There are many areas of the Christian life that believers can disagree about in good faith. These secondary and tertiary issues, while certainly being important enough to discuss and debate, do not qualify any Christian to be thought of as a heretic or asked to leave a congregation. Things like modes of baptism, church leadership roles, or styles of worship music are certainly convictions that we can argue over, but at the end of the day, those we disagree with are still our brothers and sisters in Christ.
One example of an issue that Christians today disagree about is the atonement. Now, I do not mean whether atonement occurred as a result of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection (it did indeed, and that would be more of a primary, salvific issue), but rather what the atonement primarily accomplished. There are various theories out there about the purpose of the atonement: the ransom theory, the moral influence theory, Christus victor. Perhaps the most prominent theory today (and the theory I find the most in line with Scripture) is called penal substitutionary atonement, which is essentially the belief that Jesus died on the cross as our substitute, paying the debt of our sins and satisfying the wrath of God so that we may be forgiven of our sin and deemed righteous in the eyes of the Father.
However, there are some who fall in the progressive camp that hold a very different view of the crucifixion. Instead of believing that Jesus’ death on the cross was a ransom payment, a victory against evil, or even a good moral example, these progressive “Christians” argue that the crucifixion was merely an act of “cosmic child abuse.” But when we look to God’s Word, we will find that, unlike the theories listed above, this specific belief about Jesus is heretical.
A crucifixion was truly a horrible way to die. Before you even got to the cross, you would be beaten and scourged, which was so brutal that people often died before they even got to a cross. After that, you would have to drag your own crossbeam to the crucifixion location, where your wrists and ankles would be pierced through and nailed to the wood. Then, the cross would go up, and you would hang and suffer for many hours before finally succumbing to death, usually by asphyxiation. And the anguish of crucifixion was not only physical. It was also psychological, as crucifixions were done in public, and your vulnerability and agony could be viewed by anyone and everyone who passed by.
God sent His Son, Jesus, to do this—to be beaten and scourged, to drag his own crossbeam, to be pierced and nailed, to bleed and suffer and die in the most excruciating way possible. And when some people have reflected on this, it doesn’t make sense to them. They don’t understand how such a violent death was necessary to provide atonement, which leaves them wondering if God the Father is just a sadistic and merciless tyrant who tortured and abused His own Son.
There are two major issues with this belief that crucifixion was an example of “cosmic child abuse.” First, it’s important to remember that Jesus was not a child when He died. He was a full grown, thirty-something man who was more than capable of making His own decisions, and Scripture makes it clear that Jesus chose the path of crucifixion. It was not something that was forced upon Him. Paul wrote in Philippians that Jesus willingly humbled Himself to go to the cross (Philippians 2:8), and Hebrews tells us that He endured the cross with joy (Hebrews 12:2). He made no attempt to resist His arrest, even going so far as rebuking a disciple for fighting back (John 18:11). Instead, Jesus found satisfaction is doing the Father’s will and drinking the cup that was set before Him (John 4:34). Phylicia Masonheimer writes,
“God did not send His Son against His will; Jesus was a willing participant in the entire plan…He not only knew the cross would happen, He predicted that it would.”[1]
Second, by believing that God is capable of child abuse, someone is essentially acknowledging that they believe God is capable of sin. If we’re reading the Word of God, we know that this is simply not true. Just like a parent knows how to give good gifts to their children, our Heavenly Father gives good things to us (Matthew 7:11). In fact, every good and perfect thing we have comes from Him (James 1:17). God is good, and righteous, and holy. He is completely incapable of sinning (Habakkuk 1:13, James 1:13). Therefore, sending His Son to the cross cannot be an act of sin and cannot be an example of child abuse. Gerald Bray argues,
“To call the Father’s sending of his Son a form of ‘child abuse’ is to misunderstand God. What would be an act of cruelty for us is an act of love and mercy for him; it is the ultimate expression of the perfect relationship that the Father has with the Son. The Son was not victimized by a cruel Father but accepted the task assigned to him because they share a common will…To ask whether this was ‘good’ or not is pointless, because everything God does is perfect, and we can make no moral judgment on his behavior.”[2]
The crucifixion was not an act of cosmic child abuse. On the contrary, the crucifixion was an act of love. Jesus once said that there is no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends (John 15:13), and that is exactly what He did for us. He came to this earth and died on the cross to give His life as a ransom, to become the sacrifice that was required for our sins against our holy Creator (Mark 10:45, Ephesians 5:2). His death provided our atonement so that we may be free from the penalties for our crimes and viewed as righteous in the eyes of God’s Law. As Rebecca McLaughlin so eloquently put it,
“Jesus is not an innocent bystander hauled in to pay for our crimes against God. He is the person-temple in whom God and humans meet. He is the one true God made flesh, who alone has the right to judge and the right to forgive sins. He is the good shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep, and if we put our trust in him, we are joined to him as closely as our bodies are joined to our heads. There’s no way to tear us apart.”[3]
[1] Phylicia Masonheimer, Every Woman a Theologian: Know What You Believe. Live It Confidently. Communicate It Graciously (Nashville: W Publishing, 2023), 80.
[2] Gerald Bray, The Attributes of God: An Introduction (Wheaton: Crossway, 2021), 90-91.
[3] Rebecca McLaughlin, Confronting Jesus: 9 Encounters with the Hero of the Gospels (Wheaton: Crossway, 2022), 160.
