Originally posted by Starrman
But they are conditional. It's a trade and one in which all the cards are in his hands. The upshot is, either I serve him, or I go to hell, this is a threat of force. If you add to this the appalling ineptitude of his supposed governance of us, I would not wish to serve such a god. It would be service under duress.
A few corrections on your misconceptions regarding sin, salvation and service, if you'll humor me.
One, no one dies for their personal sins. We sin because we are spiritually dead: we do not spiritually die because of our sin. Only two people were qualified to be in that situation, Adam and Jesus... and we all know how those two situations turned out.
Adam's personal sin resulted in spiritual death, eventuating in physical death. The spiritual death he brought into the world is perpetuated through his seed, thus, we his progeny are all born spiritually dead, imputed with Adam's original sin. While God provides an untainted soul, that soul is placed in a body of sin.
Because all of our personal sins (including Adam's and the woman's) were imputed to Christ on the cross no one dies for their personal sins. This is where salvation comes into the picture. Salvation is not wrought by keeping the Law or by attaining some lofty moral standard. The Law was impossible to keep (body of sin, again) and regardless of the loftiness of our morals, our standards fall far too short to even be considered. So short, in fact, that God likens them to used menstral rags. How's that for imagery!
Salvation is purchased via one way, and one way only. Namely, non-meritorious faith. Taking as one's own the work done by Christ on the cross is the only place that faith may be placed efficaciously. No works, no service, no gaining favor for religous activity. Simple faith wins the day. Armed with that saving faith, the believer is now imputed with the righteousness of Christ, perfectly acceptable in every way to God's standards.
That imputation of Christ's perfection demands that God bless the believer, and bless He does!
And, lastly, speaking of service... all Christians are in full-time service to God. Some are just better at it than others. Service is nothing more than the overflow of the person's heart. While some serve out of religious desires (read guilt), a precious few serve out of spiritual maturity, itself the only true--- and rewardable--- motivating factor.