Quote:
Originally Posted by EricS39
Would God really send me to burn eternally? For reals?
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Eric, it is important to understand that while God is love, He is also holy. That is, while love is part of God's perfect nature, His righteousness and justice are also part of His nature. And God cannot violate, cannot compromise any part of His nature. He cannot ignore or set aside the requirements of His perfect holiness for the sake of His love. God's holiness consists of His righteousness which is the principle of His holiness, and of His justice which is the function of His holiness. Whatever the righteousness of God approves of, His justice must bless. But whatever the righteousness of God disapproves of, His justice must punish.
While God loved Adam, when Adam sinned against God by disobeying the command that God had given him to not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God had no choice but to immediately condemn Adam in spite of the fact that He loved him.
Now, God knew in eternity past before anything which has been created had been created that both angels and man would sin against Him and that He would have to address that issue. With regard to the angels and whatever means that God provided for them to return to Him (approximately one third of the angels had rebelled against God) , the Bible is silent. But in eternity past, before God had created anything, He already had established His plan of salvation for man. While God knew that His perfect character would be offended by sin, and that His justice would be called into play as a result in the condemnation of Adam and of the entire human race which was seminally in Adam who was the federal head of the human race, His love motivated Him to provide a plan of redemption so that whoever availed themselves of that plan would be delivered from condemnation.
Before Adam sinned his point of contact with God was God's love. Before he sinned and violated God's perfect standard God's justice was not brought into play. Therefore God was free to have a relationship with Adam. But the moment Adam sinned, God's justice had to immediately condemn Adam. God had warned Adam that in the day he sinned he would die
(Gen. 2:17). And he did die. Not physically (his physical death came much later as a result of his spiritual death), but spiritually. Spiritual death is separation from God. The moment Adam sinned his relationship with God was broken. And as a result of Adam's sin, the entire human race which was to follow is born spiritually dead - separated from God.
But when Adam sinned, God in grace came to Adam and promised that a Savior would come into the world
(Gen. 3:15). That Savior would be God Himself who would come into the world as a man
(John 1:1 compared with John 1:14). The Second Person of the Trinity, the eternal Word, would come into the world as a man and take the punishment for the sins of the world. In that period of human history before Christ went to the cross, people were saved simply by believing the promise of His coming. Since that time when Jesus went to the cross, we look back at the cross. Whenever a person simply believes in Jesus Christ, that is, when a person believes that Jesus died for his sins, that Jesus bore his sins in His body on the cross
(1 Pet. 2:24), and rose again
(1 Cor. 15:3-4) he is saved, delivered from the penalty of sin which is spiritual death. Now spiritual death is separation from God in time. But when a person dies never having been born again though faith in Christ Jesus then that person will remain separated from God forever. This is the second death in the lake of fire of which
Revelation 20:11-15 speaks. Now as to the nature of the fire there are different views. What can be said with certainty is that those who die without having received Christ as Savior remain under judgment forever. They will exist forever, but outside of any relationship with God.
In summery, sin required action on the part of God to satisfy the demands of His perfect holiness. But in love God provided a solution to the sin problem. When a person comes to Christ for salvation he is saved from the consequences of sin. When a person dies not having received Christ as Savior he remains under condemnation. It is not God's desire that anyone perish, for He wants all men be saved. But a person can only be saved in accordance with God's established plan of salvation in which God can provide salvation without compromising His holiness.
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:36 "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son (by believing in Him)
will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
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