LENT: FORGIVENESS, NOT JUSTICE, IS OUR CALLING

In response to the previous post on forgiveness, I received the following question that would not post.

Question: “Part of what makes this sort of forgiveness (lifting the other person's load of injustice) so difficult is that it seems to let the injustice and the unjust person eternally off the hook. Can you comment sometime about whether the forgiven person really does "get away with it"?”

My understanding of biblical teaching:
1) In terms of the human-divine relationship as represented in the atonement system, “Yes.”  Forgiveness is not at all just; it is mercy.  That is difficult.  It is not natural to me to be merciful; I want justice.  However, the Israelite atonement system is not about justice.  (The sacrificial animals were not put to death as a substitute penalty for the one seeking forgiveness.)  Assuming that the Israelites understood the seriousness of the symbolic ritual and their confession was sincere, God allowed the blood of the sacrificial animal to cover/remove the symbolic miasma of sin and restore unimpeded relationship with God.  That is the mercy of forgiveness that we are to show toward others.  (In a sense, asking for forgiveness is asking for justice to be set aside for mercy.  Example: Although Joseph’s brothers are duplicitous when they ask for forgiveness, he does not execute justice in Gen 50:15 – 21.) 

2) Those who remain in a state of rebellion/defiance toward God will not be forgiven – they do not really seek it.  However, their state is not for me to determine. 

3) There are occasions, for example, in which Moses intercedes for the people for breaking covenant, God accedes and maintains God’s faithfulness to the covenant in response to Moses, but there are still consequences for the rebellious people (Exod 32:31 – 38 or Num 14:17 – 25 in which the word “forgive” is salach and probably here has the nuance of “forebear”).  In cases like this “justice” serves its appropriate role for maintaining social order and discipline within the human community – here, the covenant community.

4) Related to #3): Today, within our criminal justice system, we sometimes hear of victims who have forgiven their transgressor but the person still is held societally accountable.  Judges have some, but little, latitude to forgive.  Justice is necessary to maintain social order in a world of chaos.  In that sense, God as a good King (one of many biblical metaphorical titles of attributes), does intervene as Judge for justice on earth, and in eternal matters will always divide good from evil.  However, in our descriptive metaphors of God as a good King, Judge is not the overruling attribute.  That leads to my last thought. 

5)  Well prior to the knowledge gained about the Israelite atonement system through the rediscovery of the ancient Near East in the last 100 years or so, Christians in some theological traditions developed a model of Jesus’ atonement based on a substitutionary, penal, criminal-justice model.  (This has been a successful communicative model since people understand justice so well.)  In this system, there is no mercy analogous to a subject appealing to a gracious king and receiving not justice but forgiveness.  Rather, in this system, Jesus is put to death so that God may be viewed as the just Judge.  The obvious deficit of this model is that it would like a king forgiving his repentant subject only on the grounds of then killing an innocent person (even a self-Triune representative), and all because the king is somehow bound to carry out an abstract model of “justice” and has no freedom to forgive.  More importantly, this is not the model of the Israelite atonement system that expresses God’s nature.  God is not bound by an overruling abstraction of justice.  In the New Testament, in terms of atonement language proper – and not the many metaphors for the salvific work of Christ – Jesus, the Perfect sacrifice, provides the cleansing blood of atonement, expressing once for all divine mercy and establishing “righteousness” (right-relating).  Yes, Jesus dies for all,# just as the Israelite sacrifice was killed for its blood of atonement, but not in terms of some penal, substitutionary “justice.”*

Father, once again, the bottom line is your unfathomable mercy, by which you “cleanse,” “bear,” etc. (the many other biblical expressions) my sins in Jesus in order to restore me back to Life with you.  Help me to show such mercy to others.  Amen.

#If interested, I examine the "died-for-us" texts in “Gathercole’s, Defending Substitution: Why I Am Unconvinced and Concerned,” The Expository Times 129.10 (2018) 458-465.
*Note: NT atonement models should be brought into alignment with the biblical atonement system as we now understand it better; however, this is rather like asking people to exchange their KJV Bibles for ones that communicate in contemporary English.

LENT: FORGIVENESS MUST BE RECIPROCAL

Lent is a good time to think about forgiving other people.  In the closing of the “Lord’s Prayer,” Jesus turns the issue of forgiveness back on us.

“….  And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors….  For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matt. 6:12, 14 – 15, NIV; see, too Matt 18:21 – 35)

Jesus’ words should, must, compel obedience from those who call themselves “Christian.”  The principle is clear: a person who has been brought from death to Life by the merciful grace of God is obligated as a reconciled participant in God’s Life to forgive others.

