What was the true cost of Christ purchasing His bride?

This is my first post. Though a little drawn out, be patient. There is a blessing at the end.

If we are to consider the attributes of God the following traits come to mind. He is loving, kind, full of grace, compassionate, just, all knowing, all powerful, and above all He is righteous. He knows no sin. With these characteristics in mind, He does not, and cannot tolerate sin.
 
Our God desires fellowship. He wants to be recognized and loved in return. We were created in His image and we desire these things so why wouldn’t He? These ideals do not exist without free will. He simply could not create mankind as robots that He simply wound up and would spew out the words “I love you God” on demand. It’s shallow and it’s not real love. Real genuine love is created by choice. The free will to obey Him or to do our own will.
 
A relationship with God is not a dictatorship. Though we are commanded to love Him, think of the benefits we receive in return. The idea of the creator of this universe in all its vastness, God has the ability to know us each individually by name and desire to fellowship with us one on one. It’s a privilege that should not be taken lightly.

This poses a serious problem for God. How does a God who cannot tolerate sin fellowship with an innately evil man? Here is what the bible says about man:

Romans 3:10-18
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Romans 3:23
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Did an all knowing, all powerful God know that mankind would rebel against Him if he gave us free will? You bet he did. Was He shocked or surprised that with all the blessings He bestowed on us that we would still seek our own will? Not in the least. But if sin in the very least bit is exercised, the consequence are eternal separation from Him. Was he thinking, “I’ll just make billions of them and surely a few will choose to be righteous and seek after me with their whole heart” and He is just sitting there year after year watching us like lemmings lining up and walking over the cliff?

He is much smarter than this. In fact He had a solution to this problem before he created the foundations of the world. Every Christian knows the answer to this...

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

But have you really thought what this means? That He “gave” his only begotten Son? When you give something, you do not get it back. But Jesus is back. In fact He is currently standing at the right hand of the Father in heaven.

Acts 7:55-56
But he [Steven], being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

Let’s get back to sin... Romans 6:23 says: For the wages of sin is death;

Where is our sin? Jesus took our sin right?

Romans 3:21-26.
But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Yes He did! But is Jesus dead? Sure He died, but is he dead? Absolutely not. He rose on the 3rd day and spent time with the apostles for 40 days, and then he ascended into heaven.

Acts 1:9
And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

But we know God is just. Our sins must be dealt with. Just because He placed them on His righteous Son they still need to be addressed. They need to dealt with one by one and punished, every single one of them. If He didn’t, where is the justice? So where is the sin? Did Jesus just stick it in the pocket of His robe? Did he place it in a hacker proof safe in heaven and throw away the combination? No He didn’t. But it has obviously been addressed because He currently stands with the Father. He could not do this if he was not righteous. The very nature of God is to destroy sin in the same way the nature of fire burns kindle. They simply cannot co-exist. According to God’s own words sin is punishable by death. With the entire sin of mankind the Father didn’t simply say after three days of Jesus being in Hell, “OK Son, I really miss you. I think that is enough punishment. You can come out now.” Addressing all the sin of all mankind is not the same as grounding a child to their room before dinner. A sentence must be served!

Are you still with me? There is an answer, and it is it does have a happy ending... for us.

In order to understand this better we need to look at how sin was addressed in the old testament. We recall the first sinners of all mankind. Adam and Eve. What did God do to continue fellowship? He killed two animals and made them wear the outer skins to clothe their nakedness. Was there something magical about these two animals? Are they serving a sentence in Hell for Adam and Eve? Good heavens no.

The old testament sacrifices did not remove sin. They simply covered it, and were used as an acceptable means by God to allow man to continue to commune with Him. These sacrifices were a foreshadow of the ultimate sacrifice to come, Jesus Christ and the shedding of His blood on the cross. If they were acceptable, old testament saints would have immediately gone to heaven when they died. The book of Hebrews chapters 9 and 10 cover this. You recall the story of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar in the book of Luke (Luke 16:19-31). The righteous who died in faith were separated in a holding tank called Abraham’s Bosom. It was located close to the place where the wicked are currently held until judgement day. It was far from punishment. Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43). Jesus was not talking about heaven because it took 3 days to conquer death. He led the captive to higher ground. The righteous holding tank is empty.

Ephesians 4:8
Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

Now you say, “This is all fine and dandy, but where are you going with this?

Simply this, and this is the good part. We have all this sin that has been Atoned for by the Son of God who is alive at the right hand of the Father.

Where is the sin and who is paying the penalty for it for eternity??????

In order to fully understand this we need to examine the relationship the Father has with the Son. We know He was with the Father when Jesus, yes Jesus created the universe.


Colossians 1:12
Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

The study of quantum physics demonstrates there are at least 10 dimensions of our universe. With time being a dimension and a physical property, created beings only have access to 4 of these dimensions. If Jesus is outside of time, it means He has always existed with the Father. The intimacy they share over the span of 10 dimensions is far greater than you and I will EVER comprehend. Jesus became a man roughly 2000 years ago. But He wasn’t always a man. The bible doesn’t explicitly say what he was before God became flesh and dwelt among us. There are theophanies of Jesus appearing in the old testament as The Ancient Of Days in the book of Daniel, Melchizidek the priest to Abraham, and possibly the image of God showing His backside to Moses on the mountain. But whatever he was pre-Jesus, I can tell you he is not and forever will not be that for the rest of eternity. The last glimpse we see of Jesus in the bible is in the book of Revelation.

Revelation 5:6
And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

A lamb as it had been slain. The personage of Jesus who is labeled as “the Son” in the Trinity godhead, reveals himself to the righteous with certain defects that resemble a broken body. Do you think He does this on purpose to remind us of the cross for eternity? I am going to suggest He is represented as this slain lamb because.... He cannot change.

Whatever incredible intimacy the Son shared with the Father pre-atonement has forever changed in order to bear the sin of the world, and pay the true price for the penalty of those sins. I am suggesting that at the very moment on the cross when God the Father poured out our sins onto His Son, there was some kind of eternal dimensional separation that took place between the two and forever will remain. It obviously wasn’t a full separation but something took place that would suffice the Father for the penalty of our sins.

Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus sweat drops of blood? Death on a cross was painful no doubt, but He even asked the Father if there was any other way atonement could be accomplished outside of the cross. I’m sorry but if I knew I could save all of mankind on a cross, I think I could submit, and I’m a selfish sinner! I don’t think Jesus was too worried about it the pain. He knew He would be resurrected so why be so stressed to sweat drops of blood? Because He knew the separation was coming and things forever would be changed of the intimacy He had with the Father.

Rom 5:8     
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

I firmly believe when we get to heaven and the truth is revealed what the true cost was for Christ to obtain His bride, we will uncontrollably, eternally acknowledge and worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords without fear of our own will ever getting in the way again. This is the absolute perfect demonstration of love which was planned before the foundation of of the universe. This is why we have free will.


And now I challenge you not to believe me but go do your own homework.