God’s dilemma
As we should know, God couldn’t “turn a blind eye” to humanity’s wickedness without lowering his own stan-dard. So He faced a dilemma here – if man sinned, then man (and man alone) must bear the penalty for his sin, which is death.
And we know God’s solution – taking upon himself our humanity and also our penalty, making himself available as our substitute.
Now comes the surprise twist in this historic event. When Satan engineered the death of God’s Son on a roman cross, he thought he had defeated God’s purposes. He didn’t know God’s plan of providing himself as a human substitute so as to become the world’s Saviour.
“None of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” 1 Corinthians 2.8.
After Christ’s resurrection, could Satan discredit what God had done? He tried. He stirred up so-called Gnostics who denied, not that Jesus Christ was God, but rejected his humanity, seeing him more like a heavenly ghost!
The apostle John, who spent three years in close contact with the Christ, stresses that God indeed “became flesh and dwelt among us.” John 1.14.
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The reason why Christ chose the hard way of the cross was, among other things, because he saw beyond it.
Ken Packer
Below click on more of Ken’s articles in PDF format now in alphabetical order which can be downloaded.