In the mid 1990′s, a mainline Protestant denomination held a theological conference in which one speaker stated, quote: “I don’t think we need a theory of atonement at all. I don’t think we need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff.” End quote.

Between the lines of breath, the speaker was essentially conveying – Why can’t we just concentrate on the teaching about how God is a God of love? The answer to this question is that if we take away the cross of Christ - A God of love ceases to exist.

In the real world of personal relationships, it is impossible to genuinely love people with a problem or a need without in some way sharing or even changing places with them. All real, life-changing or deep rooted love involves some form of exchange or standing in the place of identification with another. Very little is required of us to love a person who is pulled together and happy. In other words, it’s easy to be loving when everything is lovely and going our way in relation to others. But if we think of emotionally scarred and wounded people – It becomes clear that it is very difficult to listen and genuinely love people with wounds, compulsive behaviors, and addictive tendencies and yet stay completely and emotionally intact ourselves. It may be that they feel stronger and more affirmed as you engage and talk, but life change will not happen without you being quite emotionally drained yourself. The truth is that it is them or you! To bring them up emotionally and healed from their wounds and issues, you must be willing to be drained emotionally as well and maybe even wounded by the very people who are being healed by your sacrifice.

Imagine for a moment if you were to come into contact with a person who is innocent of a criminal charge but yet is being hunted down by let’s say, secret agents or by the government or by some other powerful organization. The person reaches out to you for help and the choices are clear – If you don’t help him, he will probably die. But if you ally with him, you – who are perfectly safe and secure, will be in mortal danger staring death in the face. I know that this is the stuff that movie plots are made of. But the point is that it’s either them or you! He or she in this scenario will experience increased safety and security through your involvement. But it’s only because you are willing to enter into his or her insecurity and vulnerability.

If we consider parenting – children come into the world in a condition of complete and utter dependency. They cannot function as self-sufficient or independent persons unless their parents give up much of their own independence and personal freedoms for an investment that lasts many years. If we don’t allow our children to hinder our freedom let’s say after work, at leisure, (time in general) and if you only get to your children’s needs when it doesn’t inconvenience you – your children will grow up physically only. On the same hand and in a variety of ways they will remain emotionally needy, troubled, over-dependent, and eventually co-dependent.  The choice is clear. We can either sacrifice our freedom or theirs or we don’t. Once again, it’s them or you! To love your children well and in the love of God, you must decrease that they may increase. You must be willing to enter into their dependency upon you at this time in their lives so eventually they can experience the same freedom and secure independence you have.

All life changing love toward people with serious needs is a substitutional sacrifice and when we become personally involved with the weak in some way, their weaknesses flow toward us as our strengths flow toward them. The essence and self-initiated manifestation of sin is that we as human beings substitute ourselves for God, while the essence of sacrificial salvation is God substituting himself for us. You and I in our fallen state put ourselves where only God deserves to be. Yet God continues to put himself where we deserve to be.

How can God possibly be a God of love if he does not become personally involved in the suffering of violence, oppression, grief, weakness, and pain that we experience? There are only two possible answers to this question. First, God cannot or will not enter into our needs and weakness. The second option or answer is “Christianity”. It is the faith called “Christianity” or belief in Jesus Christ’s sacrifice that has the audacity to claim that God can and in fact does enter into our needs and weaknesses.

This is the power and purpose of the cross and upon which we are likewise empowered because Christ is with us. Not only is he “with” us, but he is also “in” us and experiencing the same pain, disappointments, and weakness. It is through the cross that Christ in you becomes the hope of glory and glorifying all that is possible within the abundant life.

A woman named JoAnne Terrell once wrote about how her mother was murdered by her mother’s boyfriend. Quote: “I had to find a connection between my mom’s story, my story, and Jesus’ story.” She would end up finding this connection by understanding the cross and that Jesus did not only suffer for us, but with us, and in us. He knew what it was like (literally) to be wounded under the weight of the lash, the weight of pressure and the weight of rejection. The good news is that Christ refused to be cowed or tempted by emotions, temporal riches or short-term reward and those with influence. Thus, Christ sacrificed for our eternal reward with his own life. He voluntarily took his place beside and with those who were without power and suffering from hurt and injustice. John Stott summarizes my thoughts well when he wrote, “I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the cross. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?”

Therefore, the cross and the season we are in when properly understood, cannot possibly be used to encourage the oppressed to simply accept violence whether external or self-inflicted against our own bodies (various addictive and compulsive behaviors). When Jesus suffered “for” us, he was honoring justice. But when Jesus suffered “with” us, he was identifying with the oppressed of the world and not with their oppressors.

All life changing love reflects an exchange and a reversal of places. But here is the great reversal – God, in the place of ultimate power reverses places with the marginalized, the needy, the poor, the lonely, the oppressed, and the addicted. The prophets of old sang songs about God as the one who has “brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the weak and poor.” But never could they have imagined that God himself would come down off his ultimate throne and suffer with you and me that we may be lifted up.

The dynamic of the cross means that the world’s glorification of power, control, and status is exposed and defeated. On the cross, Christ wins through losing, triumphs through defeat, achieves power through weakness and service and obtained eternal wealth by giving his all to others. Jesus Christ turns the values of the world upside down. The real enemy, after all was not Rome and it is not Washington, Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, Aman, or Hollywood today. It is the powers of evil that stand behind human arrogance and violence (violence against others and violence against our own bodies in addictive behaviors and habits such as over-eating, pills, gossip, and other escapism vices). On the cross, the kingdom of God triumphed over the kingdoms of this world and darkness by refusing to join in their spiral of external and self-inflicted violence. On the cross, Jesus would love his enemies, turn the other cheek, and go the last mile for you and me. The cool thing is that we are not alone and we can finish strong because we have the gift of a wonderful encourager and comforter who can relate greater than all others and is running right beside us. The catch is that we learn to run beside one another - the power of the resurrection expressed.