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WHY THE
CROSS?
God loves you so much that He took the punishment for your sins on the cross. He does not want your sins keeping you separated from Him for all eternity, which they will, if you don't accept this FREE GIFT OF PARDON God has given humanity. That's some pretty exciting news, isn't it?! But perhaps this sounds like the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard. But is it really? Maybe you have or haven’t heard it said that “God is love.” If God truly is the essence of love, then what does His dying on the cross to take someone’s punishment have anything to do with His love, you might wonder? (Besides … who can prove that God died anyway, right? 'What a ridiculous statement!' … you might be thinking to yourself). Understandably. But let’s flip-flop our reasoning. Can we prove that God did not die on the cross to take our punishment? Not really. The best (worst?) we can do is believe He didn’t. Consider this for a moment. Either the following scriptural declaration in 1 Timothy 3:16 is FACT, or it is NOT:
Imagine for a moment that you are God. Imagine that you created all things. You decided to create universes, and planets and stars in that universe. On one planet in particular, you decided to create creatures in your likeness. Your primary reason for doing so was to reveal your wisdom motivated by love. These unique creatures would be unlike any other you had ever created. They would be created in your likeness in that they would be a three-part being: they would be given a body, a soul, and a spirit. You would give them dominion over the other creatures you had created on planet Earth. In your love, you gave these created beings called Man and Woman the freewill to choose. You did not want to force them to serve and obey you like robots. To make them serve and obey you would not be love at all. In your infinite wisdom … these special created beings would be given an extreme high place of rulership throughout eternity … if they chose to follow the course you laid out for them. This course would not be an easy course. This would be a most difficult course for most to follow. After all … for these special created beings to deserve the honor of being placed at an extreme high place of rulership … they would have to prove their appreciation and their obedience. To simply give them this privilege and right without them having to pay a great price for it would not really be wise. Yet here was a dilemma you were faced with. In times earlier, in your love, you had given your angels, which are spirit beings, the ability to chose as well, and one of the most powerful ones began to think more highly of himself than what he should. A third of the angels less powerful than him also desired to see him placed above you in glory, and so a full-blown rebellion was brewing. In your wisdom and power you removed these rebels from your midst. You confined them to a specific place until final Judgment would be given them for their wicked disobedience. They would be confined to planet Earth and surrounding it, until the completion of future judgment. YOUR MASTER PLAN UNFOLDS In your immeasurable
wisdom … your master plan unfolded. You would allow this angel, who
was now called Satan, to tempt Man and Woman to disobey you. If they
weren’t given the choice to choose to obey you or disobey you – given the
choice to obey what you say instead of what your enemies say – how could
they prove themselves to you that they could be trusted with it?
So you create a special place on planet Earth called Eden. You placed Man and Woman there, giving the Man a name called Adam. Adam named his wife Eve. You tell Adam and Eve they can eat of every fruit in Eden, except one. In so doing, you have just given to them your highest expression of love: choice. In due course Satan shows up in Eden. He entices Eve to taste the fruit you told her she shouldn’t eat. Once she has eaten of the forbidden fruit, with Satan’s help, she entices Adam to eat of it as well. You had warned Adam and Eve to not eat the fruit, because if they did, they would die. Satan used his powers of persuasiveness to convince Adam and Eve that they would not die, but would become like himself. Himself!? Sure – he just didn’t say it quite that way. He said that they would become like “God … to know the difference between good and evil”. What Adam and Eve didn’t realize is that they should have first asked you, their Creator, for a second opinion on the matter before just listening to someone else say everything was going to be okay. After they ate of the forbidden fruit, sure enough, they began to die, just like you promised them they would. (You just didn’t give them the details of how it would happen). First their spirit began to lose the intimate spiritual life you created it to have with you. Their hunger to fellowship in your presence would diminish from then on. Their love for the light of your essence would begin a slow death, and their love for darkness away from the light of your presence would intensify. Secondly in their dying, their soul (mind, will and emotions) now began to experience fear. They were incapable of experiencing fear of any kind before disobeying you. In their fear, they now were compelled to hide from you, rather than desiring to have intimate fellowship with you as before. Along with fear came all kinds of other frightful, devastating feelings and emotions they never would have had to battle had they not disobeyed you. Thirdly, in many years to follow, their physical bodies died. Had they never disobeyed you, their physical bodies would have lived on forever. Something else happened when Satan gained legal influence over Adam and Eve. When they had their first child, their spiritual DNA was passed to that child. Their now spiritually defective DNA was partly of your nature, but now tragically partly of Satan’s nature as well. Satan’s nature was to try to turn spiritual light into spiritual darkness by trying to convince everyone that his darkness is the true light. Because Satan’s fall transformed him into the father of all lies, he is now totally incapable of telling the pure truth. His essence for being is to attempt to convince all that the lies he speaks must become reality … his spiritual darkness has become that black. Along with their now partly defective spiritual DNA was their physical DNA that also passed to their offspring. Diseases, abnormalities of all sorts, could and would be passed to their offspring to every person born thereafter, right to this very day. In essence, everything good you created Adam and Eve for was now turned into a defective creation: spiritually - emotionally – physically. The light you had created in Adam and Eve would now begin to grow dimmer day by day in all three dimensions of their being. Yet in your wisdom, you had a plan from the beginning of all creation. In your love for the fallen human race, you were not about to let them remain under the control of Satan’s darkened influence indefinitely. You would give mankind a second chance to become all that you originally created for them to become. UNDERSTANDING TO THE HUMBLE It is very difficult for a mere human to fully comprehend your need for the Master Plan of Redemption and Reconciliation to be given to the human race, but for those who seek to fully understand it, you give them the ability to understand and appreciate it enough to respond properly to it. Here’s the preciousness of the Master Plan of reconciliation for the human race. Because you are God, you have all power. You always were – you always will be. You know all things, from the beginning to the end. In you, there really is no end. You are everywhere at all times. Love originated from you, because that is what you are. Wisdom originated from you, because that is what you are. Mercy originated from you, because that is what you are. Peace originated from you, because that is what you are. Joy originated from you, because that is what you are. Righteousness originated from you, because that is what you are. Holiness originated from you, because that is what you are. Perfect justice originates from you, because that is what you are. In fact … you are so holy and so righteous and so just that you cannot and will not stand sin (rebellion -- criminal acts ... against you) in your full presence, which is why you must implement your Master Plan. In your vast wisdom, you realized that Man and Woman could not be trusted with free will to obey you. Adam and Eve had already proven it. The only way Adam and Eve would never have chosen to sin against you would to have never given them the ability to choose between good and evil in the first place. To have done that would have made them subservient robots – slaves. No … it was only right to give them and their offspring the ability to choose. But because they chose to disobey you, which their offspring would also do by the very rebellious nature they inherited from their parents, your righteousness and holiness and perfect justice would never allow them to remain in your presence for eternity. After all … you are The all-just Judge as well. Wrongdoing against you and others must be judged and punishment must be executed against the guilty. Sadly … it appeared as though you had backed yourself into a corner. Because you cannot tolerate sin (criminal acts against you and others) in your presence … Adam and Eve would never be able to be in your full presence any longer. Tragically, neither would their offspring. The entire human race would be doomed to be separated from your full presence for all eternity, because now sin (criminal acts against God) stood between you and them, just like between you and Satan and the other fallen angels. Yet in your mercy, you would give human beings a chance to have your holiness and your righteousness, which would be like garments that covered their sin. There was absolutely no way they could become holy enough or righteous enough in their own abilities that you would find acceptable, so you would lovingly give them yours. In fact, though it would cost you your very life, with pain unspeakable, you would give them this holiness and righteousness free
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