If your priority is to avoid God’s punishment, you don’t know what God is like. Imagine an arranged marriage in which the woman has just been married for the second time. She has only been married for two weeks, but because her first husband abused her verbally and physically (anything that displeased him resulted in a severe beating), she is now afraid of being abused. Everything she says and does is motivated by her desire to avoid punishment. But her fear is misplaced. Her second husband loves her and wants her to know that she is safe, and she is loved. He would rather suffer than see her suffer. So why is she afraid? She is afraid because she doesn’t really know the man she has just married. The more and man is like Christ - the more he thinks and feels as Christ does about things - the more that man understands the mind of Christ. Correct hermeneutics is not enough to arrive at the truth about the nature of God and what he requires. Trust, obedience, and prayer, these alone can enable a person to know what God is really like. If your starting point is avoiding punishment from God, you may think you know what God is like, but you don’t. Your image of him is a poor caricature - which is nothing like Jesus. The Gospel - the good news - is the character of God as revealed in Christ. Jesus went around the country side preaching the Gospel. Everywhere he went he told people what his Father was like. This is the good news. I will post a video below about the goodness of God, and how it is impossible for anyone to see how good God is and not love him. And below that I will post an interview about a book which explains the sacrificial system and what atonement is all about.