Family Talk

Dr. James Dobson: Hello everyone, you're listening to Family Talk, the radio broadcasting ministry of the James Dobson Family Institute. I'm Dr. James Dobson, and thank you for joining us for this program.

Roger Marsh: Welcome to Family Talk, the broadcast division of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. I'm Roger Marsh, and as you are probably well aware, Easter is just around the corner. On today's edition of Family Talk, we're going to pause for just a moment to reflect on what makes this season so profound.

Questions like why did Jesus have to die always come up this time of year, and maybe could God have offered a different plan? These are questions that as a young Christian, our own Dr. James Dobson wrestled with himself. Today on Family Talk, he shares the answers that he found that transformed his faith.

In this timeless message, Dr. Dobson will unpack the very heart of why the need for a Savior. Get ready for a very special edition of Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk starting right now.

Dr. James Dobson: Dear friends, soon you and I will celebrate the most important holiday—literally, holy day—on the Christian calendar. Easter is not primarily a secular observance designed to usher in the warmth of spring, nor is it simply a day for children to hide eggs and overindulge on chocolate bunnies.

Despite modern culture's attempts to reinvent this day of celebration, Easter is at its heart the Christian commemoration of Christ's death and, three days later, His emergence from the tomb and all of the freedom and victory that these events entail. The resurrection is the historical marker that lies at the center of everything we believe, and within it is found the promise of eternal life for believers in Jesus Christ.

The good news provides the only satisfactory explanation for why we're here and where we're going. The final heartbeat for the Christian is not the mysterious conclusion to a meaningless existence. It is, rather, the grand beginning of a life that will never end. That's why we can proclaim, even at the graveside of a loved one who is a Christian, "Where, oh death, is your victory? Where, oh death, is your sting?" First Corinthians 15:55.

I used to ponder a difficult theological question that appeared unanswerable at the time. It seemed strange that God would send His only son, Jesus, to die in agony on a cross at Mount Calvary. I reasoned that God, as creator of the universe, was in charge of everything. That entitled Him to make His own rules and establish His own boundaries.

Therefore, it seemed to me that God could have provided any plan of salvation without accountability to anyone. It was logical to my immature faith that He would create a system that would ultimately require the suffering and death of His own son on the cross. I could not comprehend why He would put Himself through such grief and sorrow on our behalf when He could have offered a less costly plan.

I struggled with this issue as a young Christian, and I was perplexed by the questions it raised. I knew all the pat answers given to me in Sunday school, and I could quote the scriptures, but none of the interpretation satisfied me. It's interesting to look back on the things that troubled us in earlier days. I now have a better understanding of God's plan of salvation and what motivated it.

The explanation is of great significance for me because it deals with the very essence of Christianity. Before reading my conclusion about God's plan, you should know that I'm neither a minister, nor a pastor, nor a theologian. I can make no claims to theological expertise.

I do, however, know a little Greek and a little Hebrew. The Greek owns a gas station in Los Angeles and the Hebrew runs a delicatessen in San Diego. That's a very bad joke, but it illustrates the fact that I'm admittedly unqualified to speak as a biblical authority. However, this lack of theological training may help me communicate with other non-theologians in everyday language.

If my explanation becomes a gross oversimplification for some people, I hope they will forgive me. Here, then, is my concept of the plan of salvation and why Jesus' death was necessary. It begins as it should with an understanding of God's nature. Throughout scripture, the Creator is represented by two uncompromising characteristics: His love and His justice.

Both of these aspects are reflected in everything God does, and none of His actions will ever contradict either component. The love and justice of God were especially evident when He created Adam and Eve. Obviously, He could have programmed them to love Him and obey His laws. This could have been accomplished by creating them as highly sophisticated robots or puppets.

He did, in fact, program the brains of lower animals, causing birds to build a certain kind of nest and wolves to kill wounded elk. They have no choice in the matter. It's built into their nature. But the Lord elected to put no instinctual behavior into humankind, leaving us free to learn.

We have inclinations, urges, desires, and feelings, but we have no instincts. This explains the utter helplessness of human infants, who are the most dependent of all creatures at birth. They lack the initial advantages of unlearned responses but will later run circles around the brightest animals with locked-in reactions. Such is the nature of our humanness.

By granting us freedom of choice, therefore, God gave meaning to our love. He sought our devotion but refused to demand it. However, the moment He created this choice, it became inevitable that He would eventually be faced with man's disobedience. I've heard Christians speculate on what might have happened if Adam and Eve hadn't disobeyed God.

