Once, God had a Problem

Imagine a courtroom, it is huge and has dark beams showing in the walls, intricate vent covers and the judge sits behind a high, mahogany desk. Now add all the people (you may need to imagine a bigger room)- add people of all ages from all walks of life, all times in history and every country under the sun. Now add the stench of all those people, nervously waiting together.

You're in this courtroom, too. You are the defendant.

There's a bad taste in your mouth and your head seems to spin and your eyes can't focus. The judge has just given the verdict: guilty.

Penalty? Death.

You stumble out of your seat to take your place in line with all the others who have been found guilty. Your insides feel splintered, and you see the same brokenness in the faces around you. 

Imagine the Judge, God, looking around the massive room at all the people condemned to die, imagine the distraught look on his face, the pain, as he realizes the problem. He deeply loved everyone in that room, having breathed life into them himself. Not only that, he had a covenant with them. But they had each broken the law, at varying degrees, and must be condemned to death. And God's judgment was Just.

But God isn't only Just.

He fixes things. He overflows with loving-mercy.

So God created a plan where he himself would take the penalty for all those people, including you, a plan where he would die in their place, return to life, and invite them to live life with him, forever.

Once, God solved the problem.