In order to free us from this present evil world, Christ took the punishment for our sins, because that was what our God and Father wanted. (Galatians 1.4, God’s Word)
There was a time when I believed a gospel (the “roman road” gospel of the evangelical protestants) that promised freedom (salvation) from punishment but not freedom from evil. In all my years of devotion and service to that gospel (of which I was an ordained minister) I never saw the truth. I was more evil than most because I was a minister of Satan masquerading as a minister of Christ. I was evil and deserved to be punished because though God created me to think and act like him, I thought and acted like a mortal. I believed I was a mortal because I was under the control of Satan who lied to me and made me think that because I am in a body on the earth I am mortal. Though I was devoted I was misguided and disobeyed God because I did not think like him.
But in his kindness and at the proper time God taught me the truth that Jesus Christ not only died to take the punishment I deserve for believing Satan’s lies, but took my punishment in order to save me from thinking like a mortal and free me to think like him – exactly like Jesus Christ did while on the earth in a body like mine.
Those who accept Christ as the one who takes the punishment they deserve acknowledge that they are evil. Those who believe that Christ died in their place but who do not believe that Christ died for them to free them from evil are evil and deserve the punishment they will get.
God wants us to know and believe the truth like him. He has demonstrated his kindness and good will toward mankind by giving his Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, to his firstborn Son, Jesus Christ, and sending him to earth in a body like ours. He did this to reveal the truth that we are spirits like him; that we are those who can and will know and believe the truth instead of lies. ”So Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, “If you live by what I say, you are truly my disciples. 32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8.31-32, God’s Word)
Those who believe God are his relatives, having the same spirit and same relation to their Father that the Lord, Jesus Christ has. News doesn’t get any better than that!