The answer seems obvious to me. If they had not sinned, a subsequent generation would have. After all, if no one ever made the wrong choice, then there was no true choice to be made. But Adam and Eve did sin, as we know, and thereby confronted God with the most serious dilemma of all times.

His love for the human race was unlimited, which required that He forgive His disobedient children. The Bible says as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. Psalm 103:13. That's my favorite Psalm. This is an analogy that I can comprehend. I know how I pity my children when they've done wrong. My inclination is to forgiveness.

But in spite of God's great love, His justice required complete obedience. It demanded repentance and punishment for disobedience. So, herein was a serious conflict within God's nature. I'm speaking as a mortal human being trying to explain the nature of God, which is an impossible task, but let me continue.

If He destroyed the human race as His justice would require in response to our sinful behavior, His love would have been violated. But if He ignored our sins, His justice would have been sacrificed. Yet, neither aspect of His nature could be compromised.

But God in His marvelous wisdom and love proposed a solution to that awful dilemma. If He could find one human being who wasn't worthy of damnation—just one individual in the history of mankind who had never sinned, a man or woman who was not guilty—then the sin of every other person on earth could be laid upon that one, and he or she could suffer for all of us.

So, God, being timeless, looked across the ages of man from Adam to Armageddon, and He could not find anyone who was innocent. It would later be written, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23. There wasn't a person who was worthy of assuming the guilt and blame and punishment for the rest of us.

Therefore, the only alternative was for God to send His only son to bear the sins of the entire human family. And herein we see the beauty of God's plan and the reason Jesus had to die. When He was crucified here on earth, Jesus reconciled the relationship between man and God and harmonized the conflict between God's love and justice and provided a remedy for fallen humankind. That touches my heart.

Thus, Jesus said as He was dying, "It is finished," meaning, "I've carried out the plan of salvation that God designed for sinful man." And that's why God turned His back on Jesus when He was on the cross, prompting the sacrificial lamb of God to cry in anguish, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46. In that moment, Jesus was bearing the punishment for all human sin down through the ages—yours and mine.

This understanding of the plan of salvation is not based on guesses and suppositions, of course. It's drawn from the literal interpretation of God's word. The message is, in fact, the primary theme of all scripture. The Old Testament said Jesus is coming and the New Testament said Jesus is here.

But if I had to select one passage to represent the concept that I've presented, it would be the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. It's my favorite chapter in the Bible. It was written 700 years before the birth of Christ and provides an incredible prophecy of His mission. The summary of God's entire plan is summarized in this one chapter. Let me read a portion of it.

"Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of a dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain. Like one for whom people hide their faces, he was despised and we held him in low esteem."

"Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, he did not open his mouth."

I do hope that you'll take the time to read the rest of Isaiah 53 because it contains prophecies regarding His resurrection and His ultimate victory. Isn't that an absolutely wonderful prophecy of the Messiah to come? He laid out the plan of salvation not just for the Jews, but it reached 2,700 years ago to our day and applies to us and our sin.

He makes it clear why God's plan necessarily involved His own son, His grief and sorrow and death. Only by paying this incredible price could He harmonize the potential contradiction between love and justice and provided a way of escape for mankind. It also explains why there is no other name by which we are saved and why we cannot escape if we neglect so great a salvation. Hebrews 2:3.

One important question remains to be answered. Just how does a person proceed now to accept this plan and follow the risen Lord? I believe there are two basic steps in the process, although some churches emphasize only one. The first is to believe in the name of Jesus Christ. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

Romans 10:13 says it another way: "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." So the first obligation for anyone is to accept what Christ did as being for him or her personally. But as I understand the scripture and from my own theological perspective, there is a second responsibility which is often underemphasized.

While it's true that you cannot work your way to salvation—it's a gift of unmerited grace—repentance is still an important part of the process. It is surprising to me how many times this word appears in the scripture. Here are a few examples from dozens of references to repentance in both the Old and New Testaments.

Frankly, it amazes me that many churches and many pastors don't talk about that aspect of the plan of salvation. It's rarely mentioned. It's not seen as relevant to the acceptance of this relationship with Christ. Let's look at what the prophets and the great men of the Bible had to say about that word. That's where we get our information. That's where we get our understanding, and it includes the words of the greatest of them all, Jesus Himself.

