Divine Child Abuse?

What did Christ accomplish on the cross? To demonstrate His love. To triumph over principalities and powers. (Christus Victor). To set a moral example of obedience.

These are important facets of the cross, but we can't stop there.

II Corinthians 5:22: “He (God the Father) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin, to become sin on our behalf that we could become the righteousness of God in Him.”

At the heart of the cross, Christ bore our sins and took upon Himself the just wrath of God that we deserved. He took the punishment as our substitute so that we may be forgiven and rescued.

Unless the cross actually saves us, it would be an empty show of love just like the silly lovesick boy who says, "Darling, I will prove my love for you by jumping off Niagara Falls".

It is only meaningful act of love if the beloved is in real danger such that diving in would be an attempt to rescue her.

And a humiliating and painful death by crucifixion is hardly victorious if not because by setting us free from the power of sin and death, Christ has disarmed the weapons of the enemy. Satan is defeated on the cross as he lost any claim on us.

And yes, we can learn about obedience of the Son even unto death and denying one's will to do the Father's by looking at the cross. But it is because of Christ died and rescued us from our moral depravity that we have the most powerful, motivating moral influence in life.

So we can make much sense of the other motifs through the lens of Christ's substitutionary death. But in and of themselves, these motifs are emptied of their power. Sadly, this notion of penal substitutionary atonement has sometimes been described as 'cosmic child abuse'.

Greg Koukl wrote some helpful responses here
"Why is it an act of love for God the Father to punish His Son? How is it the Father’s love? I could see it being an act of love for Jesus if he chose to do it, but how is it an act of love by the Father that Jesus would lay down His life? How is it loving that the Father would punish a third party?

If you did something bad to me, and I grabbed Joe Blow over there and said to you that I was going to forgive you because I’m going to punch this guy out, you would wonder how it’s an act of love for me to forgive you by punching him out? It might be his love if he said to punch him out on your behalf, but hardly an act of my love. Unless - in the case of God the Father, and the Son, Jesus, that the Son is also God. That is, it is not just another man that the Father is punishing for our sins, but God who became a man Himself and took upon Himself His own just punishment.

This is why it’s so important to approach this challenge with an understanding of the Trinity, and understanding of the nature of God Jesus is God; He isn’t just an innocent third party. He is the Judge Himself suffering, the One who determines the punishment takes it, the One who passes judgment receives it. It is Jesus, the incarnate God. That is how it’s an example of the love of God.

It is precisely because God is love that He has made a way for sinful men to be forgiven and His holy quality of justice to be upheld at the same time so that, as Paul writes, He can be both the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." Read the full story