It is not an easy decision for a rebel to lay down arms. It is to admit defeat, to surrender to an impossibly superior force, to succumb in strength and resolve to an adversary. It is not only deeply personal, but profoundly self-abasing. Should the battle rage on for decades, with increasing ferocity and dissent, the more unlikely the act of submission becomes. Only forced subjugation remains.
Our son, Ethan, was born into the world on September 27, 2012 with a strong-willed nature that reflects the meaning of his name. The Hebrew etymology suggests an ever-flowing river, one that resists the external influences of drought and the spatial confinement of its shorelines. The only question we asked ourselves is whether he would be a perennial stream of refreshment or an overwhelming flood. Our answer came in the "terrible twos." The floodwaters of bad behavior were staggering! The number of spankings became innumerable. Within my heart, there gathered a growing concern that this boy could not be changed. It seemed like forced subjugation was the best we could do. But this was disconcerting because of the biblical nature of salvation. The Gospel continually resists the notion that God would force himself upon anyone, that He would lead a person into spiritual servitude when that service was performed from an unwilling heart. God is not a divine slavemaster.Discipline intensified. Bible stories continued. And the storm clouds of doubt on my mental horizon accumulated. Until one day, as we were reading the account of the crucifixion, when Ethan asked if God was angry with Jesus. "No," my wife responded, "God is angry with sin." Sin must be punished.
It was unmistakable. The wheels in Ethan's mind began spinning. Did Jesus have sin? Do I have sin? Is God angry with my sin? What if I were to be punished by God? The only possible answer to his questions was that sin must be punished. The desperate condition of this 4-year old was the same desperate condition of every rebellious soul. But what might lead him surrender?
The rebellious children of Israel kept speaking out against God and His prophet. They wandered in the desert for decades, moving further from Egypt and further from their God. They had forgotten the desperate plight of slavery, but had also forgotten the miraculous deliverance at the Red Sea and the divine encounter at Mount Sinai. They loathed the worthless food God provided and longed for the days of bondage. And God judged them. Fiery serpents (Hebrew: seraphim) entered the encampment and bit the people such that many of them died (Numbers 21). Sin must be punished. What would make the people surrender? What would cause rebels to lay down their arms? God would save His people as they sought healing by looking at a bronze snake on an uplifted pole. By looking, they lived.
The reality for Ethan hadn't changed. Sin must be punished. But what if God made a way for sin to be punished so that the curse upon Adam and his rebellious children could be lifted? Looking at the Beginner's Bible again and seeing Jesus on the cross provided his answer. God could place the curse of sin upon His Son, that in looking to him, we might live. God could punish Jesus so that His enemies might be given grace to surrender. It clicked. Ethan recognized that the substitutionary atonement was for him. He realized that Jesus had been punished so that he could live. Only a vision of the Cross of Christ could create self-surrender in a rebellious soul. God had opened Ethan's eyes to behold this beautiful and glorious sacrifice. And, for the first time in his life, my son could see.
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life" (John 3:14-15, ESV). "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (Isaiah 45:22, KJV).
