Saturday, April 22, 2006
Grace isn't fair
I had been intending on writing this since the car trip on the way home from the final (Q&A) session of the Better Course. I may not get all the details correct here but the essence of the question is the same. It came as a result of the topic of forgiving as we have been forgiven and the consequences of unforgiveness:
Fair according to whose standards? Ours? God doesn't judge based on our standards. You didn't elect him as your Judge and you cannot remove Him as your Judge. You were made by Him and He is the only one in the whole universe who knows you, your intentions, as well as your actions enough to give you a truly fair trial. In the time one stops kidding oneself and takes a good long look at your life, ceasing to excuse oneself based on the behaviour of others, no matter how seared and calloused you could have made your conscience, then comes the realisation, be it faint at first and louder the more we listen, that a "fair" trial would be bad news for us. The good things we have done do not take away from our bad deeds. No one is rewarded for keeping the law, by doing what they know they should have done anyway. They were only ever what we should have done anyway, and we weren't all that good at doing those things either. Fair would be to condemn all parties for the sins they deserve. And it may very well be true that God takes as grevious the thoughtless calling out of "Oh my God!" "Jesus!", etc. to express disgust than he does the murder of another human being, who is made in the image of God. Who knows? But that's the impression I get when I read what He has revealed in Scripture. At any rate, "God will not hold anyone guiltless who takes his name in vain" is clearly promised.
I don't think it's useful to hold onto an imaginary hypothesis, when we have something much closer to home that's real and concrete. Besides, I'm quite sure that God is tired of being treated like a hypothetical idea. (I treated Him as such for years while claiming to keep an "open mind", "saying prayers", etc. all the while my search for God never expected to actually find Him. I never expected it to come to this, but it has. He found me.) God is God and Truth is Truth regardless of what we think of it. God does not put before you a hypothetical idea but reality. You aren't called upon to answer for others, but yourself. You, not another, are put in the spotlight. He rolls over the boulder of "what I'd rather not think about" and reveals the snakes living underneath. Ever told a lie? Then you're a liar. Ever stolen something? Then you're a thief. Ever lusted? Then you've done the deed in your heart. Ever misused God's name?..
Sinners are squirmers and as such, Truth makes us uncomfortable. An encounter with the Truth lets questions be asked that we would have previous squirmed away from, and causes us to admit our guilt without making excuses. God knows you, the event and the situation better than you do, anyway. The warnings of hell and condemnation are not for others, but for you, whose eyes now read this. Want to see what your sins deserve? Then look at a beaten, spat upon, whipped, tortured man nailed to a cross. Likewise, the offer of forgiveness, is for you. Want to see your sins forgiven? Look to the cross, and the empty tomb.
It doesn't make sense that God would punish His Son so that the guilty, such as you and me, could go free. Much that is true doesn't make sense, especially love and forgiveness. But it is what God does. Humans, being made in the image of God, only begin to realise their humanity when God Himself begins to live within them. Not as a vague memory or hypothetical idea but a new heart and spirit. It is Christ's life they live, and He who forgives those who do not deserve to be forgiven through them. Let me say this again: It is not the fact that we forgive that makes us forgiven, but the forgiveness and eternal life we have received which does the forgiving. Forgiving for the Christian may be extremely difficult, as the dishonest, squirming sinner which they still are does everything it can to resist the life of God being lived out, but it is also inevitable, if one is truly in Christ.
Again, let's not stick with hypothetical examples but concrete ones. For example, Gladys Staines, who chose to forgive those who burnt to death her husband and their two young sons. Christ lives in her. May He also live, and forgive, as brightly, through us.
Christianity, if true, then presents the following situation as true: A man murders another man. The murderer comes to see his wrong, and casts himself on the mercy of God in Christ, and God forgives him, remembering his sin no more. Yet at the same time, the victim's family are unable to forgive the murderer. The murderer is seen by God as innocent, being covered in the righteousness of Christ, and is welcomed into heaven. The sins of the victim's family, though as we perceive it, not as serious as murder, are retained and they are condemned to hell.
It doesn't make sense. It's not fair.
Fair according to whose standards? Ours? God doesn't judge based on our standards. You didn't elect him as your Judge and you cannot remove Him as your Judge. You were made by Him and He is the only one in the whole universe who knows you, your intentions, as well as your actions enough to give you a truly fair trial. In the time one stops kidding oneself and takes a good long look at your life, ceasing to excuse oneself based on the behaviour of others, no matter how seared and calloused you could have made your conscience, then comes the realisation, be it faint at first and louder the more we listen, that a "fair" trial would be bad news for us. The good things we have done do not take away from our bad deeds. No one is rewarded for keeping the law, by doing what they know they should have done anyway. They were only ever what we should have done anyway, and we weren't all that good at doing those things either. Fair would be to condemn all parties for the sins they deserve. And it may very well be true that God takes as grevious the thoughtless calling out of "Oh my God!" "Jesus!", etc. to express disgust than he does the murder of another human being, who is made in the image of God. Who knows? But that's the impression I get when I read what He has revealed in Scripture. At any rate, "God will not hold anyone guiltless who takes his name in vain" is clearly promised.
I don't think it's useful to hold onto an imaginary hypothesis, when we have something much closer to home that's real and concrete. Besides, I'm quite sure that God is tired of being treated like a hypothetical idea. (I treated Him as such for years while claiming to keep an "open mind", "saying prayers", etc. all the while my search for God never expected to actually find Him. I never expected it to come to this, but it has. He found me.) God is God and Truth is Truth regardless of what we think of it. God does not put before you a hypothetical idea but reality. You aren't called upon to answer for others, but yourself. You, not another, are put in the spotlight. He rolls over the boulder of "what I'd rather not think about" and reveals the snakes living underneath. Ever told a lie? Then you're a liar. Ever stolen something? Then you're a thief. Ever lusted? Then you've done the deed in your heart. Ever misused God's name?..
Sinners are squirmers and as such, Truth makes us uncomfortable. An encounter with the Truth lets questions be asked that we would have previous squirmed away from, and causes us to admit our guilt without making excuses. God knows you, the event and the situation better than you do, anyway. The warnings of hell and condemnation are not for others, but for you, whose eyes now read this. Want to see what your sins deserve? Then look at a beaten, spat upon, whipped, tortured man nailed to a cross. Likewise, the offer of forgiveness, is for you. Want to see your sins forgiven? Look to the cross, and the empty tomb.
It doesn't make sense that God would punish His Son so that the guilty, such as you and me, could go free. Much that is true doesn't make sense, especially love and forgiveness. But it is what God does. Humans, being made in the image of God, only begin to realise their humanity when God Himself begins to live within them. Not as a vague memory or hypothetical idea but a new heart and spirit. It is Christ's life they live, and He who forgives those who do not deserve to be forgiven through them. Let me say this again: It is not the fact that we forgive that makes us forgiven, but the forgiveness and eternal life we have received which does the forgiving. Forgiving for the Christian may be extremely difficult, as the dishonest, squirming sinner which they still are does everything it can to resist the life of God being lived out, but it is also inevitable, if one is truly in Christ.
Again, let's not stick with hypothetical examples but concrete ones. For example, Gladys Staines, who chose to forgive those who burnt to death her husband and their two young sons. Christ lives in her. May He also live, and forgive, as brightly, through us.
