Chapter 3: Debtors, Enemies, and Criminals
Often times when we speak of the love of God we speak of the second person of the trinity, the Son. Unfortunately we tend to forget that the Father has just as much love for us as His Son. Yet Sproul makes note in chapter 3 of “The Truth of the Cross” that people often attribute the Father as being harsh, angry, and obligated to love us because of the Son. This is obviously a distortion of the Word and Sproul makes it clear concerning the love that the Father truly has for us. After all, the cross was the Father’s plan!
“When Jesus offers to make satisfaction for me, in order for that payment to be accepted, God the Father, Who is my Creditor, the party I have violated, and my Judge, must decide and decree that He will accept that payment from another in my behalf. In other words, if I owe God the death penalty because I sinned against Him, and Jesus says, ‘I will die for him,’ and then lays down His life and dies for me, would the Father be under any obligation whatsoever to accept that payment? No. There first must be a judgment by the Governor of the universe that He will in fact accept a substituionary payment for my debt, my enmity, and my crime.” -Page 46
The very fact that the Father accepted His Son to take our place shows the deepest type of love in the entire universe. We must remember that everything the Son did on earth was not based on himself, but instead solely on the Father. Praise be to God!
