Chapter 6:

Divine Justice and God’s Holiness

 

 

 

“I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”  Romans 9:15

“I will do to them according to what they deserve.  I will judge them; Then they shall know that I am the Lord!”  Ezekiel 7:27b

 

            We live in a day and age where we as humans feel like we deserve good things.  We have this idea that we’re pretty good and that God’s pretty good.  I’m ok, God’s ok, we’re all okay!  We have inaccurate ideas about God’s holiness, as well.  The center of our theology comes from the way that we view God, and one thing that I’ve noticed, particularly with reference to Arminian theology is that I find this requirement which people place on God that he save everyone and that God does His absolute best to save everyone.  This is a very nice thought, but the reasoning I hear for this thought is that it just wouldn’t be fair if God didn’t try to save everyone if He could save everyone.

            I can understand this line of thought because I once felt the same way.  The problem I noticed with myself in this line of thought, however, was that deep down I didn’t really think God was Holy.  I didn’t really think that God would punish people, even if they were disobedient to Him.

            When I first became a Christian, I decided to read through the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  I was so pumped!  Genesis was very interesting, Exodus was exciting, I was so glad to finish the last chapter of Leviticus.  When I got about six chapters into Numbers, I gave up.  The Bible lost its flair and its excitement.  I was so focused on finishing Leviticus rather than reading Leviticus, that I missed the overall theme of the Old Testament.  Actually there are two overall themes: 1) Jesus; all prophecies point to Him; and 2) The Holiness of God.

            In Leviticus 10, Nadab and Abihu offered profane fire before the Lord.  This seemed strange to me, but I continued reading.  The next thing that happened was that God consumed them with the fire, killing them on the spot!

            After He killed them, God said:

                        “By those who come near Me, I must be regarded as holy;

                        And before all the people I must be glorified.”  (10:3)

            I was mixed with confusion, anger, and a thousand other emotions when I read this.  This was not the God I knew!  My God was a God of love.  The God I knew would have said, “Now guys, you’re supposed to use the fire over here, not that strange fire…  Here, I’ll show you how.  Oh, you guys can’t do this.  You’ve been drinking again!  Why don’t you go get some sleep, drink a little coffee, get sobered up, and tomorrow I’ll show you how to do this right, okay?”  Instead of being patient and longsuffering, God just took them out!  In fact, they died a horrible and excruciatingly painful death!  I had done a lot worse things before!  Once again, my God comfort zone was being intruded into by a bigger more powerful God.

            One of my favorite expositions in Romans 9 is by Martin Luther.  With regard to the verse (9:15) where God say, “I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion,” Luther appeals to God’s independence and also God’s justice.

 

(God’s) free will, which is subject to no one, cannot be unjust.  God’s will would be unjust only if it would transgress some law, (and that means God would go counter to Himself).  This statement seems cruel and hard, but it is full of sweet comfort, because God has taken upon Himself all our help and salvation, in order that He alone might be wholly the Author of our salvation.

 

John Calvin also offered an exposition of the same verse in his commentary on the letter to the church at Rome.  “By this oracle the Lord declared that He is debtor of none of mankind, and whatever He gives is a gratuitous benefit, and then that his kindness is free, so that He can confer it on whom He pleases.”

I love these two quotes so much, not because they are Calvinistic or because they support my idea, but because they are such a refreshing departure from the “cheap grace” (to use Bonhoeffer’s phrase) which we hear so often shared by pulpits today.  When I have spoken with Arminians, I often tell them that God owes none of us life and that God can condemn whomever He wants to, since all have sinned and fallen short of His glory.  They wholeheartedly agree, but then they shriek with disgust at the idea that God would actually condemn someone who is wholly deserving of a horrible death and punishment.

You see, they operate under this first presupposition.  They presuppose that God would never actually execute his judgement on sinners without first giving them a chance to escape.  The human side of us says that that seems only fair.  It tells us that all humans are worthy of dignity and love and that God could only be exonerated from our death and punishment if He provided every chance possible for people to escape before he finally executed his wrath.  (As though God needed to be exonerated for demonstrating His holiness and justice upon sinners!)  But in our humanness, we feel better knowing that God did everything possible and that in reality it was just our fault.

But then, reading this story (once again humanly speaking), we are shocked.  We say there must be a mistake or something, because God gives as many chances as possible.  But that is not the case with everyone.  We see with Nadab and Abihu that God wholly presents Himself, not as a God of love like everyone likes to see Him.  Instead He shows future generations through the scriptures, that He is also an angry God, a wrathful God, a God who punishes sin.  He seems to suddenly turn into a monster before our very eyes!

The truth is that God does not transform in this passage like the Hulk  or anything like that.  No, God is always the same, as James says, “he does not change like shifting shadows.”  The author of Hebrews says that Jesus Christ is the same “yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”

R.C. Sproul tells a story in his book The Holiness of God.  In the experience he relates, Sproul tells of a time when he was a college professor.  At the beginning of the school year he told his students that they would have three research papers to turn in throughout the school year and that he would not tolerate late papers.  On the day that the first paper was due, of his two hundred students, ten begged him for mercy saying that they had been busy and giving excuses.  Because of this, Sproul let them turn the paper in late.  When it came time for the second paper to be turned in, twenty-five students did not have the paper finished, and once again he granted them an extra day.  But when it came to the third and final paper, fifty students didn’t have the paper finished.  When Sproul asked why, they just nonchalantly shrugged it off saying it was no problem and that they’d get the paper in tomorrow.  Sproul became angry and asked, “Didn’t I say I would not tolerate late papers?  I’m giving you all zeros on your papers because you ignored my warnings.”  The class screamed that he wasn’t being fair, protesting rather loudly.

You see?  They were so used to receiving mercy from the hand of Dr. Sproul that when he decided to actually stay true to his word, the class was shocked.

So what am I saying?  I am saying that we take God’s grace for granted, seeing His grace as the norm.  Because of this, when God’s wrath is demonstrated, we are utterly astonished and shocked to the core.

Grace, by its very definition, is not necessary.  It is not required.  In fact, if grace were shown to everyone, how much would those who received the grace appreciate it?  It is for this purpose that God did not save everyone, as Paul says in Romans:   “What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that he might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory?”  (Romans 9:22-3)  As believers, we are vessels of His mercy.  Observe the wicked, whom God allows to receive justice, being thankful for your salvation!  God has allowed them to perish so that 1) His holy justice might be upheld, demonstrating His holy character and intolerance of evil, 2) We (vessels of mercy) might see His righteousness in the destruction of the ungodly and love Him all the more for freely (not by compulsion) choosing to save us.

 

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