Status Updates From The Cradle, the Cross, and ...

"...God's justice...would be compromised if he leniently passed over sin and declared the sinner righteous apart from a substitutionary sacrifice. Only by means of the cross can the heavenly Judge be just and justify believing sinners...Paul not only presents Jesus's death as a ransom that rescued condemned criminals from their deserved sentence; he also portrays Jesus's death as an atoning sacrifice..." (633).