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Your God is Cruel

Once when my wife was in hospital she and a few other patients asked the chaplain to give them Holy Communion. Another lady who had expressed interest asked to observe. Afterwards she said she worshipped Mother Earth and was a witch.

I can’t accept your god, because he’s cruel.

She said, reffering to God sending his son to die in such a horrible way.

I must admit to having had the same thought. Was it fair of God the Father to dump all the consequences of worldwide and all-time sin on his son? Then I came to understand the indivisibility of the trinity. God and Jesus and were ONE.

Jesus said “I and the father are one.” God didn’t callously stand by while his son was crucified - he felt all the pain and suffering that Jesus felt and they both always knew and had foreseen the cost. Jesus accepted the suffering that was before him because of the joy that was to follow.

It took an infinite sacrifice - all of God in human form - to mop up and be the cure for sin. “As far as the east is from the west he has removed our sins from us.” If an infinite God put our sins in his back pocket, they would be removed to an infinite distance! The crucifixion cost both the Father and the Son a huge price but both God and Jesus were prepared to lovingly pay that price ‘from the foundation of the world’!

This has been called the divine exchange - Jesus’ rightness was given freely to us when he willingly absorbed and destroyed our sin. What a stunning blessing, coming to us from the Father’s love, from Jesus’ love - and, no doubt, the Holy Spirit’s love too.

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