1 post tagged “propitiation”
Spoiler Warning!
I just saw the movie Seven Pounds, and I found it disturbing. In an age where support for euthanasia and assisted suicide is on the rise, any movie that portrays suicide as a good thing raises my suspicion. But as a Christian, I found the reasoning behind main character choosing death, as denying the hope we have from the sacrificial death of Christ.
Superbly acted, Will Smith plays a man named Ben Thomas who seeks to right the terrible wrong of accidentally killing seven people. He does so by donating some of his own organs to people he judges to be 'good people' in need of transplants.
Some organs he is able to give as a 'live donor', such as a kidney, a lung, part of a liver. But in order to donate other organs, such as his heart, he must die. And so, he commits suicide, enabling him to give away those organs.
When Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13), I think He was talking about Himself, foreshadowing the redemption that would come when He would give His life at the cross.
Ben Thomas will find no redemption in his own death.
Ben Thomas was a terribly depressed man, filled with guilt and grief- one of those people he killed was his own wife. Ben was a man desperately in need of the Truth- that there is a God and He is willing to forgive (Romans 3:30, 1 John 1:9). He needed to know that by giving away his organs, sacrificing his own life so that others may live, he would NOT make up for the terrible tragedy for which he was responsible. No one can pay for his own sins. (Romans 3:23). We need a Savior. Thankfully, Jesus died for the sins of Ben Thomas'- so that Ben wouldn't have to.
There is only one sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 10:10). There is only one justification (God can justify Ben Thomas), one way of redemption (God can redeem Ben Thomas), one propitiation (the wrath of God that was on Ben was placed onto Christ)- it is the death and the resurrection of the Perfect One (Hebrews 4:15)- the only 'good man' to ever live, by the way (Romans 3:10)- the only begotten Son of God, the God Man Christ Jesus. (Roman 3:21-26).
It is He Who makes all things new (Revelation 21:5). It is the Father, in Whom "we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28) All things will work together for good- even a tragedy such as the one Ben faced.
Ben Thomas needed to be told of the new life found in Christ. He needed to be told of the LOVE of GOD and that "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) Ben needed to be given this hope from his friends- the hope we have from Christ's death- not help in causing his own death.
