Moses was High
Out of context: Reply #280
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- gramme0
miko—
All our regrets for our mistakes and valiant repairs are absolutely useless. "I was young", "I was misguided", "I was angry"—these are all cop-outs. So, having "accepted responsibility" for your mistakes, how would you intend to shoulder than burden? What do you think the penance would be for all of your mistakes, if you were a relatively good person? Would you really spend an eternity in agony and let someone else take your place in heaven? Would you rather just stubborn yourself to death than accept an unwarranted gift of clemency?
The debt we owe to the world is far eclipsed to the debt we owe to God. Your attitude about sin, and the responsibility your bear, shows me that you really do not understand the severity of sin, the debt we all owe to God that cannot be paid without his grace. Do you really think you can apologize it away? How exactly would you envision justice to be carried out? In order for God to shove aside his requirement for justice, he would need to cease being God. There are only a few things God can't do: he cannot sin, he cannot even be in the presence of sin, and he cannot cease to be God.
Because God does not want to spend eternity without us, he offers grace. What would really be mean would be if he required us to shoulder the burden of our own mistakes. That would mean that no one would be allowed into heaven. You tell me, which scenario is worse?
God did not deliberately make man imperfect. Man, having the ability to choose between good and evil, chose evil in the beginning. While subsequent generations did worship God, they carried the poison of death, the seed of corruption that was sown by the first man. Evil, to paraphrase Augustine, is not a thing as much as a twisting of an existing thing; the fact that it has been introduced into the created order is our fault, not God's fault.
So then, the very logical question you raise at the end of your post above is, if I may summarize: "Why the hell does God allow evil and fallen nature to continue? If he is God, and if God is all-knowing and all-powerful, why did he allow evil to exist in the first place? Why has it been allowed to persist for so long? It seems the game is rigged, we either fall to our knees and repent, or we stay on our feet in hell forever. Some choice!"
I hear your objection, and I understand. Really. This is something I struggled with for a very long time. I am sorry to say that I do not have a clear answer for that one. This is all I know on the subject: Based on what I read in Scripture, what I've heard and seen in the lives of others, and what I know in my own life, God is good. He is the archetype, the original model of love, grace, patience, and power. He knew me before I was made. He knew what path your life would take before he formed you, even though he gave you the ability to make decisions rather than pull you about like a cosmic puppet. He has some plan that will ultimately be the best plan there could ever be for the healing of mankind. Some of that plan has already been revealed. I have come to see it as rather pointless to speculate on the whys and wherefores of suffering in the world. I am simply grateful that there IS actually a way out.
I know this answer will seem feeble to you and others, miko. I do not mean to discredit the profundity of pain in this world. I am sorry that I do not have answers for everything. I truly wish I did.
You mention parenting. Have a look at the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11–32. I think it's the most poignant picture of parental love I have ever seen.
- *2nd paragraph: far eclipsed BY the debt we owe God, I meant to say.gramme