Wrong End of the Telescope? Via Dolorosa

From a child’s perspective, there is no wrong end of a telescope or binoculars…they are just playing and enjoying the world close up and far away.

A few years ago, at Easter, I spent a week travelling around Israel. After an evening in Jerusalem, I embarked on a tour, thanks to a friend-cum-guide, first to Philippi then up to the Golan heights and a couple of nights in Galilee, before driving down the Jordan Valley, floating in the Dead Sea, and back to Jerusalem, to spend a few days wandering round the old city.

Whilst walking through the narrow streets I got caught up in a surge of tourists and devotees following the Via Dolorosa, the Way of The Cross, or the Way of Suffering. Some groups were wearing the same-coloured hats or in a group trying to keep the flag on a pole leader in view. The procession, organised by the Catholic church, attracted maybe a thousand walking from one ‘Station of the Cross’ to the next, supposedly following the route taken by Jesus, from the site of his arrest and interrogation to the crucifixion, and burial. Some traditions add a further ‘station’ to celebrate the resurrection.

What has this to do with telescopes?

And why is a good Protestant believer bothering to write a blog about the Stations of the Cross – normally the reserve of Catholics or the Orthodox?

Often we see the events that took place from one end of the telescope…but there is another end and perspective on the stations of the cross.

In short, the ‘normal’ way for believers is to go beyond weeping over the injustice of his arrest and conviction and suffering to believing that Jesus as the Messiah (or Christ) went to the cross for us, in our place, taking the punishment we deserved, so that we, the guilty, could be forgiven and acquitted before God.

Isaiah among other Jewish prophets had seen these events in advance:

‘He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him…he poured out his soul unto death and bore the sin of many’ Isaiah 53v3-12

This end of the theological telescope is referred to as substitutionary atonement. Substitutionary because He died on the cross instead of me, the judgement I deserved He took upon Himself on the cross. And atonement, because the result of this debt being paid on my behalf is our broken relationship with God is healed, so we are at-one-ment with God.

When I first heard this message of grace – that God loves us and all this is freely available, all God wants is for us to believe and receive it as a gift; to abandon (repent) of any attempt to try and be good enough for God. I used to say ‘This is too good to be true. There must be a catch?’ But there isn’t. Jesus said, ‘Freely you have received freely give’.

God has shown His love for us sending His Son to die for us and be raised to life again so that we can be forgiven and brought back into a relationship with God – the bible calls this the gift of eternal life. ‘Life’ or ‘Zoe’ in Greek, means God’s own life, which is eternal and indestructible.

Substitutionary atonement as wonderful as it is, is half of the gospel message; the good news that Jesus preached.

The New Testament teaches that once someone has let go of their own life and trusted that Christ died in their place and experienced the gifts of forgiveness and eternal life, they are placed ‘in Christ’ - Christianity is not a human being believing in an external Christ.

This is a phraseology not well understood in our Western culture. The Bible is interested in who we are ‘in’. For example, Levi was said to have been ‘in the loins of Abraham’ ie a descendant of Abraham, or ‘in Abraham’ and therefore everything that Abraham did, Levi did. So, when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek, even though as a priest he was used to receiving tithes.

‘Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes through Abraham…for he was in the loins of Abraham’ Hebrews 7v 9,10

Jesus taught that, as believers we would be ‘in Him’ just as He was ‘in’ the Father.

‘Do you not believe I am in the Father and the Father in Me…the Father who dwells in me does the works’ John 14v10,11

And later, in the same chapter Jesus continues:

‘The Spirit…will be in you…a little while longer and…you will know that I am in my Father and you in Me, and I in you’ John 14v 17,20

‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and We will come and make our home with him’ v 23

The apostles that followed Christ preached the same message that as believers we are ‘in Christ’ and ‘Christ is in us’ and therefore we were included in all the events from the arrest to the cross and the resurrection – we were not spectators.

Substitutionary atonement as wonderful as it is, is half of the gospel message; the ‘good news’ that Jesus preached

This is called ‘inclusive atonement’ and is the teaching of the New Testament alongside substitutionary substitution.

Traditionally, there are 13 ‘stations of the cross’ marking steps along the journey of Christ from arrest to burial. There are minor variations from tradition to tradition and most do not include Resurrection. I shall concentrate on the stations in bold.

