Who did it then?

Originally posted on May 19, 2007 – by Andre Piet

During the study day last week, we were able to clearly establish that it was humans who brought Jesus to the cross, while it was God who raised Him from the dead. Like a refrain, this runs throughout the book of Acts. Listen…

2:23,24
This One, given up in the specific counsel and foreknowledge of God, YOU nailed up by the hand of lawless men, and assassinated.
YET GOD rouses Him…

3:15
And the Inaugurator of Life YOU kill,
yet God rouses Him from among the dead, of which we are witnesses…

4:10
…Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, whom YOU crucify,
YE WHOM GOD rouses from among the dead…

5:30
The GOD of our fathers rouses Jesus, whom YOU hang on a tree and assassinate…

10:39,40
…and THEY assassinate Him, hanging Him on a tree. This One GOD rouses the third day…

13:29,30
And when THEY carry out all that is written concerning Him, taking Him down from the tree, they place Him in a tomb.
YET GOD rouses Him from among the dead…

And so on… As crystal-clear as the above may be, it does raise the inevitable question of how it can be that in various passages there is mention of God’s involvement in the suffering on Golgotha.

Isaiah 53:10
Yet it pleased YHWH to crush Him. He made Him sick (better: He wounded Him).

2 Corinthians 5:21
Him Who knew no sin, He (= God) makes to be sin for our sakes, that we may be becoming God’s righteousness in Him.

Do these last two texts then still support the classical idea that God received satisfaction (debt payment) in the suffering at the cross? (see also: ransom or debt payment). No:

1. That God took pleasure in Christ’s crushing does not refer to the satisfaction He received in the suffering on the cross itself, but in its outcome. The cross was not a repayment to God, but an investment by God. God’s pleasure in the crushing looks forward. See the continuation of Isaiah 53 verse 10:

“Yet it pleased YHWH to crush Him. He made Him sick (wounded Him). When He shall make His soul a guilt offering, He shall see seed, He shall prolong days, and the delight of YHWH in His hand shall prosper.”

2.That God wounded Jesus (“YHWH wounded Him”) is of the same order as what Joseph once said to his brothers, after he had made himself known to them:

“Now GOD sends me before you to preserve for you a remnant on the earth, and to give life to you for a great deliverance. So, now, not you send me here, BUT GOD…”
(Genesis 45)

It was the brothers who were guilty of the (near-)murder of Joseph. Nevertheless, it had to happen that way, because only in this way could their hearts be won (=conciliation!). And in just this way, God would save their lives. Behind the scenes—and even by means of the crimes and guilt of men—God directed everything, from beginning to end.

“It pleased YHWH to crush Him” (Isaiah 53) is the prophetic counterpart of “…so not you send me here, BUT GOD…” (Gen. 45).

Delen: