The Gospel

This is the Gospel in a nutshell:
1. God instituted a legal system that condemns all humans.
2. God submitted Jesus Christ as the only mechanism of salvation from this condemnation.

In 2 Peter 3:9, the author writes, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

I want to emphasize that one line that reads: "not willing that any should perish." God doesn't want anyone to be condemned. At least, that is what I understand that line to mean.

I believe this is true about god. I believe he does not want anyone to be condemned.

The paradox is this: If god does not want anyone to be condemned, then instituting a legal system by which they are condemned is a contradiction. If he did not want anyone to be condemned, they why institute the system that condemns people?

This is not a new issue. The problem of evil is closely tied to this paradox, because the problem of evil runs up against similar logic. I can most simply express the problem by asking: If god can and wants to do something, why doesn't he do it? If he can't do something, then he is not all-powerful.

Any legal system between us and god, such as the legal system described in the Bible that leaves all humans condemned on arrival, must be god's doing. Because god is the all-powerful one in the relationship, the assumption must be that if anything happens in the relationship, he either made it happen or allowed it to happen.

So, if there is a system that makes us separate from god, I recognize god as all-powerful and thus able to nullify the system if he so chooses. Since the Bible tells me that he does not want the result of the system, then I believe it is legitimate to ask why he instituted it in the first place, and why he has not nullified it.

An answer to this question seems to point at Jesus. This answer results in logic like this:
1. God originally instituted the system for reasons I don't understand.
2. God changed his mind, but he did not want to nullify the law he already instituted.
3. God also did not want the inevitable results of the system.

Therefore, god fulfilled his own legal system in place of all mankind instead of nullifying it, thereby liberating everyone from the consequences of that legal system that he instituted in the first place.

So, in short, I must conclude that the good news, or Gospel, is that god saved us from himself.

I appreciate that.