Notes From My Phone: Is God Just?


I should start a whole blog series called "Notes from my phone" because that's where most of these ideas have started. (Although a friend of a friend already beat me to the punch.) I've toyed around with the idea of posting some of my notes under a "Devil's Advocate" moniker, but that's not entirely what they're about. Mostly, I've been avoiding blogging recently because even outside of college I feel the pressure to write well/be perfectly articulate, and I just don't have the energy for that on this space that's supposed to be a refuge and release for me and for others who may be just like me. The joy of writing has been snuffed out by the need to perform. 

So as a practice of overcoming fear--and also just because I am genuinely curious and fascinated about this topic and others that I've typed into my phone but haven't been brave enough to share with the world--I'm going to put it out there in the hope and belief that someone might benefit from it. 

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February 25, 2019

Is God just?

What is justice?

That God is fair? That bad people get what they deserve?

Because I don’t think that’s what the Bible teaches at all. It’s not what Jesus teaches, either.

God makes rain fall on the crops of the righteous and the unrighteous alike. The psalms and the proverbs talk about how good things happen to bad people and how bad things happen to good ones. There’s the whole book of Job, about a good and righteous man whose entire life goes to shit. And multiple parables of Jesus about the absurd UNfairness of God—in the return of the prodigal son, in the workers who all received the same wage, in a master who cancels the debt of a man who owed way too much, in a shepherd who leaves the 99 to go look for the 1. Jesus even rebukes his disciples for making similar assumptions in real life about why a man was born blind or why a tower fell and killed 18 people, and when He encountered a woman who had been caught in the act of breaking the Law, He made sure no stones were thrown.

So why do we call God just? (Because he definitely isn’t fair.)

And what’s at the root of our insatiable desire for justice?

To be clear, I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I think justice is connected to love, and love is the essence of God. Wanting things to be made right, to be made as they should be--fair and just and right--is a good desire. A biblical one, even. Isaiah and the prophets call for this often.

The problem is that we don’t take it big enough. We’ve narrowed it down to our selfish notions of justice. We’ve twisted it into an "us vs them" thing, where we demand and assume that all who are different, bad, or wrong will eventually get their just desserts.

But the hope and the promise of the gospel is so much bigger than that. It moves beyond vengeance and petty human strife and longing for comeuppance.

It’s restoring everything—all creation, ALL THINGS—all people, all relationships, all of it everywhere.

Death itself cannot stand in the way. Why do we think that some injustice perpetrated upon us is immune? Can any human or demonic brokenness withstand the consuming love and grace of the One who CREATED IT ALL?

So what about Hell? Is the traditional idea of Hell actually compatible with the gospel or the God of the Bible? Because if the message of the Bible is true, then what could possibly escape the redemption of God’s plan? What could possibly avoid being restored?

Maybe Hell exists. I don’t know. But to argue for its existence solely on the idea of justice is not founded. It just isn’t sound.

I'm not sure what to think about it. But I don’t think it’s as fully concrete as we assume it is. I’m willing to explore other concepts of Hell that don’t clearly contradict the essence and nature of the Divine and what His message is.

And in fact, I’m willing to hope in a story that is even more beautiful. Revenge, justice, punishment, and hate are not as perfectly beautiful or inspiring as a story of forgiveness, life, restoration and reconciliation and the renewal of all things to what they were originally intended to be. Not to eliminate and throw out everything that doesn’t belong, but to transform it until it is molded back into the Creator’s design.

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At the very least, remember that it’s systems and principalities and powers that we fight against. Our enemies are not flesh and blood.

They are not people. Humans. Images of the Divine.

So therefore: true justice should not be about killing this person, or sending that person to prison for the rest of their lives, or condemning someone to hell for all eternity. REAL JUSTICE would look like forgiveness, like rebuilding, like transforming this person who is so broken into one who looks like Christ. Real justice would be casting out the principalities and powers that have a hold on these people so that they are no longer broken. Real justice fixes the problem at the very root of all Creation, the problem created at the Fall, and Restores everything—EVERYTHING—back to the intended vision. It doesn’t just stick a band-aid on and toss babies out with the bathwater.

Justice for Isaac (a staff member on his 96th day of sobriety) doesn’t look like condemnation or prison or whatever else. It looks like recovery in a community that loves him and is teaching him, reminding him, transforming him, discipling him, helping him repent and turn away from drug abuse. It’s restoration at work here and now.

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How is the alternative story "justice"?

And what is it about our idea of justice that we assume makes it a better story?

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He is a cosmic, universal Lord or He is no lord at all.

Likewise, it must be a cosmic, universal restoration or it is no real restoration.

Either God gets what He wants, or He fails, and how can we call Him good?

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Double-checking some definitions:

Justice: (n) just behavior or treatment.

(Thanks, Google. You can't use the word to define a word.)

Just: (n) based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair.

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It’s not the people that smell bad, it’s the smell that smells bad. The people are still image bearers of God.

If sin is a terrible smell that invaded the world, if sin is the dirt and mud and brown paint that we all waddle in, if sin is a disease or a parasite that infects us...then justice (restoration, redemption, whatever you want to call it) involves eliminating the problem of sin itself, never the person who dwells within it.

Yes, get mad at evil. Hate the darkness if you must. It has (temporarily) ruined a good and perfect creation, creating chaos and hurt and pain and Death. It should be destroyed, and we are right to desire justice.

But the narrative of the Bible revolves around becoming free of the burden of sin, becoming unbroken. God has always remained faithful to His people in spite of their adulterous wanderings and sin, and His punishment—His wrath, when it comes—is ultimately reconciliatory in nature, always valuing the imago dei at the heart of His creation, freeing them from slavery and opening their eyes to the blindness they’ve been bound to.

The more I see Jesus, the more I see that He doesn’t hate people, and He condemns people more for their religion than He ever does for their sins. They believe wrongly about God, they’ve narrowed Him down, and that pisses Him off. Our sin does not surprise Jesus; our lack of faith does.

Could it be true that everything we ever hoped about God is right? Could it be true that the Divine is so much bigger than we expected or could ever imagine? Could it be true that God really is extravagantly good and gracious and the very essence of Love itself? Could it be true that the Creator of all things is already pleased with me, already calls me son, already accepts me?

May my heart be open to the possibility that God is good, and that He is good-er-er than all of the doctrines and theologies I use as tools to understand Him.

And may I be willing to see the Divine as something that is infinitely beyond my ability to grasp, but that is already closer than my own breath.

Peace,
--JD

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Sent from my iPhone

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Note: The image for this blog comes from Scott Erickson, a visual artist based out of Portland. I love how his work always challenges me to see things from a different perspective. His website has some awesome things for sale, and the book on Prayer that he recently wrote with Justin McRoberts can be found wherever books are sold. I highly recommend checking him out or following him on Instagram or attending one of his shows. 

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