Like children were meant to be their parents delight
So we are the delight of God
He did not make us out of some need
Except his “need” to express his love
He does not need slaves
He can do anything He wants without help
He does not need subjects
To feel good about himself
And to give him a sense of selfworth
He is God
He defines everyone’s worth
His own worth comes from who He is
And He gives everything else their worth
So He decided to make creatures
That are worth everything to him
Like children are worth everything
To their parents
(or should be anyway)
So we mean the world to him
For him we were worth dying
Not because anything we did
But because we are His
He made us in his likeness
We bear his DNA
When we were born
We already had great worth
No mistake or rebellion
Or succes on our part
Can take away or ad to this
So when men rebelled
And turned away from God
He did not stop loving us
He did not turn his back to us
He did not leave us alone
No He decided to win us back
To draw our heart to him
So we would be united once again
He showed us our worth
By dying for us
How can God die?
Would that not be the end
of our existence?
To die though does not mean
That we stop to exist
Death is the absence of good things
The absence of health and beauty
For us death is the absence of God
Not that God is ever absent to us
The bible says God is even in hell
But if we do not have relationship with Him
We can’t partake of the life this gives us
In a sence we can be death
While still living on the earth
Our spirit is death
When we are not in relationship with God
When we are not in right standing with Him
But how could God die?
First He, Jesus, the Son of God
Who himself is God as well
(just bear with me for a moment)
Became a man
Once He had part of our human nature
Once He had a body
He could die
This does not mean He ceased to exist
It means his body stopped breathing
And He went to another place
He went to hell
Jesus went to hell for us
He went there in our place
Because of our rebellion against God
We deserved to go there
But God did not want us to suffer
He did not want us to be seperated
From the expression of his love
From the life He intended us to have
So Jesus went instead
Now why would God
send anyone to hell in the first place
If He loves us that much?
Truth is He didn’t
We go there through our own choices
If we choose to live seperated from Him
And not even acknowledge him as God
How can you expect to go to heaven
If you don’t want to be with God?
Since that is were HE is
And He respects your free will
You see it’s not that God is evil
And wants to punish us
And send us to hell
We choose to go there ourselves
If we don’t let him be God in our lives
Now God is righteous and holy
And He can’t do anything
That goes against who he is, his nature
That makes sense right?
How do you feel
If someone murders a child
And the killer is declared innocent
While clearly quilty?
We all have a sense of justice
No one wants criminals to be free
Roaming around in the world
Killing and stealing
We are like that
Because God is
And we were made in his image
Although much of that image has been tainted
Some traces are still left
So what should God do
About sinful men?
What would be the right response
To our killing (gossip is murder to you know)
and lying, cheating
and putting ourselves above God
and others?
It’s not that He doesn’t want to forgive
But would it be right?
Would it be just?
Would it be desired
If men could do what they want
Without consequences
How would we learn justice
Know what is right
If God didn’t show us
The result of our sin
The destruction it brings
If He didn’t show us
The nature of our crimes
Our selfish desires
Our looking down on others
Our playing God
The result of sin is death
There is no hope for this world
If sin is tolerated
Men would get worse
and hate more and more
Instead of becoming kind
How could a loving God
Tolerate our sin
And not let it have consequences
So it grows rampant
And destroys the love that is left still
It would not be love at all!
So God did the unthinkable
He did not want us to pay the price
That our sin required us to pay
He did not want us to bear
The consequences of our lives
that would send us straight to hell
He did not want us to be
Separated from his love
So He himself paid the price
That his righteousness
Required us to pay
He became a man
He lived a perfect life
He identified with us in every way
Except that He didn’t sin
Then He allowed sinful men
To captivate him
Mock him
Scourge him
To nail him on a cross
And by doing so
He paid the price
We deserved to pay
Then the unthinkable happened
Thankfully
Once again
On the third day
After they killed him
He rose from the death
And this was the sign
That our debt was paid
The debt we had through sin
Was now erased
So now everyone
Who receives this gift of life
And surrenders their life to Him in turn
Is now forever saved
And so He showed us
The price He was willing to pay
We are still his delight
We are the joy of heaven
If we let this gift unite us
With Him by whom we were made
Creator's Joy 