Fires of Justice and Love

For Christmas, I received a devotional book with the title "Breakfast for the Soul". It contains more than a hundred little devotionals from various Christian authors. The funny thing was Liz found it at the cookery books section in Popular. Brilliant work of sorting indeed.

Today's reading was one by A. W. Tozer. In it he wrote:

"The truth is that God is the most winsome of all beings and His service one of unspeakable pleasure. He is all love, and those who trust Him need never know anything but that love. He is just, indeed, and He will not condone sin; but through the blood of the everlasting covenant He is able to act toward us exactly as if we had never sinned. Toward the trusting sons of men His mercy will always triumph over justice."

As of late, I've been confronted with a few views of God. From what I see, we can either emphasize God's justice or his grace.

When we emphasize God's justice (some would prefer the word "righteousness"), then we have notions of punishment and divine retribution. Over the years, I believe my image of God has been changed from one who is a harsh parental figure to a more loving one. Just last Friday, as usual I went for lunch at a family friend's house. While we were there our host shared with us about two .mp3 files he had gotten hold of a prophecy against Malaysia by an American modern-day prophetess, Nita Johnson. According to her, Malaysians are guilty of the sin of compromise, which has crippled our sharing of the gospel. Thus God is not pleased and intends to punish us for our fault(s). I listened to about 50 minutes of the first .mp3 file, wondering, "Does God still operate - assuming he did in the Old Testament - in this manner? Can all the calamities in this world today be interpreted in the light of chastisement from the heavens?"

To reconcile the beliefs that God is both love and justice, sometimes I think of God as a parent who almost unwillingly disciplines his children. This God punishes the ones he loves with great inner distress, almost saying, "This is hurting me more than this is hurting you!"

But is this a cop-out? Or worse, a distorted picture of God?

Let me quote again the last line of the excerpt from my devotional by Tozer:

"Toward the trusting sons of men His mercy will always triumph over justice."

Is this emphasis on God's love a watering down of the gospel? Is it an inaccurate portrayal of the God who is holy, who is righteous, who is fair and who is just? Is this a God who is like a grandparent, offering candy at every opportunity, forgiving his naughty grandchildren easily and doting on them -- almost to the state of abscess? Is a good God one who just overlooks our iniquities? Is that really good? Is all of this possible simply because Christ died for us and our relationship with God is now no longer the same as before?

Brian McLaren in his controversial book "The Last Word and the Word after That" suggested that after God's "final" word of justice ("The Last Word"), there's always the word of grace ("the Word after That"). How exactly this works out he does not attempt to theorize, but the idea in itself is an intriguing one, one that fills me with a certain amount of hope.

I pray that over time, I shall find some answers as I wrestle with this issue.