That being the case, and considering the fact that God had asked man to assist Him in solving His problem, how would it looked if God refused to help man with his? And so to the question, "Why did God go to such lengths to save man?" the first answer we must give is that God must exercise mercy. His character is at stake. What he does with the creatures he brought into existence to reveal His love, and who now turn against Him, will ultimately reflect the nature of His character.
Second, God had a moral responsibility for government. The Lord can't excuse man, can't hide his face from sin. Sin contains within itself the seeds of it's own destruction.It is not just something that we do but something that we are. Sinful beings exist in a state of rebellion against God, a condition of selfishness. For God to blink at it would be to deny reality, to tell a lie. It would be like saying, "You can sin and live happily ever after." Since God cannot excuse sin, the sinner must bear the consequences of his choice. At the same time, God cannot change His law because that law reflects His character. It runs throughout the fabric of the universe and represents a restatement of reality. God is not arbitrary. No other way exsists as long as God is God and the universe is of the order he created.
Therefore, while God must exercise mercy, He must also maintain justice., for "justice and mercy are the foundation of the law and government of God" (GC 53).
How God would reconcile the problem becomes significant when we realize that "the plan of redemption has a yet broader and deeper purpose than the salvation of man. It was not for this alone that Christ came to the earth; it was not merely that the inhabitants of this little world might regard the law of God as it should be regarded; but it was to vindicate the character of God before the universe (PP68). Thus God must declare his righteousness, . . .that he might be justified, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:25,26) God's character stands or fails on the reconciliation of justice and mercy. How could God do this? How could he maintain government and yet execise mercy?
In order to uphold justice, Christ must die as a sinner. Why? The sinner must reap the inevitable consequences of his actions. Only in that way will sin stand completely revealed for what it is. The sinner must demonstrate before the universe the consequences of his choice.
But one cannot expect man to face the tragic results of his sin, for in the process it would destroy him, and we've just seen that God cannot allow that. He must exercise mercy for man. Man must not exhibit the full consequences of his own rebellion. What is God going to do?
What if one could show that man was not responsible for what he did? Oh, but you say, that is dangerous. Isn't man free? Didn't he make the choice? Let us pretend that a five-year-old boy picks up a rock and hurls it through the window of the house next door. Now if anyone gets taken to court, who will it be? It will be the parent. Why? The parent didn't throw the rock, nor did he make the child do it. However, the parent brought the child into exsistence and thus to a certain degree he bears responsibility for the chid's behavior.
Thus, only One Being in all the universe can assume responsibility for humanity. It is not play acting, but absolutely real, and it falls on whoever brought mankind into existence. No, God is not to blame for man's sins, but he is responsible in that He made man with the capacity for sinning. And so you will recall that as Adam blamed Eve, "the woman that you gave me" and as she accused the creator, "Well, you made the serpent," ultimately it reflected back on God.
And what did God do? Did He try to excuse Himself? He said, "Yes, it is my responsibility. I brought you into being." Thus we find that the Creator does assume the burden for man's sin, and He can do so ligitimately because He is Creator. Now we can understand why He must partake of humanity - He must pay the consequences. He becomes the sinner - man's substitute.
During Jesus last Thursday evening He suffered in a way that no man ever has. As we read the account we see Him becoming separated from the Father because he feels so guilty for the load that He bears, and we don't know who agonizes most - the Father, the Son, or the Spirit. They are all there, and the Father and the Spirit must not step in to stop the suffering, which increases their own anguish.
The responsibility that Christ carries quickly becomes so great that His body weakens and exudes drops of blood. We see Him reach the point where he should have died, but an angel sustains Him so that He may live on. Others die, relieving them of further agony, but to really taste the consequences of sin one must experience absolute separation from God - the second death. So we witness Christ strenghtened after he should have died from the load of His awful responsibility. Listen to Him crying, "If it be possible, take this cup from me, but not mine will but thine." He repeats His prayer, and we watch Him groan and suffer and feel the abyss widen between Him and the Father. The we view Him on the cross, and the gulf becomes so great that He pleads, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Ellen White tells us that He could not see through the portals of the tomb. Even though He died a victor, He succumbed, as far as He was concerned, with a sense of eternal separation.
When I was 11 years old, I visited my cousin on the farm. His faimily's dog had a litter of puppies during my stay. As the pups grew old enough to walk around they would get lost, and we would go out to find and play with them. One evening I remember looking for the puppies in some tall weeds. Suddenly I accidentally stepped acrossed the stomach of one of them. It let out the most awful shriek I have ever heard. Instantly I reached down to pick it up - but it was dead. I felt terrible. For days I accused myslef of negligence, of carelessness. I made myself sick over the incident.
Yet stepping on a puppy is not the worst thing a person can do. It is insignificant compared to some of the serious things we can do to make others suffer. But when we realize our fault, we feel a terrible responsibility, an overwhelming guilt that weighs us down. Furthermore, if I had a more sensitive nature, I would have hurt even more. And what if it had been more serious? Now look at Christ, who is as sensitive as anyone could be. He bore the total awareness of responsibility and guilt, not just of having stepped on a puppy, but for all of the immorality of the human race. He didn't cause it, but He carried the responsibility. And the universe looked on aghast as they saw the separation occur and our Master die.
Now let me say reverently, if our Lord had been sitting in an over stuffed easy chair He still would have died. The cross didn't kill Him. Man didn't kill Him. Satan didn't kill Him. The load of sin slew Him. It was the sense of separation that twisted His heart. The watching universe received an unforgettable picture of that separation - of the sense of that guilt. Thus no one will ever say that God excuses sin. Christ fully exposed sin for what it was. No one will ever claim that man got away with anything. Nor will anyone ever argue that God could have changed His law, because all have seen the separation which sin brought to the heart of God Himself. By dying as sinner God established justice.
