Passion and Atonement -- The Price For Our Sins

[Note: The contents page for this series can be found here. The previous entry, Chapter 55, can be found here.]

[This entry constitutes Chapter 56.]

It's only fair--isn't it?

God will intentionally set Himself up, to be rejected by all His people: by His special chosen who carried His light, and by His other children who perhaps have been doing the best they can with what they have. Not only those who we might consider desperately evil will reject Him, but those we would be inclined to consider the very best.

For even the best of us have sinned, abusing the grace of God Most High.


He will have done plenty of things, to show He is good; but He will also give them just enough rope to hang Him, if they want to--on His own timing, if not theirs.

And the unjust of this world--very likely even some of the (relatively) just ones who just don't understand!--will want to hang Him.

The unjust of any worlds intersecting this one, will certainly want to hang Him, too.


Why, you ask, would any person dare to unjustly treat God?? Perhaps the other people don't really know that they are condemning the Author of Life Himself to death, but why would rebel angels, who presumably know better, dare to do that?!

I testify, my reader: as a sinner--even as a sinner who knows God--I sometimes unjustly treat God!


I most certainly confess there are times when I simply turn away from the truth, the light I can see. This is a sin anyone can do, whatever specific knowledge he or she has. There is no difference here in principle.

What I do in my life, all sinners do in theirs, whether we are human or rebel angel. We will be standing together, in principle, against God Himself when He comes.


Not that this will take much courage on anyone's part. He isn't likely to merely show up and tell people, "Hi, I'm God!"

He might say something of this sort later, or to people (whether friends or enemies!) who have the best advantages to accept what He is saying (whether they do accept or not!) But not at first, and not I expect to everyone at any time--because, as strange as this may sound, He will have more important things to help them learn.

So He will tell them other things first; and maybe give out little hints here and there, as the situation suggests. Different people will remember different things, in different ways, of course; but since what He will be saying is so important, God will probably find a way to let all of them contribute to the record of this event, so that a sufficiently accurate composite picture may be built--even out of inaccuracies, or misunderstandings, or ignorances.

He won't have come to tell people Who He is, exactly; He will have come to tell Who His Father is--His Father, and ours.

He will tell them--maybe even in His very name--the Lord God saves.

But He will insist on a fair judgment, for people who know Him, and for people Who don't.

The people who know Him won't get specially let off, just for knowing Him.

The people who don't know Him, aren't going to be held specially responsible merely for not knowing Him.

Those who simply misunderstand, will be pardoned, even if they commit what seems the worst blasphemies against Him--for they do not know what they are doing.

But those who do understand, and who insist on not understanding--they will have eyes to see, but will refuse to see, and so they shall reap the consequences of their choices, and will be blinded.

They will have ears to hear, but will refuse to hear, and so they will be deafened.

Those who insist on judging to an unfair standard, will be judged according to that standard themselves--so they can learn better, not because God is unjust.

They (we, I) will not be condemned for the sins that are past, but for the sin they know is a sin and refuse to let go of.

So long as they do not let go, they are not seeking forgiveness--even if perhaps they say so, to themselves or to God or to other people.

And so long as they are not seeking forgiveness, they cannot be forgiven; for forgiveness is a co-operation, between a person and God.

But if they will seriously try, God will help them get through; starting now, in this life, not waiting until the eonian fire must be faced full on.

We deserve that help; for God is our Father, and we have claims on Him for His responsibility to us.

He wants to give us that help, even though it may seem slow to us; we will need to be patient: patient, to the agency of our Father.

He will rescue His bride (who is the human soul, including my own), and clean her, and marry her forever--if she will let Him rescue her, if she will let him clean her, if she will choose to marry Him.

If she does or does not, God still will persist in pursuing her; but He isn't going to force her. He will let the consequences of her refusal play out in her, so long as she continues to refuse.

If she insists on playing in the foulness, then foul she will be; and foul she will likely make others she can reach.

That is the awful dignity of her causality.

Although sooner or later, God will put her where she at least can no longer befoul anyone else. He will not leave her alone there; He will give her Himself, and He will wait patiently on the bleeding edge of time, working, working, trying to work with her, until...

...until, whenever. It is partly up to her.


These are the sorts of things the Son will say. He will say them different ways, but this will be the gist:

"The Lord God saves; and if you insist on denying that the Lord God saves, then you cannot be saved."


It isn't a question of ignorance about God; He will, sooner or later, make Himself known to each of us. He will even go further, and make Himself known within our history, sooner or later, so that as many people as possible will have the benefit of knowing Him before we die. It does make a difference; and we all deserve it, for we deserve to know the Truth.

But it isn't about us knowing this or that doctrine, or about doing this or that ritual; and it certainly is not about knowing a particular name and using it like a magic passcard--even if that name is, itself, "the Lord God saves"!


