In times past there has been a wrong doctrine preached in the Church that God was angry and full of wrath towards man. In reaction to this, the love of God is presently being overstated and it is being assumed that a loving God would compromise his righteousness and not cast people into hell. This is also erroneous because there is a hell and people do go to hell because they reject the means of salvation that has been provided by the cross of Christ. Discipline is not separate from love because discipline prevents negative consequences. The revelation of the fierce love of God causes people to tamper with the cross by making an assumption that this love will negate God’s righteousness, justness and sternness, but love does not rejoice with evil but delights in the truth. It is written all throughout scripture that Jesus would be crucified and die, carrying the punishment for mankind’s every sin, covering it with his blood and thereby justify God’s forgiveness and reconciliation with us. The crucifixion would have been pointless if it was possible to be justified without Jesus’ propitiation. Propitiation does not make an angry God loving, but is the way towards obtaining and continuing to experience the favour and grace of a loving God. Jesus carried and experienced our sin, as well as the sense of being separated from God caused by sin. He redeemed us from this separation by restoring our oneness with God and each other. Jesus gave us the gift of expiation through the cross – removing not only our sin but also the feeling of guilt which the sin had caused. Our reconciliation with God is so powerful that we have become one with Him and everything He is. He not only fully redeemed us, but defeated the powers of darkness. The cross should forever keep us humble and serve as an example that we are to lay down our lives in service towards each other.
