If God is Love, if God forgives us, why does God seem to insist on punishment for sin? Can he not just let it go? Why does sin have to be punished? Can God not forgive without having to have some sort of vindication? And if sin does have to be punished, why is the consequence of turning away from God death? Could there not be a less drastic consequence? If God is Love and therefore allows us our choices, why does he punish us if we choose not to respond to his Love?
Every choice we make entails consequences. The consequences of some choices are neither here nor there, for example what food to choose from a menu or whether to watch TV or a movie instead. On the opposite end of the sliding scale, the consequences of other choices significantly affect and shape our lives (and the lives of others), for example who we choose to marry (or not), where we choose to live or which career we choose to pursue.
Choosing to remain turned away from God (to whatever extent), choosing to act according to the sinful strongholds in our lives and according to Satan’s pattern, is to choose significant consequences.
The Bible does talk about punishment.
Sometimes when the Bible talks about punishment, it actually talks about consequences. Because God is Love he has to allow us our choices, which includes the inevitable consequences of those choices.
Death is the inevitable consequence of what happens when we are turned away from God. Just as we are unable to receive God’s Love while being turned away from him, so we are unable to receive his Life. Death is the absence of life. The ultimate consequence of sin is death because we will never be able to receive God’s Love and the Life that stems from his Love if we remain turned away from him if we persist in rejecting him. It is really important to understand that it is not so because God is so angry with us that he is rejecting us or because a particular sinful act merits a drastic punishment. It is so because where God’s life is absent there is death and any sinful act carries with it the hallmarks of death. When we live turned away from God (to whatever degree), when we act accordingly, when we sin, something dies and we empower the enemy to act against us.
There are times however when the Bible does talk about punishment and about what God chooses to do in the face of man’s individual or collective rejection of God or in the face of actions that blatantly oppose God’s way of Love. If God is Love however, when he chooses to punish, he is not doing so out of vengeance, to vindicate himself or because he has an overly acute sense of requiring “justice” to be done. I believe that because God is Love, he forgives liberally and unconditionally and not only after justice has been done. But because God is Love he chooses not to turn a blind eye when our actions and attitudes fly in the face of who he is, of his character. In that sense he cannot leave sin unpunished.
Perhaps looking at it from a parenting point of view helps us to understand where God is coming from. Parents love their children with a deeper love than they ever thought possible. When the children choose not to listen to the parents’ instruction and they disobey, sometimes there is an inevitable consequence, for example a cut from a sharp knife. Sometimes when they choose not to listen to the parents’ instruction, parents impose a consequence. A good parent allows punishment not because they feel hurt and want vindication, not because they want to get their own back, or because they want the child to know just how upset they have made the parent, or because they want justice above all. A good parent is actually incredibly selfless. Good parents allow punishment in order to help the child learn, in order to enable to child to understand the significance of their action and in order to help the child mature into an adult who can exercise self-discipline and live a life of integrity.
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