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Jesus was God in the flesh. He plainly states if you have seen me you have seen God. The Old Testament prophets on death went to Abrahams bosom until Christ came. They couldn't go to heaven their sins in this time line hadn't been paid for. On Christs death he descended for three days to preach to them before his assertion to Heaven
Listen the bottom line is this. God is perfection. Only perfection can be in his presence. Humans are not perfect "for all have sinned and fallen short" That was the purpose of the law to show no one was perfect. If you stop right there. God demands Justice and the penalty for sin is death and hell. Here are the rules you broke the rules this is the penalty and everyone from all eternity goes to hell. Justice is taken care of.
Ephesian 2: 8-9 Says that no flesh can be justified by works ever, or some could boast I was good enough and you were not.
Grace is that while every single person with perfect justice should be in hell and there is no way to live a perfect life and no way to to enough good works to some how make you perfect again.
God himself came in Jesus to take on the sins of people with his perfect blood. Those who place their faith in this are forgiven even though Justice says they should pay for their sins but God did it for them. Those that believe are saved those that don't simply have to pay for their sins themselves. There are totally different degrees of punishment based perfectly on Gods knowledge and wide.
For Context I sent you verses on both sides.
Ephesians 2 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Made Alive in Christ
2 And you [a]were dead [b]in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the [c]course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, [d]indulging the desires of the flesh and of the [e]mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead [f]in our transgressions, made us alive together [g]with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and [h]that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.