Ever since Eve believed Satan’s lie, when he misquoted God’s Word and told her that she would not die, but she would in fact be like God, humans have been sinful. The moment that the forbidden fruit was bitten into and God’s perfect law was broken, Adam and all of his descendants were condemned.
But we must not just consider the fact that we are sinful. We must understand what the consequences of sin are! The wages of sin are death. After the original sin was committed, Adam and Eve surely did die. They died spiritually and their physical life began dying, along with all of creation, which was created for them (and their descendants).
That is because our God is good and just in every way. If God were not completely good and just, he could let all who sin against Him live. But that would make Him unjust and unfair. To help illustrate this, let’s consider civil law. If a man goes out and commits a crime, that person must be punished. He must be punished because he is a criminal and crime must have consequences. We understand that because we were created in God’s image. We know right from wrong. And we know that wrong must be punished or else the world will be full of mass chaos and evil.
When that criminal stands before the righteous judge, that judge must sentence him to the punishment that the law demands. If he just let him go he would not be a good judge. As a matter of fact, he would deserve to be punished himself because he would be acting unfair and unjustly!
God is more just and more righteous than ANY earthly judge. And He is the One who will judge every person who has ever lived, including you and I!
But God is also Love! So how can a loving God send all of us to hell, when we were born into sin? He COULD and He would be perfectly just in doing so. BUT he doesn’t! Yes, He does send many to hell. But it is not because they had an unfair advantage. That is because God Himself came to earth as a human, lived a perfectly sinless life and paid that death penalty that we deserve! The Lord Jesus’ death was made, not because God had to, but because God wanted to saved sinners who loved Him. The death of the Lord Jesus allowed God to legally dismiss our case and give us eternal life, while remaining 100% just and righteous in every way!
That is why He died on that cross. Not because He had to. He did it because He wanted to. He did it because although we all sin against Him, He loves us and wanted to give us all a choice. That choice is whether we want to have faith in Jesus Christ and live eternally with Him, or embrace sin and reject our Creator.
What do you choose? Joshua 24:15 – “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
