Well, happy good Friday or so we call it.

It is a joyful day, even if it is the most solemn day in the Church calendar.

And today we celebrate the cross of Jesus Christ.

Last time we looked at the historical and the physical horrors of crucifixion, which was

quite honestly heartbreaking and sickening.

But there are glories in the cross that go far beyond the physical spectacle that can

be dramatized in violence and blood on the big screen.

But because these are theological and spiritual glories, they often go ignored or even denied

in our culture, which leads to today's question from Jessica Elisner in Davis, California.

Pesor John, as I talk with twenty-somethings about Christ in the gospel, I have repeatedly

had people say that they don't believe that someone else paying the punishment for another

is just.

I too have internal pushbacks against this, but have come to know that substitutionary

atonement has its roots in the mosaic sacrificial system.

Our generation, however, at least in California is biblically illiterate and doesn't have

this framework.

How would you explain the justice of substitutionary atonement to this generation?

Well, not much more could be more important than the question of whether Christ was in

fact a just and merciful substitute for sinners so that when he died for his elect, he

actually bore their punishment so that they can experience no condemnation.

That is the heart of the Christian gospel.

If that goes, everything goes, and let us eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we perish.

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