Listen: Isaiah said, "This is what the sovereign Lord, the holy one of Israel, says: 'In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.'" Isaiah 30:15. This is what Ezekiel wrote: "'For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone,' declares the sovereign Lord, 'repent and live.'" Ezekiel 18:32.

Here's what Jesus had to say about it—He's our ultimate authority: "The time has come," He said, "the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news." There are the two elements that I mentioned. Jesus also said, "I tell you that in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent." Luke 15:7.

Peter said, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Acts 2:38. Peter also said, "Repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord." Acts 3:19.

You see the repetitive nature of this component of the plan? Here's what Paul said: "In the past, God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to..." do what? "...to repent." Acts 17:30. Paul also said, "Yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us." Second Corinthians 7:9.

How about John the Baptist, about whom Jesus said no greater man ever lived? This is what he said when the Pharisees came out to visit him: "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them..." Boy, this is powerful. "...you brood of vipers!"

Why'd he say that? Because they had sin in their life, unconfessed sin. "Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." Matthew 3:7 and 8. Repentance is a word that's often misunderstood. What does it really mean?

The late Billy Graham, whose funeral I attended, defined repentance as having three parts to it. The first is conviction. You have to know what's right before you can do what's right. In simple terms, conviction is a deep awareness of one's sin and guilt. The Holy Spirit draws us to Himself and gives us a desire to harmonize our relationship with Him.

The second component of repentance is contrition. Contrition is being sorry for one's sin and depravity. When I knelt at an altar at four years of age, I wept like the baby I was. I certainly didn't understand the meaning of contrition, but I knew I wanted Jesus to forgive me for my sin and come to live in my heart. Don't tell me a child is incapable of understanding what that means. I experienced it, and that memory is as vivid to me today as it was all those decades ago.

The third aspect of repentance is a willingness to change. It involves becoming a follower of Jesus Christ and changing one's behavior and thought patterns. The Apostle Paul warned us, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—His good, pleasing, and perfect will." Romans 12:2.

I think it would be helpful in conclusion to give an example of the kind of prayer that a person might pray if he or she understands what I've been writing and wants to accept Jesus Christ as his or her own Lord and Savior. Let me express it this way: "Lord, I bring you my sinful nature as you've revealed it to me. I know I don't have anything valuable to offer except myself and my love."

"I can't earn your forgiveness, and you've offered it as a gift from your son Jesus Christ. I accept your control of my life and I intend to serve you, obey you and follow you from this moment forward. You have my past, my present, my future, my family, my money, and my time. Nothing will I withhold, and thank you for loving me and forgiving me and making me your own. Amen."

Oh Lord, I pray that there's somebody out there in a sinful state and knows it and now understands it and now comprehends what it is that God expects of them and what Jesus came to do for us. I pray for that person who has been confused about the meaning of it all, and perhaps because of these words and the foolishness of preaching, their eyes have been opened and they now see what God wants of them.

Well, the reason for this discussion today is that we're pointing toward the celebration of Christ's death and resurrection. Let me say in closing, because my time is gone, to those of you who are overwhelmed by the cares of life and burdened by the weight of the world during this Easter season: I urge you to look to the risen Christ. May His grace and peace and presence surround you and your loved ones not only on Easter Sunday, but every day for the rest of your life. He is risen. He is risen indeed.

Roger Marsh: Truly a powerful message indeed from our founder, Dr. James Dobson, on today's edition of Family Talk. The truth at the heart of Easter never gets old, and I hope that today's program has given you fresh perspective as we enter into this Easter season with Holy Week beginning this coming Sunday.

If you'd like to share this message with someone who needs to hear the truth of the gospel, I encourage you to go to JDFI.net. You can send the link by text or email in just a few seconds and give your skeptical friends reason to believe as we answer the question why the need for a Savior with Dr. James Dobson.

And with Easter just around the corner, I want to encourage you to spend a few moments exploring our website at JDFI.net. We've gathered some meaningful content there on our homepage to help you slow down, reflect, and prepare your heart for Easter Sunday. Again, you'll find it all at JDFI.net, something for every day during Holy Week.

Well, I'm Roger Marsh, and from all of us here at Family Talk and the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, thanks so much for tuning in today. We are wishing you and your family a meaningful and blessed Easter season, and be sure to join us again next time right here for another edition of Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk, the voice you trust for the family you love.