The Cross

0. God is a maximally great being, the very standard we call Love, Beauty, Goodness, Justice.

1. If God is not absolutely just, he is not God.
1.2 If God is not absolutely loving, he is not God as well.

2. If He forgives us without punishment He is not just. Thus, we must be punished, to fulfill divine Justice.
2.2 If He doesn't do all possible to prevent the punishment, He is not absolutely loving, though I doubt Love can fit in logical reasoning.

3. God taking the punishment of our sin on Himself is the only possible scenario for a morally perfect, all-just and all-loving God + depraved human = coexist. The Cross is where the Justice and the Love do cross.
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It's a little bit like being a just and loving bus driver at once, though there is no analogy for the Creator in the material world (since the cause of the material universe is beyond it). You can't let the kid with no money get in according to your justice, yet you can't let him stay out according to your love.
So you pay the fee yourself and fulfill both. Love and Justice do cross at this point.

10.28.2023