This morning I was listening to a collection of hymns from Page CXVI when the truth of one of them, “In Christ Alone,” hit me hard and brought tears to me eyes:
“Till on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied.”
I have Christian friends who I suspect would shy away from words like “wrath” to describe God’s attitude toward humans. They have dealt with their feelings of guilt by claiming that all feelings of guilt are unhelpful, unspiritual, and not from God. Much of that is probably a reaction to being made to feel not-good-enough by legalistic Christians who had no business condemning. But in throwing out all guilt as false, they are not facing the reality of the human condition. “You have nothing to feel guilty about. God doesn’t judge you,” they might say.
But as the human conscience bears out so clearly, we are indeed guilty. We cannot make up for this guilt by any good works. We try, but it never seems to be enough. We’re stuck. We are weighed down by our guilt so that at times we can barely breathe. The good news isn’t that you have nothing to feel guilty about. The good news is that “the wrath of God was satisfied.” There is nothing else that’s required to make atonement– only what Christ has done.
For those of us who acknowledge our guilt, our need to cleanse ourselves of it, and our utter helplessness to do so, that is good news indeed.
“And as He stands in victory,
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me.”