Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":
Someone has asked the question, “Since God knew before what man would do—that is, rebel and sin, why did He create us? Why didn’t He make us so we could not sin, and thus save all this trouble that sin has brought?” To answer this question adequately would take wisdom far beyond this unworthy servant’s, and also thousands of years; but we can begin to understand:
(1) For the same reason that parents take the risk of having a baby: they know their child could rebel against them and make their life a hell on earth, yet they have the baby anyway. Parents don’t want a mechanical doll that can only repeat, “I love you, I love you.”
(2) God’s very character is the love (agape) that gives liberty (Lev. 25:10). Without the freedom of choice, “love” cannot be genuine.
(3) Granting freedom to man means God must endure hell Himself, for He “so loved the world that He gave [not lent] His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish” (John
(4) That reveals how unbelief (or dis-belief) brings “death.” “The wages of sin is death,” says Romans 6:23. Death is not an arbitrary act of revenge and “get even” on the part of God; the Today’s English Version says, “Sin pays its wages—death.” Sin has death wrapped up within it: “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself,” pleads God in Hosea 13:9. But because God is love, He is forced to let man go through this hell, which He must share with us. There is no other way that the universe can see the full revelation of the character of God, just as there is no other way for parents to let their offspring learn to know truth other than to beget them.
(5) Parents’ hearts are broken when their child rebels; so God’s heart has been broken by the horror of man’s sin.
(6) The Son of God must humble Himself, “empty” Himself (Phil. 2:5-8), “pour out His soul unto death” (Isa. 53:12), “taste death [the second] for every man” (Heb. 2:9), know the full horror of hell—“My God why hast Thou forsaken Me?” is the deep-hearted cry of dereliction He wails in Matthew 27:46; Psalm 22:1. Such love is terribly expensive for God!
(7) We don’t understand the cross unless we see that Christ went to “hell” for us (Acts 2:27, KJV; Gal. 3:13). This revelation of the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of love (agape, Eph. 3:17, 18) brings conversion to an honest heart that chooses to be “crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20).
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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