Why Jesus?

As I was getting ready for church this morning I thought through an exchange, where on one side of the cosmos you have a God who loves his people and causes them to love him, and on the other side of creation you have a god who only causes you to be aware of him enough so as to make you completely responsible to seek him out and love him; since it's been said that God does not want forced love.

The question came to me, why Jesus then? Why the new model of grace and mercy to the gentiles? So, follow along these questions and answers. They are not meant to be dogmatic, but rather a method of questioning of the scriptures through logic and reason to see what they mean. The antecedent to all of these questions is, why was Jesus necessary?

Did God create man?

Yes, God created man and everything in the universe

So then how does man come to know God, prior to the scriptures being written down?

Adam walked with God and Abram was called by God. They talked with Him through the Angel of The Lord.

To what estate is man born into?

Totaly depravity. Depseperately wicked.

How then did they seek God?

God must have revealed himself.

Then, if God revealed himself, did he only reveal enough of himself so as to cause man to be responsible for having faith in Him?

Yes.

How then does God expect man to come to Him, if he's desperately wicked?

Through his goodness and mercy and his kind acts. Miracles and understanding.

How does man come to this understanding?

God reveals it.

How then is man responsible to seek out God of his own free-will if the only way to understand God is that He reveal it?

Man must!

Could not God righteously cause man to love him, since He's truth, in order that all flesh would be saved, so as to not abrogate his free will, but rightly call him to himself?

He could, but he doesn't want forced love?

If what you say is correct, then surely he must want the death of men more than he wants to be loved; for if he cannot cause you to love him of His own will, and he leaves you to your own, then he does knowingly create you only to send you to Hell.

No! Man is responsible. Man chooses wickedness.

I agree, man is responsible, because God has made him so. God holds him responsible for his sin. So then, if God is unwilling let us say that any should perish, but all should have everlasting life and he knows that many will choose death, is He not the parent? Does He not know better so as to instruct us? How is it that the Divine being of the Universe is unwilling to teach and discipline His children to the point of strict obedience?

God has a will of decree and a will of permissiveness. Some things he causes to happen, some things he's allows you to mess up on your own.

So then, how is God in control of what he's permitted you to do? And how does he know what you will do? Does He know what you will do? Has he already planned the circumstance in which you will do what you will do, but not your thought or choice?

God gives us free-will.

Does this leave man unable and unwilling to come to God unless God intervenes?

yes, but by His grace He does.

Wait, you mean He abrogates your will so that you can be saved?

Yes, but your will is still free to choose to love him or not. He just gives you the grace to have that choice. Like turning on the lights. Jesus takes 9 steps toward you, you just need to take one step toward Him.

How can this be? So your will is not entirely free, just mostly free? How do you know when it's free and when it's not?

When I choose to do right, then I obey God, when I choose to sin, then I disobey God. So God decree's my righteousness but permits my sin.

If this is true, why do we need Jesus?

Because the gentiles weren't part of the covenant

So then, only the Israelites will was free? If the foreigners could not choose God, in what way were they free?

God's allowed sojourners to join Israel if they obeyed the covenant.

True enough, but what of the others who did not have access to the knowledge of God, how did they choose that?

They didn't. God did. 

In what way was that free?

 

I always come back to the root question, free to what, free from what. If man was created free and his first act was sin, thereby introducing us all to sin, making us guilty as soon as we understand the Law of God, then God must supercede that process in order to redeem those whom he has called to be a posession for Christ. It's his mission. Free-will makes sense to most people because we're taught that in order to have responsibility, you must be causally linked to the deed committed. That is, in good works you must have caused the good work, and in sin, you must have caused the sin. But, we see even in the contemporary world, in mans sense of justice that this does not have to be true. You can be held responsible for something you didn't do or not do, but simply because of your existance, you are held as the responsible party. The best example of this is debt. How interesting that Paul makes the case in Romans that our debt was taken from us...not given to Christ by us, but taken from us and we were credited Christ's righteousness. Notice what Paul doesn't say, if you ask Christ to take your debt, he will and when he does, he'll give you his own righteousness. No, he says that you were a debtor. You were dead. And when you were made alive, your debt was taken, your account was credited and now you are a son of God! Romans.