Consider this:

Luke 14:29
For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you,

Consider this: before there was time, there was God. Before there were stars in the sky, planets in the solar system, or comets whizzing around space, there was God. Before there was an earth, trees, water, plants, and animals, there was God. Before there was man, there was God. Heaven existed in all of its glory with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit reigning in perfect unity.

At some point in the span of time, however, God started thinking. I think He began to contemplate a scenario where He created a being who had the capability of understanding love, as He knew love; a being who could choose to do whatever he wanted, just as He does. He began to consider that by creating such a creature, He would face the real possibility that they wouldn’t love Him. I think God even thought about the fact that some would choose to deny His very existence and never even acknowledge Him. I think that not only did God have these thoughts, but He knew the answers to His own questions.

I think that long before God created the earth on which we walk today, He considered the cost. He probably came up with a list of pros and cons and laid it all out on the line. I wonder what that list looked like...

Pro-I’ll have friends who choose to know me.
Con-Some won’t want to be my friend.
Pro-I’ll have worship that isn’t required, but freely given.
Con-Some won’t acknowledge my existence, let alone worship me.
Pro-I’ll be able to bless them with all of the riches of Heaven.
Con-My Son will have to die in order to have that happen.

Maybe that isn’t what His list looked like. I don’t know, I’m only human. I wasn’t there when He made this big decision. The point that I’m trying to make is that God knew the outcome before He even began to form the earth. He knew that some of us would reject and deny His existence. He knew that the Devil would trick and deceive mankind in an effort to prove God wrong. He knew that He’d have to send His only Son to suffer a horrific, brutal, humiliating death on a cross in order to redeem His creation. He counted the cost, and at the end of His day, He decided that He would and could finish what He started.

When Jesus hung on the cross at Calvary’s mountain, naked, between two thieves, He cried out with a loud voice, “IT IS FINISHED!” He declared that what He had begun, He also completed. He put His signature on the dotted line and gave us the receipt reading, “Paid in full”.