Some years back, I was debating someone on some aspect or other of orthodox Christianity. Knowing we weren’t likely to get far, the person with whom I was engaged finally said, “Well, I think we can at least agree on one thing. ‘God is love.’”
But alas – I disagreed. I knew that he didn’t believe that God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believed in him would not perish but have eternal life (John3:16). He also didn’t believe that God showed his love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
So when he was saying the words “God is love,” the best he could do was to perhaps imagine a kindly old grandfather of a man, sitting on his throne, pouring out kindness and forgiveness on all of his wonderful grandchildren.
So yeah, not the God I’m talking about. All this time I’d been trying to get through to him that the God I was talking about was one who poured out his love on us through the death of his son on the cross so that we could really draw close to him and know him. Quite basically, the God I was talking about took on our sin so we could have his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).
If my friend had really understood the God of orthodox Christianity, he might rather cringe at the thought that God could be “love.” People quite often forget the rest of God’s attributes – most importantly, his perfection, and that specifically as it applies to his justice. For God to be God, he needs to judge perfectly, and to do that means to pass sentence on those who do not fulfill his standard of perfection in righteousness. And what is that sentence? It is surely not to “let this one slide.” It is an imperfect judge who lets off the lawbreaker with no penalty.
To be perfectly righteous means to be sinless. And to be perfectly just means to demand perfect payment from the one being judged. And this is God’s quandary – how does one “forgive” a sin when payment is being made by the one who cannot afford it? Who is sinless? Me? You? I mean, sure, I’ve told a few lies, but that doesn’t make me a liar, does it? There are plenty of people who are far worse than me in that. It is obvious that, over the course of a lifetime, my goodness outweighs my bad, right? And so the judge must let me off.
But where is the line? Who gets to measure what stacks up as “good” versus “bad”? Bill Gates has given hundreds of millions in charity. Does this mean he gets to kill someone and get away with it? Of course not. There is a penalty that needs to be paid.
On God’s scale, that penalty is death (Romans 6:23a). God’s wrath is poured out upon the unrighteousness of men who can sit there and do the simple (to us at least) act of looking at the world around them and denying that God had anything to do with it – or even worse, denying that God even exists (Romans 1:18-23).
So God “gives them up” (mentioned three times in Romans 1:24-28). He lets them have their own way. And maybe some people confuse that with the love of God. Maybe this is where they think he’s that kindly old man who’s going to let them do what they want. But this is not the end result. Doing what one wants is not doing what God wants. And the cost of living that life – a life that says “forget you God, its my way or none at all” – is death. Not some sweet death where people stand around at your funeral assuring each other that you’re “up there right now, looking down at us with a smile.” This is a death of torment and regret.
So is this your “God is love” God?
If a God who punishes wrongdoing isn’t your thing, then I would say you don’t really understand the God of the Bible. A good, thorough reading of the word cannot be reconciled with a happy, harmless (mostly), grandfather of a God. Jesus himself makes the separation quite clear in his teachings. More than once, he mentions those who are cast out to eternal torment. He distinguishes quite clearly between those who serve in the kingdom of God and those who cling to the kingdom of man – it’s the difference between the sheep and the goats.
And if you think a God who sentences us all to death for our peccadillos is some kind of monster, then there’s no way you’ll get to the true love of God – a love that, despite our rejection of him, still saves anyone at all.
Jesus is the very embodiment of God’s love. To understand how this can be – how this great exchange described in 2 Corinthians 5:21 takes place – is to truly understand how God’s love works. To reject him and his work is to reject God’s love.
