Which does need to be addressed. The death on the Cross is a requirement for Grace to be possible. Gods infinite mercy has to exist with his infinite justice. I would not characterize God's justice as "Divine Retribution" though.
Forgive me, the proper term I meant was Penal Substitution. His justice is not exercised on an innocent Man; It is His mercy that he bears the sins like the goat that was driven from the camp to be sent into death. His justice is in paying back all that was owed to whom it was owed. For death, he gave death. For the repentant, he gives life. Sin is the debt we owe to the ruler of this world. We offer it up to Christ our King, who forgives our great debt, and sends it home. It’s not a scourge to be held against us, but an ailment to be healed.
So what does that mean, for God to be able to die? Is He somehow different now? Did death represent some kind of setback to His goals? I imagined God as this kind of infinite, impervious pool of energy that could never be reduced or permanently changed, but maybe it kind of fluctuated?
And why did He choose for this change event to occur at a specific point in what we perceive in liner time? Is it because we need an idea of before and after in our cultural memory?
God is more than we could ever fully know. God’s death is a mystery beyond answering, in the same way that His birth is. But Christ is fully God and fully man, and in order to free us from sin did he die. Christ, being God, is the only truly free man; His death was not demanded, nor forced upon Him, as death is for us. When He died, He fully and totally chose to die out of love for the world.
Death wasn’t a setback; It was a mercy for us all, that we may not continue in our sinful state eternally, but that this may end so we can begin fully in eternal life. His death was the final victory for all. This inescapable end was turned from tragedy and suffering into triumph and joy.
God is an unchanging changingness. He is everywhere present and in all things. Where One is, all Three are there. God is unending and beyond all created things, even time.
It occurred at the time it did because it was the time appropriate for it. The perfect moment for God to be revealed for all. There are different reasons why it was that particular time; A time where Israel was reformed, yet subjugated, divided, and powerless. A time where a great empire existed that could (and did) scatter the seeds of Christ across the world easily, yet also resist and forge them to be strong and resilient. A time where that same empire also teetered between chaos, and had only just been established. A time in which the generations of man from Adam to Christ were fully and finally prepared. But ultimately, it was the right time because God knew it to be so. That it occurred for us in time is because we exist in time.
