The human predicament is dire!

The human predicament is so dire that it cannot be remedied in any ordinary way. If we fail to see this, then we “have not yet considered the great weight of sin.” [Anselm] Redemption (buying back), therefore, is not cheap. In the death of Jesus we see God himself suffering the consequences of Sin. That is the “price.” When Christian teaching falls short of this proclamation, the work of Christ on the cross is diminished to the vanishing point, becoming nothing more than an exemplary death to admire, to venerate, perhaps even to emulate, but certainly not an event to shake the foundations of this world order.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 287