WHY I AM AN EVANGELICAL, PART 3

Classic definitions of Evangelical Christianity include this key element: "the centrality of the death of Christ on the cross as a substitutionary atonement." It is another way of saying that evangelicals believe in the absolute necessity of the Cross.

Contemporary culture steps way from this imagery as an imagery of violence, with some theologians calling such an idea "divine child abuse" inconsistent with a God of Love. Both are rabbit trails that take us away from several key elements of the scriptural understanding of God and humanity.

1. God is holy--perfect in His holiness.
2. Humanity is sinful--we may show flashes of goodness, but essentially we are people whose nature is to sin and we default to that constantly. This sometimes called Original Sin. The simplest demonstration of that concept is in a child. No one has to tell a child to hit his brother when he is angry. You actually have to tell him not to. No one has to tell a child to reach and take something he wants (like a toy) even when it belongs to someone else. No, you have to tell him--that does not belong to you--give it back.
3. Our sinfulness separates us from God because of His holiness. Our sinfulness will always keep us from having a true, intimate relationship with God unless we do something about our sinful nature. We are spiritually bankrupt.
4. Only God has the righteousness in Himself that can end that bankruptcy. Only can he pay the price that erases the bankruptcy our sin creates. I will never be good enough to do enough good works to be holy as He is holy unless he gives me that holiness as a gift.
5. The result of unresolved sin is separation from God--and death makes that separation eternal. God resolves my sin problem by accepting death on my behalf so that I am no longer under sin's penalty and when he deposits his righteousness in my account, I am no longer under sin's power either. I have the new righteousness needed to resist sin because I have the new nature that comes from the new life the Cross brings.

It is an expression of pride, destructive pride--to say that I can overcome my sin and its consequences on my own. It is an expression of love, God's unconditional love--to say that Christ dies for my sin, so that I can live with Him - both abundantly in the here and now and eternally with Him in the future. The Cross insures that I am never separated from God's love in its fullness.

Without the Cross, Christianity is simply one more self help movement living naively in the belief in ultimate human goodness. Our sin nature always turns that belief into a tragic lie.