If you were God, how would you have solved the problem of humanity's sin?
I might have created an earthquake that swallowed up the temple and the ark of the covenant and then speak through my prophets that this is God's way of forgiving our sin once and for all ... or something like that.
We should never think that God was ignorant of the way things were going to turn out in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve fell into disobedience. He didn't plant the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and become suddently surprised that they ate of it. Remember that before there was talk of the tree, God had already created man IN HIS IMAGE. Why? Because God was always intending on sending his Son into the world, clothed in human flesh, so that he could pay the penalty of man's sin.
It was his predetermined plan that Jesus should suffer and die at the hands of sinners. The gruesome image of Jesus' passion is not gruesome because it was a last minute freak accident. It was gruesome so that God could demonstrate to us how terrible his wrath is on sin, and how glorious his mercy is on us.
Although The Father had all the infinite wisdom of the universe at his disposal, he refused to consider any other way to purchase salvation for humanity other than through the death of his beloved Son.
Walk that path with Jesus this week, that uphill trek to the summit with a cross pressing upon his torn and bloody shoulders. Breathe in the dust that was kicked into his face everytime he stumbled under the weight of those beams while sweat poured down his bruised face, and once the horror of it all becomes so real, remember, that this was the only possible way for us to be made right with God.
I might have created an earthquake that swallowed up the temple and the ark of the covenant and then speak through my prophets that this is God's way of forgiving our sin once and for all ... or something like that.
We should never think that God was ignorant of the way things were going to turn out in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve fell into disobedience. He didn't plant the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and become suddently surprised that they ate of it. Remember that before there was talk of the tree, God had already created man IN HIS IMAGE. Why? Because God was always intending on sending his Son into the world, clothed in human flesh, so that he could pay the penalty of man's sin.
It was his predetermined plan that Jesus should suffer and die at the hands of sinners. The gruesome image of Jesus' passion is not gruesome because it was a last minute freak accident. It was gruesome so that God could demonstrate to us how terrible his wrath is on sin, and how glorious his mercy is on us.
Although The Father had all the infinite wisdom of the universe at his disposal, he refused to consider any other way to purchase salvation for humanity other than through the death of his beloved Son.
Walk that path with Jesus this week, that uphill trek to the summit with a cross pressing upon his torn and bloody shoulders. Breathe in the dust that was kicked into his face everytime he stumbled under the weight of those beams while sweat poured down his bruised face, and once the horror of it all becomes so real, remember, that this was the only possible way for us to be made right with God.
