I

In saving mankind, God does so out of His love and mercy and for the sake of His management; in receiving God's salvation, the human race does so because it has fallen to the point where God can't but speak personally. When man receives God's salvation, this is the greatest grace, also a special favor; that is to say, if not for God giving voice to His utterances in person, the fate of the human race would be extinction. At the same time that He abominates the human race, God is still ready and willing to pay any price for man's salvation. Meanwhile, as man harps upon his love for God and how he consecrates all to God, he's rebelling against God and extorting every kind of grace from God, while also even causing harm to God and inflicting unspeakable pain upon the heart of God. Such is the sharp contrast of the selfless and the selfish between God and man!

II

Mankind finds it easy to take God for one among the race of created human beings; the greatest pain and humiliation man inflicts on God is precisely that, when He openly appears or works, God is still rejected and even forgotten by man. God endures the greatest humiliation in order to save the human race; in giving everything, His purpose is to save mankind, to obtain mankind's recognition. The price God has paid for all of this is something that everyone with a conscience should be able to appreciate. The human race has gained God's utterances and work, and has gained God's salvation. At the same time, it has not occurred to anyone to ask this: What is it that God has gained from mankind? From God's every utterance, humanity has gained the truth, has succeeded in changing, has found direction in life; but what God has gained is no more than the words that humanity uses to express their indebtedness to God and a few faint whispers of praise. Is this the recompense that God demands of man?

from The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Utterances of Christ in the Beginning, Introduction