“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

2 CORINTHIANS 5:21, NKJV

This statement alone is enough to offend the modern, culturally-acceptable gospel that presents no need for a bloody Savior. When Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things, be killed and raised the third day, Peter initially resisted Him (Matt. 16:21-22). He had no paradigm for a suffering Messiah or for submitting his life to a Roman cross in order to follow Him. Jesus essentially called this mindset Satanic (Matt. 16:23). For believers in today’s world, we must be prepared to confront this same message of a cross-less Christianity. While there are elements of truth that we must learn to value as the name of Christ is proclaimed and the gospel is brought up as a matter of discussion in our society (Phil. 1:15-18), we must also learn to answer the discussions with clarity and compassion (1 Pet. 3:15).

One thing I have noticed over the years is that there is a real danger that arises when the gospel is subtly mixed with a certain leaven of victimhood and self-righteousness that allows for people to keep their identity wrapped up in what happened to them and to trust more in their own “rightness” or truth. This type of message looks right and feels good, but it ultimately undermines the liberating truth and power of the gospel because it avoids the fundamental crisis and purpose for which Christ came to save us. The modern gospel, which often revolves around human want, rather than human need, will say that the solution is you plus Jesus. But the gospel of Jesus Christ says a dead you is the only you that His resurrection power can work through (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:1-11; Jn. 12:24-26).

His love was never meant to be used as a weapon against against truth. A weapon that would embolden us to live comfortably in our sin, resulting in blurred lines and moral confusion. You see, the thing about the love of God which sets it apart from every other love is not only that He gets us, it’s that He bled for us. And He bled for us that we might know His love, that we might repent of our sins, receive His forgivness and turn wholeheartedly to Him with joyful obedience. Romans 5:7-9 says, “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Jesus didn’t overlook our sin, He dearly paid for it with His own blood (1 Cor. 6:20). He didn’t avoid the conflict. He didn’t downplay the crisis. He saw the wrath we brought upon ourselves, and at just the right moment, He hung in our place (Gal. 4:4-6; Isa. 59). In bloody agony, He demonstrated once and for all what love looks like (Jn. 15:13). Jesus in white became Jesus in red.

My beloved is white and ruddy, Chief among ten thousand.

SONG OF SOLOMON 5:10, NKJV

14 Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. 15 Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

HEBREWS 2:14-15, NLT

17 Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. 18 Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.

HEBREWS 2:17-18, NLT

4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

ISAIAH 53:4-5, NLT

Undoubtedly, we are moved by the selfless sacrifices of men and women throughout history who died protecting those they love, fighting for freedom from tyranny or defending others who could not defend themselves, yet never before has anyone so pure, so innocent and so righteous died for those who were so corrupt, so guilty, so defenseless and so undeserving of mercy. In the fury of His divine love, He wages war on everything that hinders us from knowing His love. That’s what He did to save us from the penalty and power of sin, and it’s what He will come back to do–to forever save us from the presence of sin. What He accomplished through the cross in silent restraint as the Lamb of God, will one day be openly displayed and unleashed on all His enemies when He returns (Isa. 42:13-14).

1 Who is this who comes from Edom, With dyed garments from Bozrah, This One who is glorious in His apparel, Traveling in the greatness of His strength?– “I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” 2 Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress?

ISAIAH 63:1-2, NKJV

25 For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. 26 And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

1 CORINTHIANS 15:25-26, NLT

11 Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war. 12 His eyes were like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him that no one understood except himself.13 He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God.14 The armies of heaven, dressed in the finest of pure white linen, followed him on white horses.15 From his mouth came a sharp sword to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will release the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty, like juice flowing from a winepress.

REVELATION 19:11-15, NLT

As I was thinking about the wrath of God, this story came to mind: Imagine you are a child who was told by your father not to play outside alone, and you chose to disobey him. While you are outside wandering in the brush, you hear the backdoor of your house fling open and see your father come charging toward you with a large shovel. In a frozen panic, you await the punishment, but as your father raises the shovel you turn away only to see the real reason for his fury. Right behind you is a large diamondback rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike just as your father steps in the way and crushes its head with the shovel. He was coming after the snake all along (Rev. 12:9; 20:10; Matt. 25:41).

3 “I have trodden the winepress alone, And from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, And trampled them in My fury; Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, And I have stained all My robes. 4 For the day of vengeance is in My heart, And the year of My redeemed has come. 5 I looked, but there was no one to help, And I wondered That there was no one to uphold; Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; And My own fury, it sustained Me.

ISAIAH 63:3-5, NKJV

We have painted our own picture of Jesus for so long that we don’t have a grid for Jesus in Red, and like Isaiah we say, “Who is this…” (Isa. 63:1)? Could it be that the reason we still resist His leadership in our lives is because we have yet to agree with the fact that it is actually His love that is making things messy (Heb. 12:3-11)? It’s actually His love that is disturbing our comfort and confronting our presumptious lifestyles, not to harm us, but to save us. It’s actually His love that beckons us to take up our cross and deny ourselves (Matt. 16:21-25; Jn. 15:11-14). Whereas the modern gospel casually permits us to continue fulfilling our own selfish desires, the gospel of Christ liberates us from ourselves, from self-absorption and self-preservation. Distorted versions of the gospel may bring the appearance of freedom, but this is exactly why they are dangerous–for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). God doesn’t break us out of “Egypt” and leave us to wander in the slavery of our old ways, but He desires to bring us into sonship, that we would follow the leading of His Spirit as we long for our heavenly homeland with Him (Rom. 8; Heb. 11; 1 Pet. 2:9-10). We don’t easily admit this because we are so used to dancing around the serpent’s den, but that is why we need the entrance of His Word to bring light to the dire condition of our heart and to the glory of Jesus in Red, who saves us, heals us and transforms us in love (Ps. 119:130; Eph. 1:17-18).

We need the purifying power that comes from hoping in Him alone. Jesus, the One true uncreated and eternal God became flesh and dwelt among us, that He might be the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (Jn. 1:1-18; 29). He truly died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried and rose again the third day, beeing seen and reported by many infallbile proofs (1 Cor. 15:1-5; Acts 1:1-3). He became our Great High Priest and King through His once and for all atoning sacrifice, our Mediator and Intercessor who comes to dwell within us through the Holy Spirit, who helps us in our weakness and is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of His purchased possession. He will come again as our Bridegroom and Judge to vanquish every enemy of His love. Every form of sin and evil that is not covered under His blood will have to answer to Him. So I say to myself, along with every bitter, broken and blinded heart: Look to the Lamb. Look to Jesus in Red.

2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

1 JOHN 3:2-3, NKJV

9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”…13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” 14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.“

REVELATION 7:9-14, NKJV