The Most Astonishing Tenet of Christianity

The most astonishing tenet of the Christian belief system is not the idea that our universe was created out of nothing by an immensely powerful intelligent being. It is not the idea that the creator of the universe fine-tuned the universe for life on earth. It is not the idea that the creator of the universe also specially created all life on earth. It is not the idea that the creator of the universe has performed miracles. It is not even the idea that human beings continue to exist after they die. All these things are evidenced by logic and science. The most astonishing tenet of the Christian belief system is that the creator of the universe loves you and I.

Visitors to the World Wide Christian Web (WWCW) can read the evidence that supports the idea that our universe was created out of nothing by an immensely powerful intelligent being. One can also read the evidence for special creation. One can understand the implications that evidence has for the possibility of miracles and the reality of eternal life. But there is no evidence that makes sense of the love of the creator of the universe. By this I am not saying it is logically fallacious or that it is scientifically impossible. Neither is the case. By this I am saying it is unfathomable to be on the receiving end of perfect justice and perfect love.

Perhaps the fact that the creator of the universe loves you and I is because we cannot really understand perfect love and perfect justice. If we try to compare it to what we can understand, God's care for each one of us would be like a judge pronouncing guilt upon a criminal and then letting him go free. Then the judge would prescribe a punishment for the crime, rise from his bench and offer himself to the guard to accept the punishment in the criminal's place. But it's more than that, it would be like a human judge doing this for a stick figure he drew 10 seconds ago. The judge is the creator of everything. He has no equal. The criminal is seemingly insignificant in comparison, convicted of a crime he did in fact commit, a creation of that very judge.

This is what happened: Jesus, who is God, came to earth to take the punishment we deserve, for our sins, so we can be free for eternity. God had to lower himself to our level, though he created us and everything in the universe. Not only that, he had to submit himself to torture and even death -- through that death and subsequent resurrection, human beings can forgo eternal separation from God.

Why did God do it? He could have just let us receive what we deserve - to be punished for the wrongs we've done. He would not have been less powerful if he left us to our own devices. I think God did this because of his nature.

God is perfectly just, meaning perfect justice must be accomplished by him. Because of that justice, wrongdoing must be punished. This is the basis of our society today as well. God is also perfectly loving, meaning he loves with a love that is perfect, a love we cannot fully understand. I believe it is because of this love, God himself fulfilled what justice required. He took our place. Justice did not require him to take our place but his love provided it. This love is unfathomable, that he would care for each of us, no matter how insignificant and unimportant we feel. This is a mystery beyond all mysteries and is the most astonishing tenet of the Christian belief system.

-ed
e-mail: wwcw@wwcw.org

I want to learn more about how I can have a relationship with the creator of the universe.

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