Did God Kill Jesus?

By Benjamin H. Liles

          The reason so many turn from a message of Christ crucified is that they see God as some angry, punishing disciplinarian who just couldn't wait to kill Jesus, His Son, the Messiah. They look at the verse where Jesus has given the parable of the talents, it reads, "Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours" (Matthew 25:24-25).

          However, we limit God to this role, especially when it comes to Him and His forgiveness. How many times in the gospel narrative from the gospels of Matthew to John do we read where Christ said, "I do that which I see my Father doing" (John 5:19), as well as the phrase, "Your sins are forgiven" (Matthew 9:2).

          Either we understand God's holy standard is that we maintain that same standard, even though we can't measure up to it, or we fail to understand God desires a humble and seeking heart. Above all, man does not seek after God, but rather God seeking man out. His desire? To reconcile man to Himself. But He cannot do so while man remains sinful. Something, Someone having done this, has to happen for this to be possible.

          It is by Jesus' admission at the Garden of Gethsemane, where He says, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done" (Luke 22:42). He doesn't lean on His own to to go His own way, but rather entrusts Himself to the Father's plan to reconcile sinful man so he may have access to God through Jesus. It is why Jesus could confidently claim, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me" (John 14:6).

          We have to see that God, in His loving justice -- poured out of Himself -- His life on a cross so that we may have life and have it everlasting. But it means we allow Him to draw us to Him, seeing our need for Him. So, to answer the question "Did God Kill Jesus," I have to answer "No;" and yet at the same time "Yes," but only in the sense of the fact Jesus took our punishment for us so we can become children, joint heirs in Him. As it is said, "By His stripes you are healed" (1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:5). Amen.