I'm saying that the crucifixion of Christ did not effect payment on our behalf to a wrathful God who demands payment.
I think that the entire Christ Event effected reconciliation for humanity.
I find the idea of a wrathful, bloodthirsty and vengeful God abhorrent. Therefore, I don't assign too much weight to the passages that portray God as such.
Here's the deal: We are justified because God chooses to justify us. We stand justified because God became one of us, and made us "like him." Through Christ, grace was applied to all humanity. God loves us. God desires us to be reconciled. Therefore, we are. It's time we started acting like it. That's the message of good news -- the gospel -- Jesus proclaimed: "Turn your lives around, because God's imperial rule has come near!"
The wrath of God against sin is a biblical truth. It seems you are a universalist. Do you think your beliefs can stand in the light of all of Scripture?
Matthew 3:7
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Luke 3:7He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Luke 21:23
Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people.
John 3:36
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Romans 1:18
God's Wrath on Unrighteousness
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Romans 2:5
But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
Romans 2:8
but for those who are self-seeking
[1] and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
Romans 4:15
For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
Romans 5:9
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Romans 9:22
What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
Romans 12:19
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it
[1] to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Romans 13:4
for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.
Romans 13:5
Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience.
Ephesians 2:3
among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body
[1] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Ephesians 5:6
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Colossians 3:6
On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
1 Thessalonians 1:10
and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
1 Thessalonians 2:16
by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God's wrath has come upon them at last!
[1]
1 Thessalonians 5:9
For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Revelation 6:16
calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,
Revelation 6:17
for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
Revelation 11:18
The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants,
[1] the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
Revelation 14:10
he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
Revelation 14:19
So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
Revelation 15:1
The Seven Angels with Seven Plagues
Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.
Revelation 15:7
And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever,
Revelation 16:1
The Seven Bowls of God's Wrath
Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”
Revelation 16:19
The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.
Revelation 19:15
From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
However you want to say it, however you express it as long as you work out your "own" salvation with Christ......I'm glad that God looks on the heart and knows the very intent without us having to be politically correct when we pray......Amen
