So God was in the right to condemn them to death – especially since he had warned them beforehand. Death was the only solution for humans who now had it in their make-up to act as pretend gods. There was no other way to rid the race of that delusion and corruption.
But it kind of spoiled God’s plan for a wonderful human race that he could enjoy friendship with. Who can be friends with people who are all the time treating you as though you don’t exist, except when they want you to do something for them? So what to do?
What if God became one of these humans—but without the corruption? What if he acted on their behalf, as their representative, and died as they did? Died a death that substituted for their deaths. That carried their condemnation for them. So they could escape condemnation.
Sounds good. But isn’t the result just one more dead human? Ahh, but what if God raised him from death? What if God brought that human being back to life in a body that was no longer in danger of death? Then at least one human being could have a future friendship with God that would never end with death.
And what if God promised all the other humans that this man’s death could be their death and that by believing this promise they too could look forward to a resurrection to life with God forever. What if?
Dale