Why?  It is not possible to receive God’s grace and not be enwrapped in divine transformation.  One cannot sincerely say, “Your Kingdom come; your will be done,” and not be seeking to entrust one’s life to God.  One cannot be a recipient of God’s mercy merely through some ritual of going to the altar, or saying the “sinner’s prayer,” or being baptized, etc.  The reception of God’s grace of mercy and forgiveness means that one is entrusting one’s life to God, is now reconciled to Life, and is being transformed.  [Note: This is why theologies that separate so-called “justifying grace” from “sanctifying grace” misrepresent life with God.]  One cannot sincerely say, “Your Kingdom come; your will be done,” and not be trying to forgive others.

But.  I still find it hard.  As I have shared before,* although there are many biblical metaphors related to forgiveness (e.g. covering our transgression, casting them into the sea) one of the main biblical expressions presents the image that God “lifts/bears” (Hebrew nasa’) our sins.  [Note: Jesus, who as his divine prerogative declared sins forgiven during his earthy ministry, is portrayed by Peter – although combining images of the work of Christ -- as the same God who lifts/bears (Greek equivalent, anaphero) our sins on the cross. (1Pet 2:24)]  This image of lifting captures my difficulty.  Although I vehemently disagree with theologies that reduce forgiveness to a criminal justice procedure, the concept of “justice” is innate to people and helps to explain my feelings.  When someone has sinned against me, it does not feel right or just to discount it as nothing.  For me to forgive, it is like lifting something off the other person and bearing it myself.

I have a mental picture of what my “natural” self does.  I am like a dog owner who holds a treat up in the air and coaxes the dog to jump for it, while holding it just out of reach.  That is to say, my first response is to require the offending person to come to me and “jump.”  On the contrary, I am to see that person as carrying a load; I am to lift it off, bear it, and free the other person.  That is what God in Jesus has done for me.

Lord, may it be so in me.  Amen.

* On Jan. 24, 2024, I wrote a reflection on Psalm 32 on “Sin, Confession, and Forgiveness.”  It is a rich psalm theologically, teaching about the nature of sin, the cost of unconfessed sin, and healing of (public) confession as God “lifts/bears” our sin.

LENT: SIN IS THE GREAT EQUALIZER

Lent is a good time to think about sin.  Sin is what puts me on equal footing with all people.  That is Paul’s message to Jews about Gentiles when he draws on Psalm 14:1 – 3 and 53:1 – 3):

What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.  As it is written:"There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." (Rom. 3:9 – 12, NIV)

When we stand before the Holy God, we are all equal.
Illustration:  If I were to draw a vertical line on a wall and ask people to draw a mark indicating where they would place people they know or know about, with a high mark for good people and a low one for bad people, there would be quite a spread.  But, if I now asked where to put God’s mark, most people realize we would have to extend the line well beyond the height of the wall.  In comparison to God’s place, our marks for people would condense to a single smudge far below.
There is no one in the Church who is beneath me when it comes to sin.  There is no one outside the Church who is beneath me when it comes to sin.  Sin is the great equalizer when we are in the Presence of a Holy God.  This is why the outreach of Body of Christ is to be all inclusive. 

Moreover, contrary to my expectation, based on how I treat others, God does not humiliate me over my sin.  Rather, God humiliates God-self over my sin.  There is a real sense of shame to stand before the Holy God and know my sin, but it is not humiliation.  It is the shame of being offered what I do not deserve.  Instead of humiliation, I find that it is God who has lowered God-self to come close to me and offer a restored relationship.  That is the story of the biblical witness from the Garden to the Incarnation, the Cross, and the ongoing mediation of Christ – God’s self-humiliation.  When through the Person of the Holy Spirit I am aware of the holiness of God and of my sin, I am at the same time aware of the grace of God, that God offers God’s presence and forgiveness.  In the same way, the Body of Christ is present not to humiliate others, but to get down with them and offer grace.

Lord, how can it be, in your Presence I stand in wondrous shame and gratitude, in lowliness and exalted privilege?  This I cannot comprehend.  Still, help me to offer this same mercy and grace to others.  Amen.

