The Cross - and what it means about the Father

I came across this journal entry from August 5, 2010 today. I wrote it after a discussion with my missional community (group of people from my church who have committed to living lives alongside each other just like family). We were talking about lies we believe about God and narrowed it down to two main lies: 1 - That God is weak and doesn't really care when people do bad things to hurt others, and 2 - That God is hard-hearted and detached, without compassion.

"Last night at MC we talked about God's holiness and loving-kindness, and how, most of the time those are seen as mutually exclusive when they're really not. To get to the heart of the lies, we split into 2 groups, with one delving into why we see God as holy, distant, and powerful but not loving, and the other group into why they see God as loving and nice, but not demanding justice.
"In our group we talked about the different mental images we have of God related to the lies we believe. We came up with 3 different mental images.

1) God laughs at us when we're in pain
2) God shakes his head in righteous disappointment when we mess up
3) God is stone-faced, mechanical, and systematic, kicking consequences into action whenever we mess up, only caring about the lessons we're learning in the process of living life, and not caring about our hearts or any enjoyment we may get out of life.

"Mine was the 3rd. What was incredible was that the Cross and the resurrection destroy all 3 of those lies and false images of God. The way it destroys mine is that a detached, emotionless God would not send his Son to the Cross to save me from death. A "learn your lessons" kind of God would let me die so I'd "learn" the consequences of my sin.

"It was also pretty incredible to see that the Cross and Jesus blow the "weak, loving" idea of God out of the water too. A weak God who does not enforce his own laws would not demand justice from His one and only Son. There is value in redemption, and the cost is very high. It is costly love , and it is overwhelming, irresistible love."

God is both holy and faithful in his loving-kindness. We are so sinful that Christ HAD to die. God is so loving that He was glad to send His Son in our place.