-John 3:16
You run into a lot of problems when you try to remove aspects of God's character that you find uncomfortable. With justice for example, you cannot remove this attribute of God without removing God's other attributes because they are all linked together. God is perfect and all of his attributes work together in absolute harmony. Removing one forces you to start removing others and ultimately leaves you with no God at all. In John 3:16, you see God's justice, love, mercy, and promises(among other attributes) working together perfectly. God loves us(he wants the best for us) and he is merciful enough to give us something we do not deserve. He does this by giving himself in order to be perfectly just and in doing so he also gives us the promise of eternal life. Thats what John 3;16 is all about.
However, if you remove the aspect of God's justice from the equation everything else falls apart as well. God is just in that he removes the sin problem that we have. The problem that is keeping us from God. If God is not just then this problem is not taken care of. If sin is not taken care of then we cannot enter into a relationship with God and hence we cannot have eternal life, which is a relationship with God(John 17:3). So when you throw out justice you must throw out eternal life as well. This then leads to the next problem, if God does not intend to deal with the sin problem in our life then he clearly does not want what is best for us. Clearly we are perishing because of sin. We are like children who are constantly punching ourselves in the face. Just as the loving father of that child would stop the child from continuing hurting himself so God would deal with the problem of sin in our lives if he truly loved us, if he truly wanted what is best for us. So now we have to throw out the love of God as well, without justice, without God dealing with the sin problem, there can be no love.
Finally we come to mercy. This we must also get rid of. Look at Psalm 62:12. "Also to you, O Lord, belongs mercy: for you render to every man according to his work." God is merciful enough to discipline us according to our works. He gives us help in overcoming the sin problem that we have, he gives us help that we dont deserve. However, in this new version of John 3:16 this is not compatible. God is not helping anyone overcome the problem of sin. He is not being the merciful God that we know him to be who graciously gives us the help that we need, the help we dont deserve. Mercy too is now gone.
So what are we left with. We are left with some God who is not just, merciful, or loving, and a God who will not give us his promised eternal life. We are left with a God who is so wrapped up in sentimentality that he sits back and watches as we destroy ourselves because he does not want to offend us or hurt our feelings by dealing with the problem that we have. We are left with a God that is going to let us have everlasting bliss OR what we THINK will be everlasting bliss. We think that doing WHATEVER we want for ever and ever will be everlasting bliss and thats what we want God to do for us. We dont realize that in reality this kind of future would be everlasting perishing and destruction. But it doesnt matter because in this eternal "bliss" God declares us all to be our own gods and disappears from the picture to leave us in ruin and destruction. But unfortunately that is exactly what we REALLY want when we try to take away God's justice.
Question #2
God does not change, he simply reveals more and more of himself and his eternal plan to us as time goes by. Many people read the terrifying stories of the Old Testament where entire civilizations are destroyed by God through the Israelites and instantly think that God cannot be merciful. They then read the stories in the New Testament of the compassion of Jesus and declare that God cannot be just. They do not realize that it is the same God in both Testaments and that his justice and mercy work perfectly together throughout the entire bible. You can clearly see God's mercy in the OT in multiple places. One example is Amos 7, where God relents from pouring out his judgment on Israel multiple times. You can clearly see God's justice in the NT on the great white throne in Revelation 20, as well as passages in Matthew 25, and 2 Thessalonians 1. God has not changed and he will not change no matter how much we think he has or how much he ought to. He is merciful, he is just, and he is perfect and we should worship him for it.
However, if you remove the aspect of God's justice from the equation everything else falls apart as well. God is just in that he removes the sin problem that we have. The problem that is keeping us from God. If God is not just then this problem is not taken care of. If sin is not taken care of then we cannot enter into a relationship with God and hence we cannot have eternal life, which is a relationship with God(John 17:3). So when you throw out justice you must throw out eternal life as well. This then leads to the next problem, if God does not intend to deal with the sin problem in our life then he clearly does not want what is best for us. Clearly we are perishing because of sin. We are like children who are constantly punching ourselves in the face. Just as the loving father of that child would stop the child from continuing hurting himself so God would deal with the problem of sin in our lives if he truly loved us, if he truly wanted what is best for us. So now we have to throw out the love of God as well, without justice, without God dealing with the sin problem, there can be no love.
Finally we come to mercy. This we must also get rid of. Look at Psalm 62:12. "Also to you, O Lord, belongs mercy: for you render to every man according to his work." God is merciful enough to discipline us according to our works. He gives us help in overcoming the sin problem that we have, he gives us help that we dont deserve. However, in this new version of John 3:16 this is not compatible. God is not helping anyone overcome the problem of sin. He is not being the merciful God that we know him to be who graciously gives us the help that we need, the help we dont deserve. Mercy too is now gone.
So what are we left with. We are left with some God who is not just, merciful, or loving, and a God who will not give us his promised eternal life. We are left with a God who is so wrapped up in sentimentality that he sits back and watches as we destroy ourselves because he does not want to offend us or hurt our feelings by dealing with the problem that we have. We are left with a God that is going to let us have everlasting bliss OR what we THINK will be everlasting bliss. We think that doing WHATEVER we want for ever and ever will be everlasting bliss and thats what we want God to do for us. We dont realize that in reality this kind of future would be everlasting perishing and destruction. But it doesnt matter because in this eternal "bliss" God declares us all to be our own gods and disappears from the picture to leave us in ruin and destruction. But unfortunately that is exactly what we REALLY want when we try to take away God's justice.
Question #2
God does not change, he simply reveals more and more of himself and his eternal plan to us as time goes by. Many people read the terrifying stories of the Old Testament where entire civilizations are destroyed by God through the Israelites and instantly think that God cannot be merciful. They then read the stories in the New Testament of the compassion of Jesus and declare that God cannot be just. They do not realize that it is the same God in both Testaments and that his justice and mercy work perfectly together throughout the entire bible. You can clearly see God's mercy in the OT in multiple places. One example is Amos 7, where God relents from pouring out his judgment on Israel multiple times. You can clearly see God's justice in the NT on the great white throne in Revelation 20, as well as passages in Matthew 25, and 2 Thessalonians 1. God has not changed and he will not change no matter how much we think he has or how much he ought to. He is merciful, he is just, and he is perfect and we should worship him for it.
Corey,
ReplyDeleteYou and Matt brought out some good points that I hadn't thought through much - i.e. how throwing out justice also throws out love and mercy, and makes God appear to be weak.
One lingering question a skeptic might still have after reading this blog is why does God need to be just? Don't we all need to learn how to forgive?
I'd add that God must establish justice to respond to the cries of the oppressed against the unrepentant oppressors. It is easy to argue against justice when you're on trial, but not so much when you're the victim of injustice. Consider David's words:
Psa 58:10-11 - The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked. Mankind will say, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth."
Corey,
ReplyDelete1. I liked your post, and thought you got to the point with it. However, I will remark about a side issue: The primary application of justice in John 3:16 is the death of the Son for our record of sin (which is a judicial breach). However, overcoming sin (which you mentioned) is a matter of sanctification. No doubt believers utilize the blood of Christ for their continuing walk and fellowship, but you want to watch mixing the idea of eternal salvation and spiritual growth. Failure to believe in Jesus will result in the lake of fire. Failure to overcome sin will lead to discipline and loss of reward, but not to the perdition spoken of in John 3:16.
2. Fine verse choices. It would have been a bit better if you had teased out some of the verse content, though.