At our church in Mt Pleasant, we recently celebrated Good Friday. And it’s good for us to think clearly about what Jesus did and did not do for us on the Cross. Some sermons, books, or posts seem to say that Jesus won God’s love for us on the cross. God the Father was angry at us, but God the Son loved us. But because Jesus paid for our sins and bore God’s wrath, the Father can now stand to love us.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Admittedly, this is a natural way of thinking that fallen people gravitate towards. We bought the Serpent’s lie that God is a restrictive, miserly master back in Genesis 3. Ever since we tend to believe that God is not particularly good, generous, or loving.
So when we come to the cross, we are tempted to believe that Jesus loves us but God the Father does not, or does not until Jesus makes him love us.
This tendency isn’t new. A scholar and pastor named John Owen observed in the 1650s, “At the best, many think that there is no sweetness at all in him [God the Father] towards us, but what is purchased at the high price of the blood of Jesus.”
Seeing Jesus — Seeing the Father
At the cross, we need to remember something Jesus said to his disciples the night before his death. Jesus was preparing his disciples for his departure. He wanted them to know that even when he was gone, they would have a relationship with God the Father. Then he says something that surprised them: “From now on you do know him and have seen him” (John 14:7). Jesus said, “You know the Father. What’s more, you’ve seen the Father.”
Seen the Father??! The one who no one has seen or can see? How? Philip clearly thought this sounded a little too good to be true. So he asked Jesus “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us” (John 14:8). He was saying, “Jesus, that would be awesome. But I think you’ve forgotten that you haven’t actually given us that Mt. Sinai experience. But please, give us a glimpse of your Father! That would be incredible!”
In his response Jesus says, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). How could Philip have seen the Father? He saw Him because he saw Jesus.
There’s an infinite depth of wonder in Jesus’ words! At the center of this wonder is the reality that God is Triune. He is one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And each person is not a part of God. Each person is God. So when you look at Jesus, full of grace and truth, love and compassion, you don’t just see “a part of God.” You see God.
So when Jesus Christ dies on the cross, saving his people from their sins (see Matthew 1:21), you don’t see just the love of Jesus Christ, or the love of a part of God on display. You see the love of God on display! Jesus didn’t die for us because the “loving part of God” wanted to calm down “the hating part of God.” No, Jesus was sent by the Father. Jesus, who loved us and gave himself for us, was sent by the Father who so loved the world he gave his only Son (Gal 2:20, John 3:16).
The Father’s Love
In fact, the Bible emphasizes that the Father loves us. And the Father’s love flows to us through Jesus and by the Holy Spirit:
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. (1 John 3:1)
In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you. (John 16:26-27a)
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Cor 13:14)
God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:5-8)
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. (Eph 2:4-5)
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:4-6)
God’s Everlasting Love on Display
So when we look at the cross, we should recognize that Jesus shows us the love of God. But Jesus doesn’t make God love us. To complete the quote by John Owen, “At the best, many think that there is no sweetness at all in him [God the Father] towards us, but what is purchased at the high price of the blood of Jesus. It is true, that alone is the way of communication; but the free fountain and spring of all is in the bosom of the Father.” Love flows to us from the heart of God, communicated to us through Jesus Christ.
This means that when we look to the cross, we don’t see a schizophrenic God saving us. The Father isn’t pitted against the Son. When you see the Son’s love for us in dying in our place, for our sin, you see the Father’s love for us. You can rest secure in His love, knowing your sins have been paid for. You are, through faith in Christ, a child of God. And you can confidently call him Father!
