What does God’s suffering for us (on the cross) to save us and God’s suffering with us to strengthen and comfort us have to do with Christian character formation or Christ-likeness (cruciformity)? To read the full article click the highlighted title (Passibility, Atonement, and Cruciformity) at the bottom of this post.
ABSTRACT
Does God’s suffering for us to save us as a past event have present application? If so, is this present application limited to salvation or is there something more we ought to be concerned with as obedient followers of Christ? In order to tenably answer my thesis statement (What Does “God Suffered on the Cross For Us” Mean for us Today?), I formulate three arguments: (1) God chose to suffer in love because of his creation with his creation and ultimately for his creation. I make the case that divine love is not limited merely to doing good things—benevolent love—but includes sharing in people’s sufferings—affectionate love; (2) a holistic Atonement theory must include both objective and subjective components, since God’s redemptive love transforms us to salvation and conforms us to love like Christ as our moral exemplar. And (3) to love like Christ entails obedience to God, which inevitably results in suffering for God via religious persecution.
Atonement, Passibility, and Cruciformity