One key objection people bring to Christian faith, especially to classical Western theology, is that the very idea of God punishing people rankles.
Somewhere in our intuition it just feels unfair, I guess. We don’t really want anything to do with a God who seems unjust — but the system of justice seems to require an elaborate suspension of disbelief, as I was writing about last week.
Take, for example, Heidelberg Catechism Question 14. (I spent 2013 blogging on this venerable standard of Reformed theology in honor of its 450th anniversary. I became convinced that it is a fantastic conversation partner for 21st century people learning to “speak Christianity,” so I’m still at it.) Here it is in full:
14 Q. Can another creature — any at all — pay this debt for us?
A. No. To begin with, God will not punish any other creature for what a human is guilty of.
Furthermore, no mere creature can bear the weight of God’s eternal wrath against sin and deliver others from it.
The answer assumes a particular picture of humanity in relation to God.
- There is an “economic” component — we are in debt to God.
- There is a “criminal” component — we are guilty and deserving punishment.
- There is also, above all, a “dramatic” component — we are the struggling hero of an epic story.
The debt and guilt are ours and we are in a world of hurt.
That is the scene we are to bring to mind. The Catechism doesn’t elaborate or defend it here. Actually Heidelberg (and most of Western Christianity) inherits this scenario from the Medieval theologian Anselm of Canterbury.
Now, if you don’t think our situation before God this way, just work with me for a minute. Suspend disbelief so that you can see how the Catechism is trying to respond to our issue with God’s justice.
So temporarily accepting that we are in debt and guilty… notice how the Catechism tries to show that God is fair about it
First, God won’t punish anybody that doesn’t deserve it. That’s what lies behind the statement that no other creature, even an innocent creature, can take it for us. We can’t pawn off our problem on, say, a goat, or other sacrificial animal. The debt and guilt are human problems.
Second, this problem of our debt and guilt is not only our problem. That is what lies behind that plaintive last line: we human creatures aren’t able to handle the punishment. This creates a problem for God.
If blind justice were the only concern, then the punishment would simply be unavoidable. If it is too heavy to bear, then we get squashed — so be it.
That is why it is a great epic drama. God cares about us — we are the protagonist, and God loves us. The observation that we can’t bear God’s wrath points to God’s concern, God’s compassion.
God won’t put up with raw dispassionate justice. God is going to find us a way out.
God’s intervention to solve our crisis has a name. Spoiler alert: That name is Jesus, fully God and fully human.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments:
Do you think God is “just”? Do you think God is “fair”?
Does it make a difference to see the story of our salvation as a great drama?
————
If it doesn’t seem unfair to ask, I’d love it if you shared the post using the buttons below.
If you want it even more dramatic, just highlight any quotation to share it on Facebook or Twitter. (Thanks to AppSumo’s “Highlighter” app.)
Hey, brother — good to hear from you. How did I miss your blogging on the HC (my FAVORITE in the BoC, tied with Barmen) last year???
“Fair or just?” Hmmm. I think that, since most Scripture translations I’ve read avoid using the former term in favor of the latter (and because I’m not aware of any connotations of “fair” that are not encompassed in “just”), I’ll focus on “just.” Is God just? Absolutely. Not only because 1) Scripture clearly and repeatedly testifies to such, but also because 2) were God NOT just, then it seems that the vast majority of Christian theology would collapse for want of a foundation. I’m reminded of the pithy set of definitions: Justice is getting what you deserve (i.e., punishment); Mercy is NOT getting what you deserve; and Grace is getting what you DON’T deserve (i.e., abundance and blessing). While the definitions are a bit glib (and a bit wanting in nuance), they nevertheless point to the fact that, without justice as a “benchmark,” the concepts of Mercy and Grace are utterly meaningless. Mercy and Grace only have meaning insofar as they are measured against the requirements of justice. Consequently, we cannot speak meaningfully of God’s mercy and grace without first acknowledging, and accepting, God’s justice.
At least, that’s my take on it. 😉 Great to see your post.
Hey, Brint, wonderful to hear from you! If you want a full dose of those Heidelberg posts you can click on the tag in this one — I have about 50 of them in the system. I’d love to hear your thoughts on old ones or new ones any time.
Yes, “fair” is my own addition to the much more technical term “just.” It is the common term in our culture, and judging by my experience of parenting, kicks into the vocabulary about age 3.
To your list of pithy definitions should we add “‘Fair’ is getting what you want?”
Come back soon!
Do I think God is “just”? Yes…mentioned throughout much of the Scripture (and I think in particular the OT this point is stressed) is the idea that God is just. the word ‘just’ or ‘justice’ is mentioned nearly 600 times in scripture (according to Bibleworks). ‘Love’ or ‘loved’ is mentioned slightly more in scripture as well (same resource)…so I think that one could extrapolate the importance of our God being Just.
I agree that some people do believe and ask ‘How could a loving God condemn people?” One answer is that God is just. A possible next question is, “Is that really fair?” Again yes, God is fair, because God knows things more deeply and intimately that humanity will ever grasp I believe.
Humanity tends to be short sighted in this regard of considering ‘just’ and ‘fair’, myself included. I am reminded of a parable of Christ explains this relationship well. When the owner of a vineyard comes to the town center and hires workers throughout the day. From dawn to almost dusk, the owner hires people for an agreed upon wage.
When it comes time to settle the wages of the day, the first receives the pay and the last person to be paid, the one who toiled the longest in the hot sun, receives the same wage as the worker who worked an hour only. Of course that person grumbles and stamps, because it offends his sense of just and fair behavior. I often sympathize with the 1st hired because I put myself in the owner’s position and the 1st hired and I reflect “I do have the capability to be generous, and that worker appears to have worked very hard, I should reward that”. That is a product of my shortsightedness and lack of complete understanding of the relationship between the two concepts. There may be things I do not know, see, witness, or have wisdom to discern.
To the last question, yes, it helps to see our salvation as a great drama. That is why Jesus often taught in parables and stories. That’s why we use Christ’s story as “Moral Exemplar”. That’s why we testify through the Holy Spirit and asked to share our “story about God’s glory”.
Praise be to God, who is both wonderfully fair and just and determines these things, and it is a constant prayer of mine to have that discerning ability to be fair and just in all that I am. Praise be to God for dispensing fair and just behavior in grace and mercy, like Brint mentioned.
Thanks for your reflections, Stuart!
You are surely right that Scripture portrays God as just, and that Scripture portrays justice as a key component in the great drama of our existence and salvation.
I guess my question is whether God “seems” just in his doings in the world and in the way salvation comes to us.
If not, of course, one has to consider whether our feelings about the matter … er … matter.
Is God fair/just? As I read one of the posts (brint), I caught on to his three definitions of justice, mercy and grace. This is to me a real good analogy. God to me is just in providing us the Grace (giving me what I dont deserve), for if he were not just in doing so then I’d have no way to be “not guilty”, as I am very much guilty, and sadly all the time!