Amos 4:12 – Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
Since children are not naturally obedient, parents must find a way to discipline them, and this is one of the most difficult things to do as a parent. Out of love we do not want to hurt our children, but we also cannot let them harm themselves or others. Likewise, God chastens His children and judges them according to their works and by His grace we are saved. Our behavior does not earn His love.
The nation of Israel was just like an unruly child. While they sometimes obeyed. Over time, they demonstrated that they needed grace under the mighty Hand of God. Chastening alone under the Law was not enough to make them seek the Lord. God sent prophets to teach them. He sent judges and kings to turn them back to Him. He sent famine, pestilence, war, and bondage. Still they failed over time to repent on the whole, and even when they did the stain of their sins remained.
What more could be done to show them and us how they needed to seek God? What more could done to take away their sins? God could come Himself and that is exactly what He did. God the Son, the manifest Word of God, was conceived by God the Spirit in the Virgin Mary of Bethlehem. Thus, God’s Son was born the Son of Man.
Since the sin of God’s people could not be cleansed otherwise, Jesus Christ came to take them upon Himself. The Judge accepted the judgement intended for the condemned.