Why God...Why?

"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 3^rd 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.