Thursday, August 03, 2006

Justice + love = Christ

He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).

Have you ever come across the phrase "whipping boy"? That expression had its origin with King James of England. In the 17th century, the king had a son named Charles. Charles was a spoiled brat; however, since he was a prince, no one was allowed to punish him or correct him. So his father appointed another boy, William Mayer, to be Charles’ playmate and whipping boy. Whenever Charles misbehaved, William was punished. He received the whipping that Charles deserved. This procedure soon became a custom among royalty, and from it we get the phrase "whipping boy."

The whole concept of a whipping boy sounds grossly unfair to us. And yet, our society is eager to embrace the concept. When a child has problems in school, do the parents discipline their child? No, they blame the teacher for their son or daughter’s failure; the teacher becomes a whipping boy. When a person makes poor choices regarding his diet and becomes fat, does he take responsibility for his problem? No, he takes his favorite fast food restaurant to court, blaming the company for causing his obesity. The restaurant becomes a whipping boy.

The lot of a whipping boy is pain and suffering, along with the humiliation of injustice; the whipping boy does not deserve the bad treatment that he receives. But there is one whipping boy that did his job willingly, one whipping boy who did not resent the pain he endured for others. That whipping boy was Jesus, the Son of God.

God the Father is a just God; that means He values justice. Justice demands that when crimes occur, those crimes be punished. Sin is the crime of disobeying God. To disobey God is to incur His divine punishment, a terrible punishment that casts us away from Him forever. But our just God is also a loving God, and He provided a way for us to escape the just punishment for our sins; He sent His Son Jesus to be our whipping boy. As He suffered on the cross, Jesus was whipped by God for every one of our crimes against heaven. Because Jesus was whipped, beaten, insulted and executed, we are spared the just consequences of our actions; we are spared because Jesus pleaded from that cross, Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34). It is from the cross of Calvary that we receive the proof of both God’s justice and His love for us.

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