The essence of God is justice and not holiness

Sinful Christians are made to feel responsible for causing the execution of an innocent good man who died in lieu of them. In response they are expected to show their repentance by emotionally reliving the torture and the crucifixion of their saviour.

In some countries some Catholics in their desire to show their repentance go to the extreme of physically crucifying themselves to wooden crosses. 

However, this is but one interpretation put on the death of Jesus by Christians in later centuries.

Early theologians like Iraneus preached this atonement theory with the words " God came on earth that he might kill sin and deprive death of its power and so restore life and freedom to all humanity". Then in the 11the century Anselm of Canterbury made an indelible mark with the publication of his book " Cur Deus Homo" and answered it by stating that only God himself in the person of Jesus could atone for sin. The dishonour to God caused by sin could only be repaired by God becoming a man and dying as a substitute for humanity.

The Protestant Reformation in the person of John Calvin brought another terrifying variation of the atonement/ satisfaction theory to bear. Calvin preached about a courtroom where God as an angry judge is eager to punish human sinners - "we are all sinners obnoxious to the judgement of God. We cannot escape the fearful judgement of God but the guilt that made us liable to punishment was transferred onto the head of the son of God".

All these attempted answers to the question posed by Anselm as to why God became a man ignore the incarnate reality of God. From a purely historical point of view Jesus of Nazareth was crucified for threatening and confronting the unjust Palestinian society of the first century. He hadn't a foreordained necessary destiny to die as a saviour of the world. As a person his human freedom was and remained throughout his life an integral part of his humanity. He as a prophetic wandering Jew became aware of the oppression of his people caused by the Roman occupation of his country and where the rich Jewish establishment colluded in this oppression. He was not willing to be a silent colluder in that unjust society and preached that such a society defied God whose essence was not holiness but justice.

Such an historical and an actual real interpretation as to why Jesus of Nazareth was crucified is necessary to gain the faith of a new generation who have no interest in theories of penal substitutionary atonement to explain the incarnation .

The institutional church probably feels it has too much to lose if it frees itself from its backbreaking historical baggage and return to its gospel origins.