Day 1075 · Year 3 · The Great Tradition
Anselm on why the cross
An Archbishop asked the question carefully — why a cross?
Today's passage
Romans 3:23-26
23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
25God presented Him as an atoning sacrifice in His blood through faith, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand.
26He did this to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and to justify the one who has faith in Jesus.
Berean Standard Bible · public domain
Reflection
Anselm of Canterbury, in the eleventh century, wrote a careful book asking why God became man and why the cross was the way. His answer, in short: human sin had created a real debt that only God could pay, but only a human owed; so God became human to pay it himself. Romans 3 is the New Testament version. God is both 'just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.' The cross is where God's justice and God's love meet without either being diminished.
From the great tradition · paraphrased
Anselm of Canterbury · Medieval · 11th–12th c. · England
Anselm argued that the cross is not arbitrary — it is the precise meeting of God's holiness and God's love, where the debt is genuinely paid and the sinner is genuinely freed.
Paraphrase only. Scripture, not any teacher, is the authority.
Think it through
- What two things does the cross do, according to verse 26?
- Why must God be both just and the justifier?
- Where do you tend to reduce the cross — either softening God's justice or softening his love?
A prayer to pray
Worship at the cross where justice and love met. Receive again the verdict it secured for you.