The Gift Of Gifts: God's Grace

God kept His word; many dwellings await
The ones from earth who in Jesus believe;
Each owes Him much, for each He did create,
And their sins will He most freely relieve!
Mortals cannot conceive so great a worth;
As that of grace, which God on men bestowed;
Satan had so quickly spread sin on earth,
God became the Lamb, died for what men owed!
What lost men could not pay, Christ Jesus paid;
He became a man, lived without sin, and died
A scape-goat Lamb, on which men's sins were laid;
Thus, by Him, was God's justice satisfied!
Men can live forever in God's great place;
Only those who accept His gift of grace!

It took many years for me to understand clearly God's beautiful and infinitely perfect plan---why He created man, and how He justly provided for the salvation of those who freely choose to live with Him. That's the key to it all: Man must have free will. The following explanation is the best that I can produce, consistent with the Bible. I pray it helps.

God is one being; He has always been. He can divide Himself into 3 or more manifestations simultaneously. He created billions of angels with superhuman powers who live forever. One of them, Lucifer, rebelled against God; he led one-third of the angels in a war and lost. All of the traitors were exiled from God and cast to earth. God hated what Lucifer had done and named it "sin". He hated sin so much that He made a law: The wages of sin in the universe is death, which can be spiritual separation from God for undying beings, or physical expiration for creatures of flesh and blood, or both. He created a burning lake of sulphur where the traitors would be tormented forever.

God was disappointed in Lucifer's betrayal and desired fellowship from creatures who could be trusted to love Him back, so He decided to create man in His own image; man would be given free will and his loyalty and love for God tested before being admitted into the fellowship and presence of God. Man was made of flesh and blood like animals so his body would live a brief time and then die; but God gave man an undying soul. In this way, if, in his short lifetime on earth, man proved his love for God by passing the test of acceptance of Jesus (God in the flesh of a man) and rejecting the temptations of Satan (Lucifer) by living by God's commandments, his soul would be eligible to enter heaven and live forever. The soul would be given a new spiritual body like the angels. So God made man in His image, called him Adam; then He took one of Adam's ribs and made woman; God told them to be fruitful and multiply.

God knows the past and the future. He knew that Adam would disobey His one command; He knew, too, that all men would sin (offend Him) in their lives. By committing sin, man incurred the judgment of death upon himself---physical death and spiritual death. When Adam sinned, the entire race, even until this day, was born with sinful natures and is under the condemnation that Satan and his angels are under. However, if a single person could manage to live his entire life without committing one sin, that person, if he were willing to make the sacrifice, could become the scape-goat for the race by taking upon himself the sins of all. God knew that there would never be such a person, unless...it was Himself! He knew it before He made Adam; He had already decided that He would become a baby in the womb of a virgin; become the man Jesus, live as a man and never sin; then die as a man innocent of breaking neither man's law nor God's; resurrect Himself on the third day; ascend back to heaven as King of Israel and the world! What love must God have had for man to do all this for him! By His sacrifice, man is freed from his debt of sin: PROVIDED THAT HE/SHE WHO IS TO BE SAVED ACCEPTS THAT THE MAN JESUS WAS GOD, BELIEVES THAT HE IS RAISED FROM THE DEAD, FEELS GUILTY AND ASKS FORGIVENESS FOR HIS SINS, AND LIVES ACCORDING TO THE COMMANDS OF GOD IN THE BIBLE!