Well, let’s see.
- God is all good – so he can’t create anything in the FALLEN state – not even babie’s spirits today are created that way – the fall immediately after creation because the body is defective.
- God can’t lie. (It is not possible).
- Even though man needed redeeming before the covenant with israel – including the covenant with Noah, etc. God can’t truly save us without our cooperation (He could RE-CREATE us or force our will like puppets either temporarily or permanently, but then we would still have a nature weak enough to fall again). God did contact various individuals throughout history and enter into oaths – because OATHS are a humanly expected form of contract which human beings expected to be made (perhaps the Devil wanted the swearing even more because of the Deaths it would cause – Hell is not all of the same depth or punishment – one may fall deeper into the likeness of the devil, or less.).
If one can not fulfill an oath – a penalty has to be paid for a contract of this nature – so as God swore to Abraham and Moses (by himself, since he had no one GREATER to swear by) God too came into the obligation of death should he fail to save us. Exactly why he chose to die becomes easier in that light – though not perfectly understood.
- God did not have to enter into the contract at all (eg: He did not have to save us that way)-- but then he would have had to enter into an agreement of another kind if he were to save us (not re-program us as something we aren’t).
- In the process of the salvation he offered – people continued to sin – bringing the curses of the covenant oath into effect (If you’d like to speculate about “alternate” utopian contracts – I’m game.) – but God already made the promise of hesed – fidelity to his part of the Oath. Love beyond our sin.
- The devil too entered into covenants with man’s flesh – the body made from dust that the serpent would “eat” all the days of its life. Man was also in the distorted image of the devil inasmuch as he sinned and also (to a certain extent) possesed by the devil though not totally.
- The very purpose of God in the sacrificial death of Jesus was to allow the devil to become technically, fully, and eternally guilty of the sin he tricked man into.
How could God prove his innocence (that the Devil got us to dis-believe – OUR sin not his) in any humanly understandable way (perhaps not Humanly possible – but only if God infuses into us something which was lost),
But his action showed the evil in man’s heart directily – and stripped him totally of any excuse for accusing God – and if man won’t trust God – how can man be saved? (for man it is impossible, but all things are possible with God.)
Also, consider, the Devil can not peer into a man-god’s mind to know he is God, or how he is God – the devil lost the ability to “see” in a good way when “he/she/it” fell. The devil misjudges Job, for example. In the subtle trap of Genesis, the devil had an excuse – his own ignorance of the true nature of man. At that time, he was guilty of his own rebellion – but not ours.
- On this first thought —> Man is not God <---- therefore he is “evil” if he be completely less than God – (eg: if you who ARE evil know how to give your children good things, How much more the Father in heaven…) But since God creates ONLY GOOD (and perhaps the indifferent), he necessarily provided some way for us to be able to DO THE GOOD – and not evil. In effect, since only he is perfect – God himself provided what man lacked – wheter called a “rule” or a “law” in man’s heart – it is there.
The same has to be true of all the angels who did not fall.
As a second line of thought:
Jesus mentioned that he “had” to go (ex`odus) on the cross – and I do not fully understand what he meant – as Nita and others can explain – since this “going” is not spoken of as tied the “contract” but to an impossibility if he does not “go” – the development may have happened while Jesus was on earth (I am not sure) – but, none the less – He says “the Holy spirit” would “Not come to us” unless he
WENT
That was prophecied by the prophet Joel, I think, where God said he will pour his “spirit” out on all flesh. This spirit which is somehow “life” and “breath” itself.
As a contradiction to lies – he is the “spirit” (breath) of truth – the very thing man lacks inside himself.
Most of the bible is a long dialogue on these topics in various ways, with various objections raised by man. The fullness, I expect of which I will have to wait to understand – although I love to probe the issue.
