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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Is
Divine Justice Ever Violent? Over the last few years
I have thought much about the various scholarly opinions on what is often
called "divine violence." Many
have difficulty believing a loving God can be violent, as we read in the
Old Testament, the Book of Revelation, and even see in Jesus' human death.
I admit it's a tough issue to work through, and I certainly do not
have all of the answers to completely satisfy me let alone everyone else.
I also admit that knowing the totality of God's essence is way
beyond my human abilities. That
being my admission, I offer to you my simplistic, bottom-line, present
thinking whereby I attempt to develop a theological position on this
issue, if that is actually possible. I believe God is
inherently love. By virtue of
who He is, His natural inclination is to love.
1 John 4:8 reads: "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." I believe God is
inherently just. By virtue of
who He is, His natural inclination is to be just.
2 Thessalonians 1:6 reads: "God
is just: He
will pay back trouble to those who trouble you." Believing that God is
equally love and just, as I do, I maintain that He is as much just as
He is love. You cannot, then,
downplay Him being just in favour of Him being love.
If that is correct, justice demands both an accounting and a
judgment. For me, all God
does, even if it is violent, is based on Him being just.
If God judges one to be
guilty, justice requires an appropriate sentencing.
If He fails in this matter, He denies who He is.
If God judges one to be innocent, justice requires an appropriate
acquittal. If He fails in this
matter, He denies who He is. Such
failures would suggest that He is not really God. The cross of Christ was
both a demonstration of God being just and Him being love.
God being just had to hold humanity accountable for its sin,
resulting in an appropriate sentence.
On the other hand, God being love, which requires sacrifice,
compelled Him to sacrifice Himself for the unjust.
He was born into a human body, lived a perfect righteous life
that ended in His violent sacrificial human death on our behalf. The cross of Christ was in fact a demonstration of God being both
just and love, but there is more. The cross of Christ did
not make God less just. Those
who reject His sacrificial act of love and justice must justly be held
accountable and sentenced to Revelation's metaphoric Lake
of My simplistic,
bottom-line, present view is that God is both inherently love and
inherently just, as He, not I, defines love and justice.
Knowing that it is impossible for Him to violate these two
character qualities gives me some satisfaction, even if some of His
judgments are violent. So,
despite all of my unanswered questions, I have come to a believable
understanding that the God of the Bible is the ultimate, universal,
trustworthy, loving and just authority.
I have, therefore, no logical choice but to trust my life,
including my questions, with Him.
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