So we can expect Him to work in a peculiar way.

He will be spreading good news, healing people, maybe doing other miracles to help for belief and for relief.

But--He will sometimes tell people:


"Hush! Don't tell!

"This is a secret. Not too fast, softly, softly. The kingdom comes like yeast rising in dough.

"Trust Me; at least be willing to trust Me, personally, if you possibly can--and I promise you, I will give you whatever reasons you need, for trusting Me, sooner or later.

"I will tell you Who I am when I think you are ready to hear; I will even ask you on occasion when I think you are ready to learn more.

"But what is more important, more crucial, is your change of mind, your willingness to stand up, even under torment, even if you have never done a single worthwhile act in your whole life, and declare the truth that something is right, and something is wrong, and mean it!

"If you do even this, and nothing else, I promise you: you will be with Me in paradise.

"But you have to mean it.

"If you mean it, and resolve to keep meaning it, I promise I will take care of the rest.

"And I promise: when you see Me, you see the Father."


I think it might be rather amusing, if the Son happens upon any devils in His travels. They're likely to know right off the bat exactly Who He is, if they have any advantages in perception thanks to their own nature. They might be quite surprised to see Him, here, 'vulnerable'--and in disguise.

I can imagine them trying to blow the secret, like petulant children wielding whatever little sufferings they can wield, if only by doing so they can show they have power over others.

I can hear them now: "What are You doing here!? Hey! Hey! This is the Son of God!!"

And I can hear Him now: "Shut up, and get out."

Except for the suffering these itinerant devils might otherwise be causing, I can almost imagine Him swallowing a smile.

I wish I could see it, and be in on the joke. Imagine: a nosy reporter pushes his way up to an officer trying to walk through a hall incognito. "Hey, you're the Commander-in-Chief!"

Now, imagine him, not even bothering to say 'no comment'--but yanking the batteries out of the microphone.

It would look just a little suspicious, hm? A mere 'no comment' might mean anything; but making them shut up about it, would leave behind a clue for the curious to follow.


And, in a way, that would also be the point: leaving behind a trail for the curious to follow. Helping them with some news they need to hear, but also leaving pieces of the puzzle for them to figure out on their own.

Why? Because it is a personal relationship; between a Person Who loves us, and we snippy humans who are rather too concerned with our own goings-on to pay much attention to God... unless He piques our interest.

But it is a personal relationship between God and those other rebels, too: the ones who may have a clearer clue What's Up. The ones who always did have a better clue; but who have deluded themselves, that if they could just find a way, they could beat the house edge. They’re just sure, in the heart of their selfishness, as sure as any of us in our sins, that they don't really need Love Most High. He can suffer; He suffers with them.

That means they can have power over Him--to an extent.

It is a power He allows them, because He loves them.

But it is a power they want, and a power they insist on having: they will hurt anyone and anything they can, with pain or with pleasure if pleasure will do--indeed, to hurt with pleasure would be more attractive to some of them, because pain at least is a warning that something is wrong, while pleasure is supposed to be happily appreciated... and so, is seductive.

They will hurt us, and hurt themselves, to make Him suffer, to have the power over Him they want.

It is the only power over Him they can have.


But they will take what they can get, and delude themselves from this that they can win.

And then... here He will be.

Vulnerable.

Just as they always dreamed it would be, someday.

Now they can make Him suffer more than ever before! He is too powerful for them normally, even coming now in this way... but He is laying it all down, throwing it all away, letting Himself be crushed by these cattle!

Well, we'll join in; we'll crush Him, too!

And then... oh, and then!!


God shall die!!!


[Next: the sword to the heart]

Comments

Jason Pratt said…
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(Posted on Good Friday, Easter Week 2011, commemorating the sacrifice of God Most High on the cross. "God demonstrates His love for us in this, that while we were still sinners Christ died for us." "For this is love: not that we have loved God, but that God loves us and sends His Son: a propitiation for our sins.")

JRP
Jason Pratt said…
For my King of Stories Gospel harmonization entries on the final 24 hours before Jesus' death, readers may start here at this Cadre Journal entry and move forward through the end (and the beginning!) of the story.


For a look at how the day came to be called "Good Friday", another Cadrist, Chris Price ("Layman"), posted this brief article in 2006 and 2007.

Also of interest on site: Joe Hinman's article "The Easter Event: Faithfully Transmitted From The Beginning"; and JD Walter's musing on the shift between the cross as an object of horror (even for Christians) and an object of beauty, "In Adam's sin, we sinned all..."

Finally, a post-Easter remembrance of another son of David who died hanging from a tree, stabbed by a spear while his skull bled... and the unexpected Biblical connection of that story to Christian hope for salvation from sin.

JRP

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