Re: ASSIGNMENT 7

God's Justice

Deconstructionist version of John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world.”

Liberal theologians might eliminate the part in John 3:16 about God giving his only begotten son. They’ve grown more and more uncomfortable with God’s justice – e.g. with the idea that we need Jesus to die on the cross for our sins (see Col. 2:13-14 - “canceling the record of debt that stood against us”; Rom 3:24-25 – speaking of “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood”). They do not like the idea that God can condemn us for being sinners. So many would also love to eliminate the part in John 3:16 indicating that people will “perish” if they do not believe in Jesus (see Mar. 16:16 – “whoever does not believe will be condemned”).

For two reasons which I will discuss below, I believe eliminating all elements of God's justice from John 3:16 also requires that we eliminate any promise of eternal life from the verse.

First, a major problem with such a deconstructionist view is that God’s gift of eternal life is found only in the son who died for us. (1 Joh. 5:11). You can't have the gift without the son who died. So eliminating the atonement, an element of God’s justice, also eliminates our only means of accessing eternal life. If Jesus had not given himself for us on the cross, we could not have his life. This is why in John 12:24-28, Jesus remarked about his impending death on the cross, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. . . . what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.”

Furthermore, the gift of eternal life involves many elements of God’s justice in addition to the atonement. I'll give just one more example: upholding covenants. Our ability to receive the gift of eternal life is contingent upon God keeping his promises (see 1 Joh. 2:25). But we cannot expect God to care about keeping promises unless he is just. That’s because only a just God would be concerned with upholding promises and covenants (see Deu. 32:8 – “a God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He”; Hos. 10:4 – discussing God’s judgment against the Israelites for swearing falsely in making covenants; Gen. 17:10 – instructing Abraham to keep the covenant between God, Abraham, and Abraham’s offspring).

The Mercy of God

God is as merciful in the Old Testament as he is in the New; and he is as just in the New Testament as he is in the Old. This is so because God does not change his mind (Num. 23:19). Thus, he has always been both just and merciful, and he will always be both just and merciful.

We have clear evidence of God’s mercy in the Old Testament: Gen. 19:16, when God was merciful in sparing Lot; Exo. 34:1-7, when God was willing to give Moses the Ten Commandments again despite the fact that the Israelites had turned away from God at the very moment that he gave the commandments the first time; here, God also called himself “The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…”; and 2 Sam. 12:13, when “Nathan said to David, ‘The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.’” (God gave David another chance after David was clearly in the wrong for committing adultery with Bathsheba and then having her husband killed).

We also have clear evidence of God’s justice in the New Testament: Mar. 16:16, “whoever does not believe will be condemned”; 2Pe 2:1-10, saying “there will be false teachers among you, . . . bringing upon themselves swift destruction. . . . Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels . . . if he did not spare the ancient world . . . if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction . . . then the Lord knows how . . . to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment” (This is a great passage on God’s justice and mercy – I’ve removed the parts about his mercy to demonstrate his justice in the New Testament); Mat. 10:15, when Jesus says, “it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town (referring to a town that rejects the gospel).