Mythologies of false gods have done less damage in the world than the mythology that people who know of the true God are somehow separated from Him based on their behavior. Sin won't keep God away from you, but shame will keep you trying to hide from God.
The cross was not a legal loophole God the Father needed, like some accountant, to get your "sin problem" off the books. The cross was God's way of dealing with your shame problem, so nothing would hold you back from Him. There was NEVER anything holding Him back from you.
Repeat: the fact that you are not "together" is not keeping you from God's presence. Rather, your shame is what keeps you from being awake to the One who would indeed bring all of you together. The root of every addiction is shame, not naughtiness.
If you, "being evil" (to use Jesus' phrase) would not let any misbehavior from your children keep you away from them, what do you think you could do that could keep Love away from you? The cross was for you, not God. It was meant to bring you out of hiding!
Save any replies that say God is somehow accountable to some kind of justice that is somehow HIGHER THAN GOD, or "God is bound by his word" or other similar weirdness. If your god is "bound" to anything, you are worshipping an idol, not the living God.
God DOES act in accordance with God's own good character, b/c God IS Love. Even so, it is not that God is "bound" to "do it by the manual." God can't help but true to God's self. That's about God's essence, not contractual obligation. God doesn't have rules; Love is God's rule.
I will answer objections A, B & C to this thread (before reading a single one of them) with this defense: the main reason that people aren't comfortable with this kind of thinking, is because they are not actually convinced that JESUS IS GOD.
(I was asked to do a workshop yesterday on hell, judgment and atonement & still have that all in my crawl, if you're wondering why I'm going on about this)
