Answering Injustice
From “The Seven Last Words of Jesus
How can a good and loving God allow so much injustice and wickedness in our world? That’s a question that I’ve been asked many times. Maybe you’ve been asked it as well. Or, perhaps it’s a question you’re asking in your life right now.
We’ve all experienced injustice in one form or another. I mentioned this in a recent post and promised to have more to say about it in light of Jesus’s eerie and enigmatic words from the cross - “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” In that post, which you can read here, I mentioned two things that are of vital importance if we are to pierce the veil, so to speak, of the mystery surrounding Jesus’s words.
First, we must understand what, or to be more precise, who, it was that put Jesus on the cross, and second, it is essential that we understand our Lord’s words in light of the psalm from which he quoted, Psalm 22.
The answer to the first question is essential to our understanding of God. There are those who will answer the question, “Who put Jesus on the cross?” and say unequivocally, God the Father. Among these are John MacArthur, John Piper, and Mark Driscoll, to name some of the more well-known of today’s teaching pastors.1 All of these pastors, and many others, teach, as a Gospel Coalition blog states, “God killed Jesus.” Like the many pagan gods and goddesses throughout history, the Christian God demanded the death of an innocent human victim to appease His wrath.
But is this what the Bible teaches?
Jesus, quoting the prophet Isaiah, warned about those who teach as doctrines the commandments of men.2 As a pastor for over forty years, I can personally attest to this kind of teaching in my own life for many years after graduating from seminary. Sadly, many seminaries and the pastors they produce focus on teaching what to think rather than how to think. Indoctrination replaces life-long learning and the pursuit of the knowledge of God. Instead, graduates are given a theological blueprint that is pulled out whenever they open their Bibles. Scripture is then made to fit the blueprint. John Calvin, Martin Luther, Eusebius, Augustine, and many others are quoted as if they, like the Bible, are without any mixture of error. Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.
Consider the words of Isaiah 53:4-5:
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
The Jewish religious leaders condemned Jesus as a blasphemer worthy of death. In their minds, they were doing God’s will. They considered him punished by God. But they were mistaken. He was pierced for our transgressions. The punishment inflicted on him by these so-called holy men was, in reality, the very thing God used to forgive our sins, heal us, and bring us peace.
Peter, preaching the first sermon that would mark the beginning of the church, said this very thing:
This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.3
Who does Peter say put Jesus to death? Not God. Instead, God used wicked, sinful men, who genuinely believed they were His servants, to work His will, thereby making provision for our sin.
The apostle Paul underscores this when he writes to the Corinthian church:
We declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.4
The crucifixion, understood in this light, speaks clearly to the age-old question of how a good God can allow injustice and the suffering of the innocent. This is where Psalm 22, along with a host of other passages, comes in.
Let’s start with Job. Think about what Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar have to say about Job’s suffering - “God is punishing you because of your sin.” Or, to put it another way, God is pouring his wrath out on you. These men obviously sincerely believed this. Yet, Job, who is a type of Christ, is described in the opening verse of the book as blameless and upright, and in the end is vindicated and raised up out of the ash heap of death. Also, keep in mind that after sin sacrifices and Job’s prayer, his three friends were forgiven. “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Cain’s murder of Abel, Joseph sold into slavery by his brothers and thrown unjustly into prison after false accusations of the wealthy and powerful Potiphar’s wife, Haman’s attempt to slaughter all the Jews, the prophets’ continued pleas for the poor, the orphan and widowed exploited by the rich and powerful; this theme of injustice runs from Genesis all the way through Revelation where we read about God wiping away the tears of those oppressed by the Babylon of this world, and declaring that there will be no more pain, mourning, or death.
All these things are expressed, we might even say that they come to a head, in Psalm 22. We will take a look at this psalm next time.
In Christ,
Dan
We must remember, however, that sin did not kill Jesus, God did. John MacArthur, “Sin didn’t kill Jesus, God Did,” Crossway, 28 March, 2018.
The ultimate answer to the question, “Who crucified Jesus?” is: God did. John Piper, “The Passion of Jesus Christ,” p.11. Wheaton: Crossway, 2004.
See at the cross of Jesus, there is hatred for Jesus and love for us. Mark Driscoll, “Jesus Sweats Blood,” realfaith.com.
Matthew 15:9.
Acts 2:23.
1 Corinthians 2:7-8.