The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Why couldn't God have just forgiven us?

Today, I came across a Quora topic entitled:

Why couldn’t God have just forgiven us without the human sacrifice of Jesus?

You can read through the various answers. But I thought one presenter did state, the Eastern Orthodox position really well (which I fully endorse and embrace);

What’s interesting is what I’ve learned, from hanging out with the Lakota, Ojibwe and Ute tribes - especially their medicine men and women. They use the term Medicine, to encompass all that heals. So I can expand on this, outside its Red Road or Native American context. Medicine could mean modern medicine (with all its tests, surgeries, etc.), ancient medicine (i.e. homeopathy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda), prayer, gifts of the Spirit, spiritual healing, Native American ceremonies, etc. It’s all medicine.

The Incarnation was not God’s “Plan B” in the face of the Fall. It was always God’s “Plan A”. The Second Person of the Trinity would have become incarnate regardless of whether Adam and Eve had fallen or had remained innocent.

Now what is the inescapable response of fallen humanity to the incarnate God-Man? Deicide. The Gospel story is the ultimate example of “No good deed goes unpunished.”

I don’t have the energy to read all this tonight, but I’ll just say that God DID just forgive us. Jesus’ foray here was NOT to convince God to forgive us, but rather to enable us to die to the old master (the law, the flesh, the world) and live from His life–to eat from the right tree: the Tree of Life. We can’t make that leap up to the next level of our development into mature sons of God without His help in being our guide and our rescuer.