God gave Adam and Eve the gift of rationality. The serpent manipulated it. The serpent fed Adam and Eve a lie. Adam and Eve had no experience with a liar. They fell for the lie lock, stock and barrel. The lie was that they could be gods in godlessness so God was no longer needed. Adam and Eve liked the idea of becoming gods. The lie induced them to abdicate the gift of paradise after it had been delivered to them. They exited paradise and entered godlessness. Godlessness is not a nice place. In godlessness, Adam and Eve were not gods.
God did not want the children of Adam and Eve to repeat the mistake of Adam and Eve. When God gives the children of Adam and Eve the gift of paradise, God wants them to keep it. To prevent the children of Adam and Eve for running away from their home in paradise and into godlessness as their parents did, God needed to shatter the illusion that godlessness was a better place in which to dwell than in paradise. Therefore, God inserted a delay between our creation and the delivery of the gift of paradise. During the delay, we learn for ourselves the truth about godlessness. Godlessness sucks. Some get a spoonful of the sourness of godlessness; some get a mouthful; and some, like the Son of God, get an immersion by baptism. The truth about the sourness of godlessness sets us free. The prodigal son will never go back to the pig sty and neither will the children of Adam and Eve. The sourness of godlessness is harsh but effective medicine. Its effectiveness justifies its harshness. However, does its harshness make it cruel? The brevity of life stops the harshness from becoming cruel. A lifetime no matter how long only occupies an infinitesimally thin slice of time compared to the thickness of eternity. The fact that we are stuck in the shit hole of godlessness for only an infinitesimally thin slice of time compared to the thickness of eternity stops the harshness from turning into cruelty.
Thus, the sourness of godlessness pushes us to its exit.
God, however, did not want to depend only on the sourness of godlessness to induce the children of Adam to come back to the home that God has prepared for them in paradise. Therefore, God disclosed to them the sweetness of paradise. The sweetness of paradise pulls us to the entrance of paradise.
To show the children of Adam and Eve the sweetness of paradise, the Son of God paid us a thirty-three year visit at and about the city of Jerusalem in a region of the earth called the Middle East more than two thousand years ago. The thirty-three year visit was an apocalypse. It revealed to us the nature of God.
At Bethlehem, God delivered a love note to us. The love note was unique. It lived and breathed. Love took flesh and dwelt amongst us. The love note was the Son of God. Thirty-three years later at Calvary, God delivered to us a guarantee that the love note was genuine. We tortured and killed the Son of God. If the love note were counterfeit, His love for us would have faded as we tortured Him and died when we killed Him. However, it did not. Both He and His love for us survived the brutal baptism into which we immersed Him. The survival of the Son of God guarantees that God is omnipotent. The survival of His love for us guarantees something of much greater significance than omnipotence. The survival of His love for us guarantees that the very essence of divinity is indestructible love for us. Moreover, God did not delegate the task of delivering the love note and the guarantee of its genuineness to a subordinate. God did the job themselves. It is noteworthy that God did the job themselves despite the cost. The revelation of the nature of God that took place during the thirty-three year Visit came at an exorbitant cost. It was not free. Yet, God paid the cost of the revelation out of His own pocket and entirely from His own funds. Moreover, He paid for the revelation not from His unlimited divine resources but from His limited human resources. He held not a penny back for Himself. He paid all for us. He has never paid more for anything else. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” He paid all He had for us because He considers us “the treasure hid in a field” and thinks us “the pearl of great price”. We are the apple of God’s eye. Wow! Where do we sign up? How do we enlist? How do we join the kingdom of the God who loves us so much?
Thus, the sweetness of paradise pulls us to its entrance.
A potential difference existed between the sourness of godlessness and the sweetness of paradise. All that was needed to get the current of salvation to flow was a conductor between godlessness and paradise. The most Holy Trinity, therefore, placed the Son of God between the world of godlessness and the world of paradise. He is the bridge. He is the way, the truth and the life. Through the bloody wounds we opened in the body of the Son of God with lash, thorns, nails and spear, the current of salvation flows into the loving embrace of God.
Our rationality instructs our will with regard to the direction we must take. Our rationality tells us that the direction is away from godlessness and toward paradise.
Therefore, surf the current. Let it carry you from godlessness to paradise. Surf with it not against it. Go with the flow. The current of salvation will take you back to your home with God in paradise.