And by the way, I only recently discovered that in reply #7 I once wrote 'physical' instead of 'spiritual', making the sentence nonsense. You rightly caught that in #9, but at the time I was blind for the error in my quote. I have since corrected my text. Sorry.
No worries my friend
- If one physical life would have been sufficient, Adam's death would have paid it all, his offspring would not have been under death, at least before the coming of the Law (Romans 5:14). So the "corresponding value" here must refer to the value of the guilt of Adam. But that requires a being that, while indeed a perfect human, is at the same time infinitely more than that.
- There is the pagan Roman concept of the scales of Justice again. The Law recognises equivalent restitution for a loss, and limit of revenge by bodily harm. The second doesn't apply here, as God wasn't bodily harmed, and the first was satisfied when the stolen Fruit of Justice was reattached to the tree of Law by Pontius Pilate. This does nothing to pay for the guilt of mankind - a caught thief doesn't get off by merely returning (the value of) the stolen goods.
That’s the thing, though. It’s not an issue of guilt. God is not punishing us for something we did not do in the Garden of Eden.
The issue, rather, is one of inherited defect. Just as a child from a reckless mother is born with defects (not guilt), we developed the defects of illness, decrepitude and death (and everything else in between) because, after they sinned, our original parents were unable to produce impeccable offspring.
Remember, the moment they ate of the forbidden fruit they began to die.
This is why Psalms 49:7,8 states, "None of [mankind] can ever redeem a brother. Or give to God a ransom for him, (The ransom price for their life is so precious that it is always beyond their reach)" - Psalms 49:7,8 (Bracket mine.)
In other words, no one could buy back, as it were, the perfection Adam and Eve forfeited for us. As such, all of mankind was destined to get sick, grow old and die forever - and rightly so! After all, we were born “defective.”
Now, Jehovah God could have avoided all this by simply making Adam and Eve’s death instantaneous. That way they would not have been able to bear children and the “contamination” would have been contained to them.
But, see, here’s where we begin to see the magnificence and breadth of Jehovah God’s love:
Ask yourself, had Jehovah God done so, would you or I (or anyone else for that matter) have come to exist? Not at all. Jehovah God would have simply started a new bloodline and an entirely different generation of human beings would have been born.
None of us would have ever existed ...
But that’s not even the most amazing part. The amazing part is that ... it didn’t matter! Not in the slightest!
As the Sovereign, Almighty Lord of the Universe, nothing and no one could frustrate his purposes. Jehovah God had intended for mankind to live eternally on Paradise Earth and that’s what was going to happen no matter what! (Genesis 1:27,28; 2:15)
So, instead of starting over, Jehovah chose, instead, to let matters run their course because, in the end, his original purpose for humanity would still be fulfilled regardless!
However, as it stood, we were doomed. Jehovah God understood this better than anyone and so he lovingly intervened making it possible for another perfect human being to be born and disposed to accept the value of his life as the corresponding ransom, or payment, for what Adam forfeited for us - perfect life.
Since only a perfect **human** life was needed Jehovah could have transferred the life of any of his spirit sons - or angels - into Mary's womb to be born as a perfect **human** being (Job 1:6; 38:7; Luke 3:38). That would have satisfied the legal requirement.
Instead he sent us his "only-begotten" son, Michael, who was given the name Jesus upon birth as a **perfect man**. (John 1:18; Matthew 1:21; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Jude 9) But why? Why him?
Because Michael - Jesus in his **pre-human** existence - loved us very, very deeply. Proverbs 8:31 tells us that while he worked alongside Jehovah God in his creative acts as his master worker, he “was especially fond of the sons of men." Jesus loved us so much that he happily volunteered to give up his exalted position in heaven, be born a defenseless child and be brought up amongst flawed, imperfect human beings and then be tested to the limit, humiliated, insulted, mutilated and finally murdered all so that we can have the opportunity to be rescued from our slavery to sin and death and, instead, have everlasting life:
"For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world for him to judge the world, but for the world to be saved through him. The one who exercises faith in the Son has everlasting life." - John 3:16,17,36
Thus, Jesus' ransom sacrifice came at extraordinary personal cost to Jehovah God himself. He looked on as he saw his son get insulted, humiliated, beaten, tortured then horrifically, painfully murdered. He looked on – and could do nothing.
For three days his son was dead. Gone …
Now, I don’t know if you have children or not but not even I as a father could not possibly even begin to imagine the heart rending agony Jehovah God felt. But why did Jehovah God allow himself to be put through all of this suffering? In Romans 5:8 he answers -
“God recommends his own love to us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Why did Jehovah God do it? Because he loves us.
And with that, the problem was solved. Christ offered up his perfect life - forever renouncing his humanity and all the generations of offspring he was rightly entitled to - so that we could have it instead.
Now THAT’S love!
How, then, can we show Jehovah God and Jesus our gratitude for all they've done – and continue to do – for us? By loving them, obeying them and loving one other -
Jesus taught, “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’”% - Matthew 22:37
%“You must love Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength.” - Deuteronomy 6:5
“This is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments; and yet his commandments are not burdensome.” - 1 John 5:3
Jesus also taught, “If anyone loves me, he will observe my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not observe my words. The word that you are hearing is not mine, but belongs to the Father who sent me." - John 14:23,24
“If you love me, you will observe my commandments. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. In turn, whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him.” - John 14:15,21
"By this all will know that YOU are my disciples, if YOU have love among yourselves.”" - John 13:35
“ If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet is hating his brother, he is a liar.” -1 John 4:20
“By this we have come to know love, because that one surrendered his life for us, and we are under obligation to surrender our lives for our brothers.” - 1 John 3:16
By doing so we can look forward to continue enjoying Jehovah God and Jesus' love - for all eternity.
#I know I went beyond what you asked and took you on several tangents but, the thing is, once I started writing ... I just couldn’t stop
(Luke 4:18,19)