Why it had to be God hanging there at Calvary

Why would it be God who was hanging there at Calvary 2,000 years ago?

(This post isn’t asking “Did the immortal die?” I’ve already covered that in another post here (link). This post today is about why nothing less than God would do. It had to be God hanging there at Calvary. The idea of it being nothing but a man on Calvary doesn’t work.

1 John 2:2 says that Jesus “is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Let’s see where this goes.

The problems with the idea of Jesus being nothing but a man are multiple:

·       If Jesus were nothing but a man, then there was no more value in him than in anyone else. So his life is not a matching price for everyone else’s life. (Billions of us.)

·       If nothing but a man, then he doesn’t have the right to claim everyone else’s sins as his own.

·       If nothing but one man, how does he pay for history’s virtually limitless human sins? To reach out on that day at Calvary to cover all humanity’s future sins, it couldn’t be just a man doing it.

·       If nothing but a temporal man, how could this ever provide eternal atonement for all? How could an event by one man on one day pay for things of uncountable value in the far future? It’s too fanciful.

·       If nothing but a man, where’s the power to defeat Satan’s hold over creation? (As in Hebrews 2:14.) One man being perfect wouldn’t be enough to bring Satan down. It might save this man’s own eternity, but it wouldn’t bring Satan down. Sin is all-pervasive in our world, and it wouldn’t undo a whole world, a cosmos. This victory couldn’t be just a man’s achievement.

·       If God is not hanging there at Calvary, then humanity (through one of its own) has saved itself. How does God ever get the glory with humanity saving itself?

·       Whose victory was it? People of Judea could have said “We brought up this boy so well that he remained sinless. How clever we are.” How could God ever claim the victory if it were humanity claiming the victory (through one of its own)?

·       And if Jesus were not God, then it didn't have to be Jesus hanging there. The first person to avoid sin would do. A child would do. A most disturbing problem.

·       The curse of Genesis 3 is God’s curse. Man can’t revoke it. So, if nothing but a man, then Jesus couldn’t revoke someone else’s curse anyway. There had been righteous men before (Noah, Moses, Abraham) but none of them was able to break the curse of Genesis 3. Only God could do that. Calvary was the means of salvation. So it had to be God there. A man alone at Calvary could never revoke God’s words.

 

Yet 1 John 3:8 says that the Son of God came to undo the devil’s work. So the idea of this Son of God being nothing but a man doesn’t work.

The author of creation has to re-author it. That means God. That means God had to be hanging there at Calvary.

Indeed, God says that he has to do salvation himself (Isaiah 63:5). Calvary was the means of salvation. It was God hanging there. It was God and humanity united in a single person hanging there. Nothing else could deliver.

There are so many valid reasons for this, that it is insurmountable for any challenge against it. Did humanity save itself through one of it's own? No. Did humanity get the glory? No. Does one human life have more value than another human life? No. Can one simple human claim everyone else's sins as his own? No. Did God's curse get revoked by someone else? No. Did a mere human defeat Satan and the all-pervasive sin of history? No. 

To God be the glory. It was God hanging there at Calvary, for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

(This post is indebted to the inspiring work of Debbie Laycock.)