The idea that at the cross, that Jesus is trying to turn away the anger of his heavenly Father against his people in such a way that Jesus is loving and the Father is not, is actually a very serious misconstrual of what is happening in the atoning work of Jesus Christ. The Bible makes it clear that the atoning work of Christ at the cross is not trying to get the Father to love his people, that the atoning work of Christ on the cross is not trying to get the Father to be sympathetic with or involved in the salvation of his people and the plight of his people. But that Jesus' work on the cross is actually the expression of the Father's prior love for his people. Think how often in the New Testament it is stressed that Jesus coming into this world and his bearing of the cross is in fact the result of the Father's love. The verse that most of us memorize perhaps first in our Christian life, John 3:16 emphasizes "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…" Now, whose love is being emphasized in that verse? I don't mean in any way to take away from the love of Jesus, but it's the love of the heavenly Father in the giving of the Son, that is being emphasized in that passage. And when we think of Romans 8:32, "He who spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not with him freely give us all things?" So the emphasis in Romans 8:32, is that it's the Father who delivers up his Son, in order that in his Son, he might freely give us all things. So, the cross is the conspiracy of the Father and the Son's love for us. Its very interesting that there was a debate on this subject at the time of the Reformation. Socinus, one of the liberals in the Reformation, a radical Anabaptist said that he believed that God either forgives on the basis of mercy, or on the basis of the conditions of our righteousness being fulfilled on the cross. And he argued against Calvin that you can either believe that salvation is costly or free. I choose to believe its free. God just decided to forgive us. The cross was unnecessary. All the cross is, is an expression of how to live a life of love. Calvin responded no, salvation is both costly and free. It is costly to God the Father who bore the cost of his love for us in the giving of his son, but it is free to us in that the Father has not asked us to bear the cost, but he has given the free gift of his son to us in Christ. Was the cross necessary for our salvation? Absolutely. Was the cross necessary to assuage the wrath of God, the just wrath of God against sin? Absolutely. Was the cross Jesus trying to get an angry God to love his people? No, the cross is the expression of the prior love of God for his people through the means of Jesus bearing the sins of a whole world of sinners who believe on him.