parkhurst, Survivor Stories.
• [5] Vera Schlaam, Survivor Stories.
• [6] Ruth Horack, Survivor Stories.