REVERSING THEODICY: THE ISSUE OF EVIL AND SUFFERING

Both theologically and pastorally Christians often approach the issue of evil and suffering backwards.  We try to defend the presence of evil.  Despite attempts to seek out an answer, the Bible simply does not explain the reason.  Our first creation account starts with three unexplained symbols of chaos that are contra-life: a formless, empty land engulfed in water and surrounded by darkness.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Gen 1:2-3 NIV; verse 1 is a title/summary)

Our second biblical text about creation starts with a serpent figure, an ancient Near Eastern symbol of chaos:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"  (Gen 3:1, NIV).

For some reason, we cannot bear not having an explanation for the serpent and evil.  For example, people for ages have sought to equate the serpent figure to “the Satan” (Hebrew for "the adversary") and then Satan to “lucifer” (a Latin translation found also in the KJV) a term which is found in a poetic taunt song in Isa 14:12 with a symbolic reference to Venus (=Morning/Evening Star; Hebrew helel = “shining one”), culminating with the supposition that “lucifer” is a fallen angel.  However, the poetic Isaiah imagery apparently traces back Canaanite/Ugaritic mythology in which stars were associated with gods and the god Helel ben Shahar was a punished, cast-down god.  In short, this explanation for the serpent/devil is a remythologized form of pagan mythology!  On a more sophisticated level, various arguments are given for the origin of evil such as the absence of good or the presence of “free will.”

As interesting as the pursuit of the origin of evil might be, my point here is that we need to turn the issue around: Why is there any order and life?  Theologically reflecting, Genesis 1:1 – 2:3 answers the question: God spoke order into darkness and brought forth light; God spoke into the watery deep and brought about an orderly cosmos; God spoke into a jumbled earth and brought about ordered land and seas; and then God created all life.  The nature of our God is that God brings order into chaos.  As ones created in the image of God, that, too, should be our role.

Scientifically reflecting, all life as we know it exists in an extremely delicate balance of order and chaos.  Too much order and all would be “crystalline.”  Too much chaos and everything falls apart.

What about reflecting pastorally?  We all encounter chaos continually.  The maintenance of life is a battle against chaos, from keeping weeds out of garden to dealing with COVID.  On the one hand, living righteously confronts various forms of chaos in our world.  On the other, sin (seeking to be like God) as repeatedly demonstrated throughout the Bible, tips the balance toward the encroachment of more chaos in our lives.  However, in life’s battle against chaos, some people present a witness to something most important.  Some people do struggle against chaos to live righteously.  They produce order and life for others.  And, so many people, who are facing the same forms of suffering and death as all other people, demonstrate a Presence of order and peace in their lives.  Their example turns the question of evil and suffering around to the more significant question: “Why is there order and peace in your life?”  “Where does that order come from?”  That is when the answer is, “Jesus is in my life.”

Main Point: Christians are not called to defend the presence of chaos and evil but to lead people to Order and Life.

Lord, may I seek your order and life.  Until the promised new heavens and earth that will have no chaos, may your Presence of order and peace be in my life as a witness to Jesus.  Amen.

THE OINTMENT AND BLOWS OF A TRUE FRIEND

A faithful friend is necessary for building positive character.  Such a friend does not withhold advice.

Ointment and incense gladden the heart,
And the sweetness of one’s friend is sincere counsel.  (Prov 27:9)

Straightforward advice provides guidance that leads to comfort and gladness.

So, too a faithful friend offers constructive confrontation.

Iron sharpens against iron,
And a person sharpens the character* of his friend.  (Prov 27:17)

At a blacksmith’s forge, the pounding of iron upon iron with intense heat and sparks flying produces a sharpened, more useful tool.  I have had heated exchanges with people who care.

I have been thinking along two lines.  First, I worry about how our society has created such a dearth of meaningful friendships.  Social communication is at an all-time high, but so is loneliness, depression, and despair.  Our use of social media not only keeps us in remote but like-minded groups; but also, the algorithms behind our media encourage messages that attack and demean those on the outside.  Moreover, both with “friend” and “foe,” we are not developing the skills for meaningful face-to-face conversations.  My students tell me they are not even comfortable making “cold calls” over the phone!

Secondly, I have been thinking about how much I need not just the encouraging “oil” of a friend, but also critical observations about myself and “hard” advice, even reproof.  We all have a view of life through the “binoculars” we have developed from life’s experiences, both helpful and hurtful.  We cannot help it; that is how the mind/brain works.  But, that leaves us stuck.  Introspection and non-confrontive counseling cannot reshape my character simply because I cannot see my self-limiting binoculars when I am looking through them.  I need faithful friends who will push me to broaden my perspectives and will push me toward constructive actions.

