Piper misses a couple crucial things in this sermon.
First, he misses (or at least doesn't mention here) that Jesus was God, as the first eleven verses of John's Gospel clearly indicate. Hence, God the Father (Jehova, Yahweh) placed a part of Himself in Mary's womb that was subsequently birthed as Jesus Christ. Hence, God delivered up a part of Himself on the cross for the forgiveness of the offences we had committed against Him.
Secondly, Piper gets it wrong in that the purpose of the resurrection wasn't because (or just because) Jesus had been dead long enough to pay for the sins of mankind. Rather, (or maybe additionally), it was because if Jesus, who was God the Father (see above) had stayed dead for eternity as man deserves to, then that would have made Christ not the God of the universe but, instead, a mere man like every other person, or at most a God like the Greek gods, Norse gods, etc. who was more powerful than mere human beings but could still be killed the same way people could.
2 comments:
Methinks Piper got caught up in legalities when the absolute truth of the matter (or at least how I now understand it) is much simpler. For Christ Jesus had to die to pay the penalty for all of our sins under the Law, but the Law is His (with full authority to uphold or break) to start with. Therefore, unless one wants to accept that He boxed Himself into a corner, His crucifixion was as much a part of the establishment of His Law as the Law itself. For instead of just wanting to say that He loves us enough to die for us if the need arose, He made it to where it was and proved that He does indeed love us that much to counter all of our considerable doubts.
I completely agree.
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