Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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{{{"
*THE EXCHANGE
*Special Discussion Issue
*Why Did Jesus Have to Die?
REVISION
*}}}
{{{"
We do hope this special discussion issue of *The Exchange* will be useful to you.
Certainly it covers a vital topic, and has been produced in response to numerous questions on this very subject.
Unfortunately we discover that the interview article on pages 41 to 49 contains a number of errata.
This is due to an earlier uncorrected version of the article being sent in error to the printers.
Consequently we are providing this corrected version to avoid any possible confusion.
We anticipate producing a fully "Revised Version" but until then this additional copy will suffice.
Jonathan Gallagher
Editor, *The Exchange \\ *125 Sheepcot Lane \\ Garston \\ Watford \\ WD2 6DU \\ ENGLAND
}}}
{{{"
*"WHY DID JESUS HAVE TO DIE?"
Graham Maxwell interviewed by Jonathan Gallagher
*}}}
{{{"
*Why did Jesus have to die?
That's the basic question.
First of all, is that the right question to ask?
*I've asked that of my students for forty-five years.
Bright ones will often respond by questioning the question--which I encourage them to do.
Always challenge the question before you start answering it.
It may not be a worthy question at all.
Did he have to die?
*That is exactly the emphasis I'd like to put there: Did Jesus have to die?
*I'm thinking of it in terms of the fact that there simply was no other way.
*Why not?
*Can you think any other way to accomplish what had to be done?
No doubt God would have used some other method if there could have been some other way.
But I think until we discuss what's gone wrong--and needs to be righted--only then can one evaluate what he did, and whether it succeeded in righting what went wrong.
You see, with so many, what's gone wrong is that we have broken the rules and we're in legal trouble.
We have made a fatal mistake, and we are doomed--not just to die; we are doomed not just to be executed; we are domed to be punished and then executed.
Now if that's the case, what I'm looking for is what I must do to escape such a penalty.
And the Lord says, "Just believe, only believe."
Believe what?
"I have arranged for that penalty to be paid for," and you get into the whole idea of legal substitution.
*But doesn't Ellen White use the phrase quite often, when she's speaking of the atonement, that Christ came to demonstrate the immutability of the Law?
*Oh yes.
I agree with that one hundred per cent.
His death did indeed demonstrate the immutability of the Law.
But then you have to go back and ask what the Law requires.
The most helpful thing, I find, is to consider what went wrong.
Since the Reformation (and before, of course) we have been largely preoccupied with the thought that what went wrong is that I am in legal trouble--and you too--and God has graciously made provision to take care of this.
In my opinion, such preoccupation with ones legal standing is the essence of legalism.
It is self-centred and even rather childish--but understandable in a little child, who tends not to think about the people next door.
He wonders first about himself--like the little song the children sing that has "Me, me, me" in it.
Paul discussed this problem in Hebrews where he says that though by now you ought to be teachers, you still need milk.
You're still preoccupied with yourselves.
And in Ephesians 4 it says we should no longer act like little children but grow up.
And as we grow up, one of the marks of maturing is that we become more and more aware of other people and of a larger universe in which we live.
Now we know there is a whole vast universe of intelligent beings, all involved in what went wrong, sinless angels included.
The book of Revelation was given to help us see that larger view.
And what went wrong in the universe went wrong before we humans ever came into existence, and God proposed to set it right.
We know that he created this world to provide the setting within which he would set things right.
So we are a spectacle to the whole universe, as here on this world God did the things that set the universe right again--whether we humans are saved or not.
*So Christ's death was for our benefit certainly, but also for the benefit of the angels and the unfallen worlds?
*Yes--and this of course is where our evangelical friends like Walter Martin would say, "You're getting it all from Ellen White."
So I love to show these overlooked passages like Colossians 1, Ephesians 1 and 3, where it's explained that Jesus died to bring peace in heavenly places.
And some say, "That's ridiculous, that's where peace is."
No.
According to Revelation 12, that's where the war began.
"What's this about a war?
Maybe some ancient fathers fancied there once was a war up in heaven"--as Luther once observed.
Some of our evangelical friends have used the book of Revelation to sensationalize the message about the closing up of human history.
I think, regrettably, we've sometimes done the same thing.
As we've often discussed before, the centre of that book is the war that began in heaven.
And it began with Lucifer, who's described in Ezekiel and Isaiah as standing in the very presence of God.
He stood in the "everlasting burnings," as Isaiah says.
He was a blessed and righteous person who could live in "the devouring fire," the unveiled glory of God.
In the presence of God, in the most holy place, he conceived those potentially destructive ideas that finally blossomed into the war that began up in heaven.
The war began in the heavenly sanctuary.
And we suppose heaven is preoccupied with whether or not I've got my legal standing adjusted.
Heaven is preoccupied with avoiding another war ever arising again.
There or anywhere else.
And I believe that just as the war began in the sanctuary, so the war ends in the sanctuary, when everyone agrees that everything, right to the very heart of the universe, is all right.
"Holy and righteous are your ways" they cry in the book of Revelation.
But it [the legal view] is a very narrow view.
Those who prefer it sometimes speak of the Great Controversy view as being humanistic.
I don't know what they mean by that.
It's a much larger view preoccupied with God and the great issues that affect the security of the universe.
We humans are just a drop in the bucket.
I think we really need to eat a great deal of humble pie, in order to give a larger message.
As Micah says, we need to learn to walk more humbly before our God.
*So the death of Christ did do something for us, and it did do something for the angels, and it did do something for all the other beings of the onlooking universe.
Did the death of Christ do something for God?
*Well, you start with the war--if you can grant the war.
Now if you can't grant the war, you can't grant the Great Controversy, so you have to find some other way to do this.
Or if one needs a text for every step, start with Colossians.
The death of Christ--it mentions "the shedding of his blood"--brought peace to the universe.
Why would the universe need peace?
Or, looking at Ephesians, why would unity and harmony need to be restored to the universe?
And then inevitably you turn to the war and casting of a third of the angels out of heaven.
This is real.
This is very, very serious.
What was the war about??
We have no description of the debates that went on among the angels.
But we know that in the Adversary's first conversation with the human race, the subject of God was brought up.
And God was presented to Adam and Eve as an untrustworthy liar.
"God has lied to you.
And the subject about which God has lied to you is death: You will not die."
Right there almost on page one in the Bible.
So it's no surprise that God's answer is a death.
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