Whether or not the devil is to blame, the truth is that most of humanity is hopelessly lost. This includes three out of every four who hear the Word of God.
What should we do, then? Interfere with His justice and impose His will, at any price, on the insolent and rebellious? His righteous and perfect justice has no room for mistakes. His plan of salvation for all is based on righteousness. Not even He, the All Powerful and Righteous Judge, can go back on His word. And yet, this perfect and unmatched righteousness, which comes through faith that is practiced, can literally save anyone as long as they are alive and in a healthy enough state of mind to choose Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The quality of faith that we exercise for the eternal salvation of our souls must have the same character as the ahava type of love. In other words, it cannot be an emotion-based faith.
God loved the world to such an extent that He sacrificed His only Son for her. He sacrificed before receiving any kind of response from mankind. He sacrificed because He loved; He sacrificed because He believed...
There is no faith or love without a willingness to sacrifice. Those who try to run away from this are doomed to fail in both love and faith—in other words, everything in life.
Adam and Eve were created in paradise. They were perfect, both physically and spiritually. In the image and likeness of God refers to their righteous character. After breaking the law they became unrighteous and lost their most sacred possession: their communion with the Righteous Judge. From that point on, what communion could possibly exist between Righteousness and unrighteousness?… between Light and darkness?
Before the sin of breaking the Law could be forgiven, someone would have to own up to it and take it to the grave. This way the sin would also die. But how could anyone bear other people’s sins when he himself had sins? This would not work. In order to bear the sins of others, a person would have to be perfect and without sin. Where would we find this person? He did not exist.
God needed to create a nation, separate from the pagan nations, before bringing His only Son into the world. God’s plan to create a righteous and perfect World with the first Adam, failed because of its unrighteousness. But it did not fail with the Second Adam, Jesus. He was righteous and therefore was able to bear mankind’s unrighteousness. This caused Him to be cursed. And as a curse, He was crucified.
On the other hand, He took all of mankind’s sins to the grave with Him. No human being, and I doubt any angel, can understand the depths of faith and love that God had for mankind when He tore His only Son from His side and exposed him to the shame of the cross. His sense of justice, faith and love is what drove Him to do this. Wouldn’t this explain why He insists that the human race give Him the same kind of faith and love (sacrifices)? This is precisely what Jesus taught: If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself (sacrifice) and take up his cross (sacrifice) and follow me (sacrifice). Matthew 16.24
He can insist on any kind of sacrifice from His followers since He Himself was a Sacrifice for them. And so, a sinner is forgiven, made innocent before God and saves his soul when he adopts an emotion-free faith.
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