Shocking Love
By C. Baxter Kruger
Sometimes the simplest thoughts cascade into revolutions. What if it was not the wrath of God that Jesus suffered on the cross, but the wrath of the human race? What if it was our bitterness and scorn and judgment and hostility—not the Father’s or the Holy Spirit’s—that was poured out on Jesus?
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will deliver Him up to the entitles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up” (Matthew 20:18-19).
“Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners” (Matthew 26:45).
“For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:3).
Either the Father, Son, and Spirit were caught off guard by our corporate rejection of Jesus, or there is a redemptive genius at work here that is too beautiful for words. Was the rejection of Jesus not foreseen by the Triune God? Was the Father or the Spirit surprised when we killed the solution? Was Jesus bewildered when the crowds turned against him?
Here is amazing grace. In breathtaking love, the Lord’s way of establishing real relationship with us in our hell involves the shocking and inconceivable submission of the Trinity to our cruelty and anger. In submitting himself to bear our scorn and abuse and wickedness Jesus met us where we are in the great darkness—and he brought his Father and the Holy Sprit with him.
Far from being separated from his Father or the Holy Spirit on the cross, Jesus was brining the Trinitarian life into our hell. By allowing himself to be abused by us Jesus became the arms of the Father’s embrace. By suffering our wickedness Jesus became the way the Holy Spirit found us in the catacombs of our fear and shame.
“Good souls many will one day be horrified by what they now believe about God.” —George MacDonald
This article was from the first issue of PAPA – The Perichoresis Association of People Adopted (used by permission)
Links:
PAPA — www.perichoresisassociation.org
Baxter Kruger — www.perichoresis.org
Poema — www.poemavb.org
Adopted Life — www.theadoptedlife.org
Paul Young — www.windrumors.com
Masterpiece Solutions — www.masterpiece-solutions.org
On the Incarnation — www.spurgeon.org/~phil/history/ath-inc.htm
Become a friend of PAPA on facebook!
www.facebook.com/pages/PAPA/144626938937404#
Baxter (Kruger) is one of my favorite contemporary theologians. Anything we can do to help build his fine reputation is worthwhile. Baxter introduced me to the whole content of the “perichorises” – and the whole thing has revolutionized my theology. I feel blessed to be a part of the “Divine Dance.”
Kruger is brilliant at communicating the truth of Trinitarian Theology and perichoresis. But his mentors and those who have gone before him need to also be recognized: the Torrance brothers, Karl Barth and of course those early church fathers – Iranaeus, Athanasius and Gregory of Nazianzus. I wonder if the patience of God that Peter spoke of is more to do with the Church getting the true gospel to the whole world. The name of Jesus has certainly been preached throughout the world, but the truth of perichoresis and humanity’s participation therein is decades, if not centuries away from being known globally. I suspect that Jesus may not be returning for a very long time!
I certainly agree (and Baxter would also) about the Torrance brothers – and Barth, too. And that this theology is tied to the early Capadocian Father is without question.
Yes, the gospel (our inclusion in the life of Papa, by the Spirit, in Christ – must still be preached to the ends of the earth.
Thanks, Richard, for you comment