Tower and Town, May 2026 (view the full edition)The Easter Message: Was Jesus A Substitute for Us?One of the most common themes to hear around Easter time is that Jesus gave himself as a sacrifice to God to appease God's anger at our sins. Does such a scenario bear serious scrutiny? What are the basic elements of this theme? Perhaps these:
Let's do a little musing around these headings. No doubt but we are definitely sinners. We are told very clearly that God designed and made us, so our ability to sin is clearly baked into the pie as part of the design. That's where free will comes in: having free will means that we are free to sin. God made us that way and cannot be the least bit surprised that we sin. So do we 'make God angry' with our sinning? Well, if and when you have your own children, are you pleased with yourself when you get angry with them? Is that a godly thing to do? Would you accept that you actually have a choice whether to get angry or not? Surely there's no way that God HAS to be angry; it must be God's choice and He could equally well decide not to be angry. There are moments in the Bible where He clearly does not get angry at His children's erring ways, the story of the Prodigal Son being the prime example. The idea of having to appease an angry person is, we might think, not a very attractive one and tends not to say much about the angry person. But let's accept for a moment that God's anger needs appeasing. The interpretation of Easter that we are looking at entails a human sacrifice that appeases that anger. We are told that God is satisfied with Jesus's sacrifice of his life. The idea that God required a human sacrifice to slake his wrath is not attractive. In the Old Testament, human sacrifice was rejected from Abraham onwards. Nor is it necessary when trying to understand the message of Easter. The message of Easter is simple. If Jesus was in some sense God himself, then surely what was happening was God allowing men to do their worst by murdering him in order to show that nothing in heaven or on earth can alienate us from Him. If that's what God is like, that's something I can understand and bow before in humilty and gratitude. If God needs a human sacrifice to get Him onside, then I'm afraid you'll have to count me out. Hugh de Saram |