Jesus is arrested and condemned to death
Jesus takes up his Cross

Jesus is stripped of his garments and nailed to the Cross
Jesus dies on the Cross

Jesus is laid in the tomb
Resurrection

He suffered all these ‘stations’ for us and did it alone and yet, by virtue of being ‘in Christ’ we were included and participated in these events, 2000 years ago in Jerusalem.

You were arrested by Christ
You were stripped and nailed to a cross
You died
You were buried
You were raised

Arrested

For many who become believers, or come to Christ, or ‘find faith’ - whatever phrase is used - their experience is like an arrest.

Paul wrote the following words: ‘Not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of (arrest) that for which Christ Jesus lay hold of (arrested) me’ Philip 3v12

Famously, for Paul, he was ‘arrested’ on the road to Damascus. No two believers hadve the same experience and yet each one is like an arrest…even is it is with love!

Stripped and nailed to the cross

The disciples had to let go of their nets to follow Christ – stripped of their identity as fishermen. We have to let go of the nets ‘nets’ we’re holding on to, is we are to follow Christ.

Nailed to the cross – ‘I have been crucified with Christ’ Gal 2v20. At first sight, this may seem to make no sense at all, after all, you weren’t even born in AD30, but just as Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek by virtue of being ‘in Abraham’ so it is true to say ‘I was crucified with Christ’ because God has placed us ‘in Christ’.

Through or ‘of God you are in Christ Jesus’ 1 Cor 1v30

Died

‘As many as were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death…our old man was crucified with Him…we died with Christ’ Rom 6v3,6,8

‘It is not I who live, but Christ…’ Gal 2v20

‘You died, you life is hidden in Christ’ Col 3v3

The New Testament cannot be clearer. Our death has been accomplished in Christ, past tense. When he died, I died.

Buried

‘We were buried with Him through baptism…’ Rom 6v4, Col 2v12

Raised

‘God…raised us up together with Christ’ Eph 2v6

The New Testament speaks about conversion to Christ as a shift - a deliverance - from ‘in Adam’ to ‘in Christ’.

In Adam, we ate from the wrong tree, with all the consequences that followed – estrangement from God, each other, and the environment…a disintegration.

In Christ, we inherit everything Christ has done and therefore we were included in the events leading up to the crucifixion, the crucifixion itself, the burial, and the resurrection, and are now recipients of Christ’s life.

We can do nothing to achieve this. Christ has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. The in-Adam-you was arrested, crucified, and buried only to be raised as a new creation, as an ‘in-Christ-you’ - Christ living out His life through you and as you.

The Telescope?

From an adult’s perspective, there IS a correct way to hold the telescope, and this is where this metaphor breaks down! Both ends are vital.

A warning. Once you ‘see’ both perspectives everything changes.

A well-used illustration of Paul’s argument in Romans is of a criminal in the dock facing the Judge, awaiting the verdict. There is no doubt that the criminal is guilty, let’s say of theft. The penalty is a fine that he cannot pay. All seems hopeless until the judge tells the criminal he is free to go; someone paid the fine. There is nothing the thief can do to pay the fine, it’s already paid, nor is he required to pay the fine.

Wonderful though that is, it acquits the criminal but doesn’t change his nature.

With substitutionary atonement, our sins are forgiven, the slate wiped clean, but the sinner remains. You will hear the following types of sentences fall from the lips of those who cling to substitutionary atonement: ‘I am covered over with the robes of righteousness’, or, ‘when God looks at me, He doesn’t see me, He sees Jesus’ or ‘I am a sinner saved by grace’.

Lurking in these phrases is fear: ‘If God were truly to see me hiding under the robes…’ but the gospel is far better.

Substitutionary and inclusive atonement together enables us to see that God has not only dealt with our ‘sins’ He has dealt with us as ‘sinners’, crucifying us on the cross with Christ. We are no longer in Adam we are in Christ. We are no longer deriving our life from the satanic hold of slavery to sin in Adam but starting out on a new path, a new life, drawing on the life of Christ Himself, incorporated as we are ‘in Christ’, learning to walk like Jesus did, not in His own abilities or strength, but from the Father’s:

‘The Son can do nothing of myself but what He sees the Father do, the Son does in like manner…I can do nothing of myself’ John 5 v 19, 30

‘I am the vine, and you are the branches, He who abides in Me and I in him, bears much fruit, without Me you can do nothing’ John 15v5