Lord, I thank you for the confrontations of your Spirit that have come from faithful friends.  I praise and thank you for such godly friends.  Help me to be receptive to those moments, as the psalmist said:

The righteous one strikes me – [it is] loving-faithfulness,
                     And reproves me  [it is] oil on my head.
May my head not oppose [it].^  (Psalm 141:5a,b,c)

Help me, also, to have the wisdom to be such a faithful friend.  Amen.

*Literally “face,” but the face is used figuratively as that which reflects the inner person.
^The next line of v. 5 (d), which I omitted, is something like, “For still my prayer is against their evil deeds” and at first glance is confusing; however, the third-person plural “their” refers back to the people who do wickedness in verse 4 and not to the righteous one (singular) who acts in faithfulness.

PSALM 91:1 SHELTERING UNDER GOD

This morning, I was wondering about the images in Psalm 91:1 and the difference in translation between King James Version and the New International Version; that is, “secret place” versus “shelter.”

He that dwelleth in the secret place [seter] of the most High shall abide under the shadow [tzel] of the Almighty. (KJV)

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. (NIV)

The Hebrew word for “secret place,” seter, can have the sense of a secret, hidden place.  However, its meaning here is illuminated further by its use with tzel.  In the Hebrew, there is a chiastic (reversed repetition) thought structure (A B B A) which puts “secret place” [seter] in parallel with “shadow” [tzel].

[A] The one dwelling  /  [B] in the seter of the Most High

    [B] in the tzel of the Almighty  /  [A] he will lodge.

Since this is parallel imagery, it helps to explore the word shade, tzel.  A good verse that illustrates the protective image of shade [tzel] applied to a person is the sarcastic fable of Judges 9:15:

And the thornbush said to the trees, “If in truth you are anointing me as king over you, come and take refuge in my shade…”

We see it used there as an image of coming under the protection of a king.  So, the emphasis in not so much on secret cover as on protective cover.  In addition, there is a verse that employs these same two illustrative words with other parallel imagery, Isaiah 32:1-2.

Behold, for righteousness / a king shall reign
                                      and princes shall rule   /  for justice.
And each shall be:
     as a refuge from the wind
     and a seter from the rainstorm,
     as channel of water in a dry place,
     as the tzel of a great rock in a parched land.

Here, both seter and tzel are used as images for how a good king serves his people from various harmful forces and dangerous places.  The first two images of refuge and seter are primarily of protective barriers, whereas the second two, channel of water and tzel are a sustaining protection.

Conclusion for Psalm 91:1.  Living under God puts us in a secure, protected position.  Dwelling in God’s “shadow” casts over us a sustaining and protective shade.  I like this imagery.

Lord, that is where I want to dwell, under you, in your shadow, sheltered and sustained by you.  May it be so in my life.  Amen.

CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD: FORGOTTEN ASPECTS

 

Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth." (Gen 1:26 NET)

 Theologians have long debated what it means to be created in God’s image.  However, there is an aspect from the ancient Near East that they have often ignored, one that is important to me.  In that world, a king would claim to be in the image of a god, the state god.  Their images would be displayed to remind the public who was in charge.  The claim to represent that god to the people and the people to that god was a political power move.  [Note: Israel “separated church and state,” when kings were forbidden to take on priestly roles.]

When the Israelites, inspired by God, adopted and adapted ancient creation accounts, they presented a new, radical view of humanity:

God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. (Gen 1:26 NET)

All of humanity, not just kings -- and equally including male and female! -- were created in the image of God.  This understanding obliterates hierarchical social structures in which we find ways to degrade others as beneath us.  (Not that the people of Israel lived up to this divine designation, but it is foundational to biblical creation theology.)  All of humanity, each one of us, is created to represent God.

A second aspect is that, as God has sovereign rule over the cosmos, we have been granted sovereignty over the earth and all life upon it.  What is the model of that sovereignty?  In Genesis 1:1-2:3, God brings order into chaos and light and life come forth – what God sees as “good” (tov).  Our role, then, is to address chaos and all that is contrary to life; that is, to work for order and life, to work for what God calls good.

Application: No matter how minutely theologians want to parse what it means to be created in the image of God, two matters are clear to me.  1) All humans without discrimination are to be honored as created in that image.  2) Taking up that honor, we are to serve our Creator by working for order and life.  There is and cannot be a greater calling than this!

Thank you, God, that I and all those around me have been made to represent you.  Forgive my failures and enable me in the name of Jesus and by the power of the Spirit to honor you by bringing order and life to the world of your creation.  Amen.