Because of my great love for you, it was my plan from eternity past to be joined to you forever. It’s what I created you for. But two primary things interfered with that plan. I had to take care of them both for you.
The first was the issue of your sins. A penalty had to be paid for your sins. Sins are simply the things you do, or say, or the attitudes you have, that are wrong. That is, the things that fall short of my perfection.
That’s a very high standard. An impossible one. Couldn’t I just ignore some of the more minor violations? Many people believe, and some religions teach, that if they simply do enough good things I will overlook their bad things. That is false. It is false for two reasons.
First, just as I am perfect love, I am perfectly just. You wouldn’t want it any other way. Would you want the universe run by Someone who is unjust? Being perfectly just, I cannot simply sweep sins under the rug or grade on the curve. The penalty for any violation must be paid.
Second, it is false because it drastically understates the significance of sin. Sin violates the entire moral order of the universe. Let me show you why.
I am love. What that means is that I am other-love, for that is what love is, being for others. You were created to be joined to, and express, my perfect, other-loving life. That is the source of all fulfillment, all contentment, all meaning, and true harmony and peace among all people.
But humanity chose to seek life on its own terms, to look for life and meaning and significance apart from me. In doing so, it became entirely self-seeking. This was rebellion against the entire moral order. It is the opposite of who I am and who I created you to be. It plunged humanity into darkness. Everything you see wrong with the world around you resulted.
In choosing this path, humanity separated itself from me. It wasn’t my choice. It was yours. Sin separated humanity from me. Do you see how no one escapes this reality? Everyone is guilty.
So sin carries its own penalty not only of present separation from me, but of continual separation from me. That penalty had to be paid. And if an individual person paid for his or her own sins, it would mean separation from me forever.
But I have loved you forever. And I created you not for eternal separation, but for eternal oneness with me. So I made a choice that only I could make. I would take your penalty upon myself.
I am God. God the Son. Being the Creator, I am greater than the creation. And so I, and I alone, was able to pay for the sins of all of humanity.
This why God the Father sent me, Jesus Christ, to earth: to die on a cross, to pay the penalty for the sins of all humanity, so that your slate could be wiped clean. Because of love, I died in your place. I took the punishment. On the cross I became sin itself. I was separated from the Father. I took on myself the penalty I did not owe, so that you would not have to.
I didn’t come primarily to be a great teacher, or a great example, though those things are important. I came to die and be resurrected in your place. I came to pay the highest possible price for your sins.
As a result, we offer you complete forgiveness. You can be made completely right with God, as if you had never sinned at all. There is nothing you have to do to earn it. There is nothing you can do to earn it. It is purely a gift. All you have to do is receive it.
Receiving forgiveness is not an end in itself, however. It is simply what had to be done first to accomplish the true goal of making you and us one.
I’ve said all of this before:
There is none righteous, not even one … for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:10, 23)
“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19)
For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. (Titus 3:3)
But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God … (1 Peter 3:18)For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
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