If you were playing a game with your best friend and he kept changing the rules as you went along, what would you think of him? The next time he made a rule, would you trust him to keep it? Could you imagine what would happen if the referee kept changing the number of tackles allowed or the number of points for a try in the Rugby League Grand Final, so that his favourite team would win? Or if you were playing a game of chess and kept changing the ways the pieces are allowed to move so you could beat your opponent?

One of God’s characteristics is that He is perfectly fair, just and true. When He created Adam and Eve, He told them that He had made a rule about not eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, “lest you die� (Genesis 3:3). St Paul later summarised this rule with the phrase: “The wages of sin is death� (Romans 6:23). To put it simply, God made a rule that sin leads to death, right from the very beginning. And humanity sinned, so they had to die.

God couldn’t just change the rules and let them off. He couldn’t just say, “Oops, I didn’t really want you to die. OK, let’s just make it that the wages of sin is to have pimples, so nobody dies – yes, that’s it. That’s the rule from now on�! If God had changed the rules, He would no longer be true or just. He would have been just like the child who keeps changing the rules to make the game suit him/her. And that’s just not God.

So what was the solution? God solved the problem in a shocking way that showed us how incredibly much He loves us. He sent His Only Son to become one of us, to suffer like us and then to die for us. “The wages of sin is death�, but Jesus more or less said, “the punishment must be paid, but I will pay it for you. That way, no rules will be broken and God remains just and true.� But it also taught us that God is love, and that His love for us is greater than anyone could possibly have imagined!