Many people struggle with the idea of a God of Love bringing punishment. How can a God of Love punish, even destroy, those he loves? We often think that a God of Love should not be a God who punishes.
When the Bible talks about punishment, it often does so in relation to judgment. Judgment is when God allows man his ‘final answer’ and so also the consequences that come with it. God’s judgment on someone is their punishment. Every time God punishes, he judges our choice in the matter.
Humanly speaking we find it very difficult to separate punishment from the sense that the person wronged is seeking justice or vindication or making someone suffer for the hurt they have caused. I wonder if it is so because (or when) we look at it in a legal, transactional way. Looking at punishment in a relational context, for example in a parent – child context, sheds a different light on it. There, punishment is more about correction than about vindication or justice.
If God is Love, if that means he is not able to act in any other way but out of Love, then when God punishes, it is always in a relational context. God does not punish because he is hell-bent on justice (excuse the poor pun!), or because God wants vindication, or because God is power crazy. When God punishes, it is because it is time for judgment, time for the ‘final answer’ in relation to someone’s response to God. The Old Testament is full of examples of this.
Judgment is simply the consequence of the choices we make in relation to God’s Love, our response to God’s love. If there are different outcomes to our choices, a God who is Love must ultimately allow our ‘final answer’ and bring judgment. For a choice to be meaningful, and not simply a response to stimulus, God has to allow different outcomes for the choices we make and ultimately allow the consequence of the choice. There has to be a point at which an objective judge would say this choice leads to this outcome, and this choice to another. Love and judgment then are not incompatible but inevitable consequences of one another. Because he always acts out of love he has to judge. (As does a good parent).
I'm reading through the OT at the moment, and it's a good balance to think of judgement as being a natural consequence rather than God being power crazy or whatever. Thinking of it as God being so completely holy that he can't even look on sin therefore has to punish - no choice. It's good to think it through, because the OT certainly is a challenging read!
ReplyDeleteLoving your blog lovely lady! xxx