I read a popular Christian writer who said, “God did not will the murder of his Son, he simply knew it would occur.” This quote is absolute nonsense. Jesus did not suffer death; he accomplished death, and in doing so, redeemed the world.
Listen to what these verses say,
Acts 2:23 NASB this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.
Acts 4:27-28 NASB [27] For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles u and the peoples of Israel, [28] to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur. …
What happened at the Cross happened as a result of the pre-determined plan of God, and those who crucified Jesus were instruments in the hands of God to accomplish the purposes of God. I’m not saying that these were good men or that they wouldn’t be held accountable for their actions. I’m simply saying that God is bigger, wiser, and more good than we could ever imagine. Jesus did not go to the cross because God the Father was mad at us. Jesus went to the cross because God so loved us.
Was God angry at sin and its devastation? Absolutely. At the Cross, did Jesus reveal the fact that God’s justice and holiness had to be satisfied? Did the Cross reveal the fact that God is love and Savior and that he died to deliver us from evil? The answer to this question is a resounding YES!!! Mankind stood guilty and condemned under the perfect law, and God poured out his wrath on sin in the person of Jesus as our substitute so that he would not have to pour out his wrath on sin on us.
Because of the fall in the Garden of Eden, mankind could have been lost forever because the wages of sin is death, but God, driven by his love for us, revealed his solution at the Cross: sending his own son to die on the Cross for us and as us. In doing so, the demands of the law were satisfied, and we no longer have to fear condemnation in Christ, for we have already gone to the place of execution in the person of Jesus. Remarkably, in God’s great love and wisdom, the Cross and the Resurrection were not just the solution for sin’s penalty, but having died in his body at the Cross, we were raised up as his body in His resurrection. A totally new man, free from the law and its condemnation and free from the old self that lived a life of failure, frustration, and meaninglessness. Our redemption can only be accomplished by Jesus dying on the Cross for, and as us, of course, the God of love would choose the only plan that would remove the issues so that he who already loved lavish His love on us as his sons and daughters without measure. Was the Cross a substitutionary sacrifice or a decisive victorious blow against the evil forces that were ruining and destroying the sons and daughters of Adam? Again, a decisive and resounding YES to both because God is love.