Too many people have not made the transition from the Old Testament to the New Covenant, from pure Judaism to Christianity and as a result there’s way too much confusion. The transition is a big one too: from crime and punishment to grace and mercy. Why is it that we can’t see the importance of making this lifestyle move?
Richard Rohr put it this way, “We want God for the sake of social order, and we want religion for the sake of social controls.” And thus the church unknowingly (some know surely know it) practices a game of “sin management” or what might otherwise be called the cosmic game of crime and punishment.
The Old Testament is full of stories, metaphors, and examples of the crime-punishment scenario.
The New Testament is full of Jesus living a life of grace and mercy. A woman is caught in adultery and he simply says go and sin no more. A woman who feels she is unworthy and is one to be shunned, being a Samaritan with multiple husbands, Jesus engages, loves, and forgives. Lepers whom the social community shuns, Jesus embraces and heals: on the Sabbath day no less.
Listen, life takes care of all of our stuff without a “Cosmic God” needing to be involved. It’s called karma!
The message that Jesus brought, that by the way is called GOOD NEWS, is that God is LOVE. God is forgiving, merciful, kind, compassionate, and so much more. And yet Sunday after Sunday the message from the pews is REPENT. Hey, I’m all for the “repenting process”, but within the context of love not punishment. Repent because God so loved the world, repent because God is so-so good, and repent because love compels it, not because I’m going to get punished if I don’t (by God).
Give up the game of “Crime & Punishment” and enter the life of grace and mercy- the GOOD NEWS!
I agree that God is love and He is long-suffering and puts up with a lot. It’s certainly true that love covers a multitude of sins and I am very grateful for that! God is our Father and like any good, loving parent, He reserves the right to touch our lives with judgment for our own good if we decide to persistently and stubbornly go our own way. In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul warns God’s people if they insist on being immoral, impure, covetous, etc., the wrath of God may come upon them. (Eph. 5:3-7) He echoes this statement in Col. 3:5,6. The writer of Hebrews gives us the heart of God on this issue. “If you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, them you are illegitimate children and not sons…All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful, yet to those who have been trained by it, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” (Heb. 12:8,11). God desires His children to be conformed to the image of His son, (Rom. 8:29) and His love does allow for the possibility of loving judgment when in His infinite wisdom it is necessary.
The words “judgement & wrath” don’t fit for me: they usher in the exact concepts of crime and punishment that I feel have led us to miss the mark. Loving correction and guidance- sure! And GRACE, yes wonderful grace. My emphasis is God’s grace and that was what Jesus majored on and proclaimed to be GOOD NEWS! When the church begins to make that the model, the world will take notice. Preaching hell simply doesn’t move people to transformation.
Knowing Our Father the way that I DO know HIM..It is just
plainly impossible for me to picture HIM angry and judging HIS Children ready to punish them if they don’t do “good”
My Wife and I have three kids, never, never we had to spank
them or get mad at them and when we look to their eyes, I AM
so proud to say it, I see nothing but the PURE LOVE OF GOD !
PURE CONCIOUSNESS !
If we see God as a parent that rewards and punishes, He will be that to us. If we see him as infinite love, that he will be as well. We can see God in so many different ways that it seems as if we begin worship our concepts of God as God itself.
Instead of crafting a God in accordance with our wants, needs, failings and the like, could we dare to expand our vision for even a moment, and allow God to simply be God, absent all human qualities and traits? His way are not ours, and I am thankful that God transcends our own reward/punishement systems.
Rather than having God be us in our own world, why not allow ourselves to be God in God’s world?
God is obviously WHO we SEE Him to be- whom the culture has said He is and unfortunately our Midwest fundamentalist culture has crafted Him out of a book that’s deemed infallible and thus whatever IT says is what IT (He) IS- male, angry, etc.
But Jesus……………….