Good Friday Meditations: Conclusion & Summary
Suffering Love:
The atonement as divine solidarity and participation in human pain and suffering. The
God of love and compassion is compelled to embrace our pain—suffering with us and for us.
Selfless Substitution:
The passion of Christ as the act of God standing in our place, absorbing our guilt,
and taking the natural consequences of our sins upon himself as our selfless substitute.
Loving Sacrifice:
The cross as a divine sacrifice and payment for the sins of the world.
Union & Participation:
The atonement as the inauguration of a grace-infused process by which we are given the strength—mediated by the Spirit of God—to overcome the power of sin and corruption, so that we may become renewed in the image of Christ Jesus.
Christus Victor:
The redemptive work of Christ as the historical inauguration of the divine, eternal, cosmic victory over the powers of darkness. It is the commencement of the renewal and redemption of all human institutions and of creation as a whole.
Moral Influence:
The atonement gives us both the motivation and the example that we need to follow God.
Conclusion
The atonement of Christ, in its vast beauty and richness, speaks to all human beings at all times. Here, an answer can be found to every human problem and every temporal concern. For this God in Christ is the God of all people and the redeemer of all people. As this Paschal season nears its end, let us imitate and reflect the gratitude of the Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Roman church, meditating on his most memorable doxology:
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
‘“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”’
‘“Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?“’
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.” (Rom 11:33-36)