Before we even had a universe God existed. Since God is complete and perfect he clearly wasn’t lonely but I believe he wanted to share his awesome love and goodness with others and that’s why he created humans – he wanted relationship. So, the logical question is how could God have a relationship with us that would be two-sided where he loves us and we can love him? The only way is to make us moral agents that can exercise free will. For without free will there can be no real relationship. Loving someone is always a choice and that is exactly what God gave us – the choice to either love him or to go our own way.
And here is the dilemma God was faced with. It is not logically possible to have free will and no possibility of moral evil. And here is the key point – God is not the creator of evil. He created the possibility of evil – people actualized that potentiality. And that’s exactly what we did: we chose to sin and thus sever our relationship with God. But God’s love for us is so great that he had a restoration plan in place before the foundation of the world – the resurrection! And what a plan it is. We know that as an infinitely holy God his justice demands payment for sin but praise be to God his mercy offers pardon! And this dilemma could only be solved through the death of Jesus on the cross – and his resurrection from the dead! Jesus became our sin substitute and we became the righteousness of Christ.
I like what theologian N. T. Wright says:
“History matters because human beings matter; human beings matter because creation matters; creation matters because the creator matters. And the creator, according to some of the most ancient Jewish beliefs, grieved so much over creation gone wrong, over humankind in rebellion, over thorns and thistles and dust and death, that he planned from the beginning the way by which he would rescue his world, his creation, his history, from its tragic corruption and decay; the way, therefore, by which he would rescue his image-bearing creatures, the muddled and rebellious human beings, from their doubly tragic fate; the way, therefore, by which he would be most truly himself, would become most truly himself. The story of Jesus of Nazareth which we find in the New Testament offers itself, as Jesus himself had offered his public work and words, his body and blood, as the answer to this multiple problem: the arrival of God’s kingdom precisely in the world of space, time, and matter, the world of injustice and tyranny, of empire and crucifixions.”1
I think human beings mattered so much to God that the resurrection was no mere afterthought but an integral part of creation. The resurrection was the ultimate contingency plan to restore fallen man back into relationship with God. God’s love began our relationship with him and his death and resurrection, for those who believe, ensures that this relationship will last forever!
1 N. T. Wright, The Resurrection Of The Son Of God (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), p. 737.