The Son of God paid us a visit for thirty-three years at and about the city of Jerusalem in a region of the earth called the Middle East more than two thousand years ago.
What was the purpose of the Visit?
The purpose of the Visit was apocalypse. During the Visit, God revealed their nature to us. The veil that hides the nature of God from us was torn in twain and the holy of holies was shown to us. Disclosure was the purpose of the Visit.
The Son of God paid us a visit to show us - not just to tell us - about the sweetness of paradise. We impaled the sweet bait on the sharp hook of salvation with the same insouciance as the fisherman who impales a live worm on a sharp hook. The most Holy Trinity then cast the bait into the cesspools of godlessness to fish for the children of Adam and Eve.
Why is the bait sweet?
The sweetness of the bait arises from love. Love is sweet. We tortured and killed the Son of God while He was human, alive, tender and vulnerable. His love for us ought to have faded as we tortured Him and died when we killed Him. But it did not. Both He and His love for us survived the cruel baptism into which we immersed Him. His survival showed us that God is omnipotent. Death has no power over Him. The survival of His love for us, however, showed us something more significant than omnipotence. The survival of His love for us showed us that the very essence of divinity is indestructible love for us. Where do I sign up? How do I enlist? How do I join the kingdom of the God who loves me so much?
The sweetness of paradise is an engine that pulls us through the entrance of paradise. Add to this engine another engine, the sourness of godlessness, that pushes us through the exit of godlessness and we see what makes the current of salvation flow.
The primary purpose of the thirty-three year Visit was apocalypse. It demonstrated the nature of God. The primary purpose of the Visit was not to tell us how to behave as we make our escape from godlessness to God. The primary purpose of the Visit was not to establish an official code of conduct. God did that many centuries before the thirty-three year Visit when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. The thirty-three year Visit was not a rerun. The thirty-three year Visit was a novelty. It was something new and unprecedented. During the thirty-three year Visit, the sweetness of paradise was disclosed to us.