Have you ever thought God did not know what it was like to live as a person? He never sleeps, He is never tired, He had never been tempted, He had never been lonely or depressed and He never knew what it was like to be sick, hurt or die. Yet, God knows all things. He knows before we are born if our name will be in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Therefore, it wasn’t that God didn’t know but, it was for man’s benefit that Christ, living as a human, gave mankind confidence that God would surely know what we humans were going through.

It is common to think of the God of the Old Testament as a vengeful and harsh God, but as I read both scriptures and ancient history, I am increasingly convinced that he has always been truly a God of love, and that love is exemplified throughout the Old Testament. Prior to the birth of Christ, the world was rarely at peace and then only if a people knew of or had the hope of Christ as a future event. The ancient Israelites hoped for their Messiah; David sang about him, Isaiah wrote beautiful poetry about him, the ancient Patriarchs, Adam, Methuselah, Enoch, Noah, and Noah’s son Shem spoke lovingly of him. The scripture “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (Gen 1:27) shows love.

I believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, did have to come as a baby, to obtain a body of flesh and blood, to experience and live through the frailty, the pain, and the suffering of mortality so that he could truly take upon himself the sins of the world. And I think he had to do it so we could see it, hear it, read about it, and experience the Holy Spirit testify of it. It was planned from the very beginning.

But as I Read the Old Testament, it does not read like He had the same love for those under the law as He has for those under grace. Under the Old Testament., fear and punishment could not help man please God. If you worked on the Sabbath, the punishment was death. How do you love a God whom you fear and are absolutely afraid?

Leviticus 26:18 – 25 – “If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over. I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze. Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of your land yield their fruit. ‘If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve. I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted. If in spite of these things you do not accept my correction but continue to be hostile toward me, I myself will be hostile toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over. And I will bring the sword on you to avenge the breaking of the covenant. When you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be given into enemy hands.’”

From the very beginning, God wanted fellowship with the man and woman that He had created. He met with them in the Garden of Eden. He wanted their love but He did not want that love to be forced so He created them with a free moral agency so they could choose freely between right and wrong. With only a few exceptions did mankind respond in a loving relationship. They were selfish, disobedient and did more wrong than right. God established laws to control their misbehavior and made the punishment very severe, with death. They became so disobedient that He decided to destroy them with a flood. This is why it was always God’s plan to send His Son, Jesus Christ, because He wanted man to be more like the image of Himself, to love and live a holy life as He is holy.

The Israelites never expected the Messiah would come as a baby. They expected a warrior that would lead and protect them from all enemies. God’s plan was to send His Son to die for the sins of man and to redeem Him of his sins and defeat Satan’s control over man. It was God’s purpose that everyone would be given a chance to become a new person with a new life. Under grace, there are second chances.

Even though God knows all things, is it possible He really didn’t know what it was like to be a person unless Jesus came as a baby and lived as a human and go through each phase of life? Through Christ’s life, God and Jesus knew that man could never be what God wanted and expected without His Spirit being placed within him as stated in the Old Testament. To be the image God intended, man needed to have the Holy Spirit to guide his life and behavior. But man had to want what Jesus offered in order to obtain the Holy Spirit. If he was unwilling to withdraw from Satan’s control and his worldly ways He would not get God’s Spirit.

As Christ daily communicated with God, they were preparing for the placement of a new covenant for man that would end the rule by law and its fear and punishment. They would present a covenant based on love for God and love for others. Instead of instant punishment they would provide rewards for obedience and love. Some rewards were for now and others after death. In addition, Christ would live and teach us how to live in ways that would please God. They promised a paradise for those who would accept Christ as God’s Son and Savior and those wanting to live with God forever.

In order for mankind to overcome their emotional problems Christ had to die so man could be forgiven of his sins and the guilt that caused him to have a defeatist attitude. We had to see Christ die and come back to life to believe that it was possible for us also and have the faith to accept life after death. We had to know there was life after death and we had a choice to be with God or be separated from Him once we passed on.

After Christ’s death and resurrection, He became our mediator with God. At Pentecost when the followers of Jesus Christ received the Holy Spirit a new man was born. After receiving the Holy Spirit man became what God had planned for and expected from the very beginning. He inspired a few to write the New Testament so that we could have a manual that would guide mankind into living as God has always wanted. We also heard of a God that loved us and a God we could sincerely love in return.

We will never reach perfection while we are alive but, we now know what God has always expected from man and how he is to live. Therefore, God gave us John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”