The Only Way to the Father

In the Trinity, the Son loves the Father and gives himself fully to the Father. This love is like a stream of living water poured out one to another. Love in God is perfected in the Son pouring his love out to the Father; the father begets the Son eternally and this love is eternally breathed out in the Spirit who pours his love into the Father and the Son, each emptying themselves for the other.
Truly the Son is revealed as the Lamb slain from the beginning, as in creation the way to the Father is through the Son and love is perfected in the Son pouring himself out for the Father.
The Son’s incarnation in time is the fulfilment of God’s purpose in creation, to dwell with his people. It will be completed in time on the last day. God’s love is glorified in this. The incarnation of Christ is the expression of the eternal love of the Son for the Father.
In creation, the work of the Spirit is to magnify God and awaken love for the Father through the Son. The suffering of the Lamb is at the heart of God in his self giving. It is the sin of Adam that reveals the Son as the Lamb that was slain from the beginning. It is the slaughtering of Jesus that glorifies the grace of God.
Adam sold humanity out to sin and enslaved our wills. The heart of God is to provide a way back for the sake of the Son, the express image of God. The crucifixion of Christ is the way back.
The love God has for his creation is expressed in self emptying and returned to God, in self emptying. The Word, the Son, became flesh and lived the perfect life we are called to live. His whole life was suffering; a perfect man in an imperfect world. He was rejected and put to death on a cross.
To kill someone is an act of complete rejection of that person. Jesus was counted nothing. To take life is the ultimate rejection of God. The sin we embrace sent Jesus to the cross. God’s grace is to reveal the horror of our disobedience. He chose to die. He suffered death who knew no sin. Our sin sent him to the cross.
We are told Jesus became sin who knew no sin and the wrath of God was poured out on him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus expressed through his life complete devotion to God; he was obedient to the Father and trusted him. As God, he showed the perfect relationship, that is the Trinity at work.
In becoming sin, Christ experienced the wrath of God; he was forsaken by the Father. He who was God took the wrath of God and became a curse. He poured himself out for us; he was the suffering servant, the perfect sacrifice. On the cross we see the Trinity glorified, bringing the punishment of sin upon the Son. The Father pours his wrath on the Son, made sin in the mystery of the cross, so that in the unity of the Person of God the sin of those found in Christ is consumed. I believe the fire of God’s grace through the mystery of the cross consumes all sin. , I believe, those found in their sin when they die, experience this consuming fire of God in hell. (Is. 11:1-10; Rom. 15:4-13; Matt. 3:1-12)
Life is not a test or an accident. In it Christ reveals himself, through suffering, as the way back to the Father. Jesus manifests the coming kingdom so that we might know the way to the Father.
The futility of creation is God’s grace to us, it throws us back on God who suffers with us, so that we might know eternal life (John 3:16). We are not worthy of this and yet God’s purpose is to dwell in perfect harmony with his people, to pour out God’s love on the world Jesus makes us worthy even when we deserve only death because of our rebellion.