God's perfect love and justice
A young man is brought before a judge for drunk driving. When his name is announced by the bailiff, there's a gasp in the courtroom-the defendant is the judge's son! The judge hopes his son is innocent, but the evidence is irrfutable. He's guilty.What can the judge do? He's caught in a dilemma between justice and love. Since his son is guilty, he deserves punishment. But the judge doesn't want to punish his son because of his great love for him.
He reluctantly announces the sentice: "Son, you can either pay a $5,000 fine or go to jail. "The son looks up to the judge and says, "But, Dad, I promise to be good from now on! I'll volunteer at soup kitchens. I'll visit the elderly. I'll even open up a home to care for abused children. And I'll never do anything wrong again! Please let me go!"
At this point, the judge asks, "Are you still drunk? You can't do all of that. But even if you could, your future good deeds can't change the fact that you're already guilty of drunk driving." Indeed, the judge realizes that good works cannot cancel bad works! Perfect justice demands that his son be punished for what he has done.
So the judge repeats, "I'm sorry, Son. As much as I'd like to allow you to go, I'm bound by the law. The punishment for this crime is $5,000 or go to jail." The son pleads with his father, "But Dad, you know I don't have $5,000. There has to be another way to avoid jail!"
The judge stands up and takes off his robe. He walks down from his raised bench and gets down to his son's level. Standing eye to eye next to his son, he reaches into his pocket, pulls out $5,000, and holds it out. The son startled, but understands there's only one thing he can do to be free-take the money. There's nothing else he can do. Good works or promises of good works cannot set him free. Only the acceptance of his father's free gift can save the son from certain punishment.
God is in a simular situation to that of a judge-he's caught in a dilemma between his justice and his love. Since we've all sinned at one time in our lives, God's infinite justice demands that he punish that sin. But because of his infinite love, God wants to find a way to avoid punishing us.
What's the only way God can remain just but not punish us for our sins? He must punish a sinless substitute who voluntarily takes our punishment for us (sinless because the substitute must pay for our sins, not his own; and voluntary because it would be unjust to punish the substitute against his will). Where can God find a sinless substitute? Not from sinful humanity, but only from himself. Indeed, God himself is the substitute. Just as the judge came down from his bench to save his child, God came down from heaven to save you and me from punishment. And we all deserve punishment. I do. You do.
"But I'm a good person!" you say. Perhaps you are "good" compared to Hitler or even the man next door. His standard is moral perfection because his unchanging nature is moral perfection.
In fact, the greatest myth believed today when it comes to religion is that "being good" will get you to heaven. According to this view, it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're a "good person" and your good deeds outweigh your bad. But this is false, because a perfectly just God must punish bad deeds regardless of how many good ones someone has performed. Once we've sinned against an eternal Being (God) -and we all have-we deserve punishment, and no good deed can change that fact.
Jesus came to offer us a way out of that punishment and to offer us eternal life. Paradise lost in Genesis becomes paradise regained in Revelation. So when Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6), he was not making an arbitrary claim but a statement that reflected the reality of the universe.
To be continued...
Comments (13)
Like the father did for his drunkard son, God satisfies his justice by punishing himself for our sins and holding out that payment for each one of us. All we need to do in order to be set free is to accept the gift. There's only one problem: just as the father can't force his son to accept the gift, God can't force you to accept his gift either. God loves you so much that he even respects your decision to reject him.
I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Athiest by Norman Gesiler
God's love and blessing to everyone at CS! Serendipity
Have fun, Serendipity.
We are free to accept or reject God as we wish. You've obviously made your choice. Belittle God all you like, but you're words no more make God a myth than I make the fact of your existence unreal by disagreeing with your assessment of God.
Have a nice day.
Lord Jesus Christ Son of God,
have mercy on me a sinner.
Jesus, I want to know you. I want you to come into my life. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sin so that I could be fully accepted by you. Only you can give me the power to change and become the person you created me to be. Thank you for forgiving me and giving me eternal life with God. I give my life to you. Please do with it as you wish.Father, I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me,
I wish no more than this, O Lord,Jesus,
Into your hands I commend my soul;
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
for I love you Lord,JESUS,
O God, PLEASE
watch over each step of mine
and guide me.
help me to trust and obey You,ALWAYS
and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands,
without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
For you are my Father.
give me courage and strength. My life is in your hands,my dear Lord Jesus.
Lead me to do your will;
make your way plain for me to follow.
Thank You that i can trust You.Help me to remember these things.
Never ever let me forget, In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Yes, I'm a scientist, so I do tend to look at the world that way.
LW, your paragraphs on space-time and infinity make sense, but I don't want to take over this blog by going into that.
The average Christian is a very nice person, so I don't have any problems with them, but I myself have never experienced faith so it is hard to understand people who do.
Cheers
"Lively Waters and Chameleon, thank you very much for your responses and I'm sure Serendipity will have a response later.
Yes, I'm a scientist, so I do tend to look at the world that way.
LW, your paragraphs on space-time and infinity make sense, but I don't want to take over this blog by going into that.
The average Christian is a very nice person, so I don't have any problems with them, but I myself have never experienced faith so it is hard to understand people who do.
Cheers "
I am a simple man, (forced) went to war at 19 years of age, survived 3 yes three major battles, saw many die and suffer as a result. Also seen men,similar to you, begging His forgiveness while dying. As I said, Im a simple man, but I thank God most days for all the times He spared my life. Good luck to YOU 'mate'
What a lovely prayer my dear sister! I am always delighted to see you here on my blog! Jesus loves you, for nothing can separate you from his love (Romans 8:38-39).
God bless you, always! Serendipity
Lukeon
Thank you sir! I appreciate the thumbs up.
God bless you!
'For all beliefs cannot be equally valid and true. According to the law of non-contradiction...Opposite ideas cannot both be true at the same time in the same sense.'
This is your statement I most strongly disagree with. By definition beliefs are not fact (otherwise we would call it science) and therefore if not factual no one belief or belief system is more valid than any other. If you believe that your Christian beliefs are somehow more 'right' or valid than say, the beliefs of a buddhist for example, well there really is no hope left for us as a species. Can you not see that beliefs are simply that? Your beliefs, not anyone elses.