If God in Christ simply said the most powerful word about his goodwill, his placability, and his readiness to forgive, that would destroy his work, and the height of his place. Thus God would be saying more than he did; and we have a natural and proper difficulty in thoroughly trusting people who say more than they do.
If Christ were simply an expression of God's love, then his Cross would simply be what is called an object-lesson of God's love; or it would simply be a witness to the serious way in which God takes man's sin; or it might even be no more than the expression of the strong conviction of Jesus about it. We are exposed to the danger there always is when we make revelation a word rather than a deed, something said instead of something done, when we make it manifestation only and not redemption.
P T Forsyth, in The Work of Christ, page 99
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