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| "Why is it that a God of all knowledge, love and wisdom, couldn't think of a better way of forgiving our sins rather than having Jesus Christ crucified in the cross?" |
Questions are not totally made to make people become
confuse. Most of us tend to avoid as many questions as we like in our lives.
Reasons may vary why we flee from questions and probably one of the top in the
list is that simply we don’t want any complications. But still, we can’t deny
the fact how important questions are in our lives. We might not have all the
answers to them but sometimes seeking the right question is as important as
seeking the right answers.
A friend of mine who have a knack for thought provoking
ideas that never failed to amuse me posted one day in facebook a question that give me a sheer eagerness to
answer instead of shunning it. The question is sound like this: Why despite God’s
infinite wisdom and knowledge plus his eternal love for mankind decide to let
his son Jesus to suffer and in the end die in the cross to save mankind from
its impending doom because of sin? Of course that made me think somehow that
God is so intelligent and undeniably kind but why he choose and let Jesus die
and experience an almost inhuman pain for our sake instead of other way since
given the fact the he is omnipotent. He could choose much simple way with no
blood or no foul. Without any life to be shed and without any agony to endure
by anybody else. God can just say “You are save now!” and voila we will be
saved so what’s with the crucifying an innocent man just for salvation if there
is so many easy and simple way to accomplished it?
As a striving Catholic for 20 years, I can totally give one
good reason why God choose that way of making salvation possible. In a
Christian perspective, God let Jesus died in the cross because he love us so
much that he will give up his son in order for those who believed in him will
not die (of sin) but will gain an eternal life. That’s one of the most used and
popular verse in bible found in the book of John chapter 3 verse 6. Key word
there is LOVE. Nothing really subtle or secret, only God loves us dearly and
truly that’s the kind of love we needed most in our lives!
But since I know my friend (and some of you who might read
this) have a different views on religion, existence of God, Jesus divinity etc,
I decided to dig some stuff that might give us another perspective on why God
chooses Jesus to die for us to be saved. Well, firstly before I gave my
thoughts about please do keep in mind that this is my own personal opinions so
if I might offended some of your beliefs, I’m deeply sorry for it. My
intentions are not like that and I deeply respect whatever the beliefs of those
who might read this. I write this article because of the question itself just
give me a sheer spark in my brain that I have to share it to others whether it
will inspire you or whether it will just be forgotten just any other thing in
this world.
The first reason I think why God chooses someone like Jesus
to die is because it is the natural order of how things work and it must be
followed accordingly. Since God is the all knowing being who exist before the
whole universe, it is safe to say that he also created the natural cycle of
things in this world. One of the natural cycle im talking about is practically
revered by scientific minds because it is the foundation of all the motions of
everything matter. This is the 3rd Law of Motion which states that
“For every action, there is an equal opposite reaction” (kudos to Isaac
Newton). Everything that is moving is subjected with this law and for the
almost a millennia, scientist continuous to use this law especially in Physics.
But this law is not confined only with spatulas, test tubes and microscope.
This law also governs our life for we are all in constant motion; we are always
under the spontaneous changes in our lives. Everything that we do has always
its effect or consequences that can directly or indirectly manifest in our
lives. In spiritual sense, this is what we called as Karma. We are in a never
ending cycle of making a cause and accepting its effect. This is also what is
stated in the law of equivalent exchange (to gain something, you must lost something
of equal value). These are the prevailing laws in our life that science and
spirituality both nod in agreement. And God, with all his supreme knowledge
definitely knows how this law works perfectly since after all, everything came
from him. Saving lives is not an easy task; however saving countless lives is
astronomically hard! But it is not possible if and only if you can do such
thing that can equal or outmatch the value of difficulty of salvation. And what
better way of making this came to life than to offer a part of God to us in the
form of Jesus? Remember that what we are talking about saving the lives of
mankind from sin which eventually lead to death. There’s nothing that have the same value as
life itself. Only life can equate also the life of others and God without a
doubt knows that in order to save lives, he has to give the life of his son
which by no means, He and his son are one and the same(the mystery of the holy
trinity). That makes it look like God gave himself for us to be alive once
again making it outvalue the effort needed to bring us back and be saved. Thus,
this leads us to the concept of sacrifice.
Ever since before the old and primitive man begun to
establish themselves as a rational and pragmatic being, they first become much
closer to the spiritual intuitive way of life. They revere and worship things
that they conceive to be supernatural and beyond their comprehension like the
weather, animals and even common things like rocks and plants. That’s how
religion begun to play a major role in their lives by allowing themselves to
feel the inner energy of these things through rituals and ceremony (which is up
until now remains the same and continuously practiced). Religion might differ
in many ways including their methods of worshipping but I believe that behind
these difference lies one theme that is utterly common to their practices. This
is the theme of sacrifice and offering which trace its roots during the times
when gods are in the form of rains, thunders, fires and other forces of nature.
During those times, man learns that in order to get what they wanted they need
the intervention from the divine deities. And in order to attain it, they need
to offer something to them and hope that will accept it. Sacrifices can be in form
of burnt animal or even human sacrifices. It sounds too primitive and gory but
it just reflects the understanding of man about God is not refined and still
shallow during the older days. The practice of sacrifice becomes an integral
part of humankind life after that: every time they need help to solve their
problems or if they need some favors from gods and for protection first they
need to sacrifice first. As time grows by, sacrificial things become more
subtle and symbolic instead of literal. But still offering something to gain
and achieve a thing is absolutely how life works. That is why God decided to
sacrifice his son for there is no better way in achieving salvation than the
way of how God made this world and how he maintains it; by doing it in the natural
way of cause and effect, gaining and losing.
But could that mean that those laws stated above are greater
than God since God should follow them instead of following his will? I don’t
think so. God made those laws in the first place. He is the first to show us
order and harmony should prevail to prevent chaos. And take a note that God is
a fair being. He doesn’t want to bypass anything for it cancels out his persona
as the one who maintain the natural order and balance in this world. Thus, he
allows his son to die in the cross because that is the only way to give life to
us. To simply put in a very brief equation, Life=Life.
Another follow up to the primary question that I’ve also
read in my friend’s post it that why salvation should cost Jesus to suffer in a
brutal and bloody fashion. Again, my answer is because that is also a natural
way to make it possible. Jesus’ death gives way for us to have a new life; a
life which is clean and holy and attuned to righteousness instead of pure
hedonism. Notice that the natural way (again) of things is for every end, there
is beginning. For every death comes a rebirth. It’s cyclical of give and take
in an extremely endless manner. Death is important for without it Life will
never commence. Remember that before the great age of Renaissance (Rebirth),
the Black Plague reap almost half of the population first. Therefore there is
no other thing to claim the life of mankind but by giving a life in return. I
bet God knows that so well since after all, he is both the end and the
beginning of everything (Alpha and Omega) so why would he choose any other way
than that if that is the nature of his acts and identity?
There you go! Again this are just my opinions or ideas
regarding that question. I know all of us have lots of questions about God and
all his ways and acts. But to be honest guys, I’d rather just believe rather
than ask all the questions I can muster with about him. I’m not against
questioning since like they said, to obtain the right answer one must learn to
formulate the right question. But when it comes to things that even the great
geniuses and experts have no idea how to explain and understand, I’d rather let
faith instead of rationality and intellectuality drive me to the right answer.
Sorry and Thank you.
