God appeals not to our faculty of obedience. Our faculty of obedience is broken. It has been broken since the era of Adam and Eve. God, therefore, appeals to our faculty of rationality. Our faculty of rationality works. It functions properly. Our faculty of rationality steers the ship. When fueled by the truth, our faculty of rationality steers us in the right direction. When the fuel of truth is contaminated with illusion, our faculty of rationality steers us in the wrong direction. God, therefore, wields the sledgehammer of truth to shatter the illusions. God puts us into intimate contact with both the sour truth and the sweet truth. The sour truth is the engine that pushes us to the exit of the Valley of Tears. The sweet truth is the engine that pulls us to the entrance of paradise. The two engines of truth generate the current of salvation. The current of salvation sweeps us off our feet and carries us from the Valley of Tears to Paradise. Only the recalcitrant few swim against the tide.
The Fundamental Unit of Thinking
The dial that controls his love for us is in his hands not ours. Moreover, it is set to the highest degree and is locked in place. Not even the evil we did to him could budge it. The more brutal the evil that we did to him, the more wonderful is the intransigence of his love. On the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection, we discovered that his love for us is indestructible.