Tom Wright said something like:
"If you...watched Jesus going around with good humour loving people (loving people): welcoming them, being kind to people...This isn't just decoration - this is telling us something about what God incarnate looks like...This is the victory which has substitution as its means - which means what it means within the story of God, the world, Israel, Jesus and us - and flowing out of all that it is also of course the example...
If a friend of mine and I are walking along a riverbank and the friend slips and falls in, and in an act of love...to dive in to try to save him - but if my friend is standing beside me on the bank, it makes no sense to say "I'll show you how much I love you" and just go and dive in. The cross can only be an example if it's also doing something else. And in the gospels it is winning the victory for people and it's doing so through Jesus as the substitute.
"If you...watched Jesus going around with good humour loving people (loving people): welcoming them, being kind to people...This isn't just decoration - this is telling us something about what God incarnate looks like...This is the victory which has substitution as its means - which means what it means within the story of God, the world, Israel, Jesus and us - and flowing out of all that it is also of course the example...
If a friend of mine and I are walking along a riverbank and the friend slips and falls in, and in an act of love...to dive in to try to save him - but if my friend is standing beside me on the bank, it makes no sense to say "I'll show you how much I love you" and just go and dive in. The cross can only be an example if it's also doing something else. And in the gospels it is winning the victory for people and it's doing so through Jesus as the substitute.
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