B-D: John 3:16, "And this is the way God loved the world, He gave His only Son to die for us...".
Amen. A better question would be why do the EO think God died for us? Whimsy?
Dr E: Amen. A better question would be why do the EO think God died for us? Whimsy?
Inasmuch as love is an 'obligation' to some, I can see it in a distorted sort of a way.
The Orthodox Church would say, of course, that Christ had to die because Death demanded nothing less than God.
Christ's self-sacrifice, an act of love and free will of God, an incredible gift, attains its meaning when we realize that we are the ones who, trough our disobedience, became shackled by Death, by rejecting Life.
Protestants see man's disobedience (which God Himself programmed into His plan) as an "offense" against God which could only be paid back by someone of equal stature, completely neglecting the fact that God is not the author of our evil and that He could not have willed that man would disobey.
Consequently, the protestants believe that Christ made us righteous by dying on the Cross, and the EO believe that Christ gave us a chance to become righteous with God's help.
Just as God created Adam with a potential to do right or wrong; He made man with a chance to be good and God-like. Not some robot who followed a pre-programmed plan, which makes God the author his fall.