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God-Talk

Some Christians can be heard saying something like this: “That should have been me up there on the cross, instead of Jesus. He paid my penalty and purchased my salvation.” This shows an intense gratitude for Jesus’ heroic life and death. It shows both a reverence for Jesus, who was sinless, and an awareness of one’s own sinfulness.

Unfortunately, the comment also implies a very troubling concept of God. It assumes that God demanded death as a payment for sin, but was fine with letting God’s innocent Son suffer that death on behalf of others. It assumes the existence of some law that there must be vengeance, even if the guilty parties are not the ones who suffer the vengeance!

Think of what this actually says about God the Father! It means that all God cares about is that somebody suffer for sin, even if it is an innocent person. Why such a violent setting for salvation? The answer that is commonly given is that God was unable to offer salvation until someone “paid the price,” which assumes that God cannot forgive, that God must obey some law that demands punishment (or else that God created such a law). It is also diminishes God to a transactional relationship in which salvation is bought through the suffering of another.

This is a terrifying choice. If God could not forgive sin until a sacrificial payment was made, then God would be subject to a law that is greater than God. That would make God weak. On the other hand, if God would not forgive sin until a human sacrifice was made, then God would be cruel, demanding a terrible retribution, but satisfied to have it directed against the one person who is truly innocent. This would not really be God, would it?—at least not the God of Jesus’ teaching.

Have we been projecting our human, material ideas upon God, and then defending them without checking to see if they really fit with what Jesus himself taught? Remember what Jesus said about the Father, both in his sayings and in his stories (parables). Jesus taught that God both wants to forgive and save people, and is able to do so: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). God is genuinely forgiving and inviting, and need not be persuaded. Salvation is God’s own gift, freely given. The door is wide open, and God invites us in!

Salvation is the most important subject. Jesus was always extending salvation, revealing God’s nature, and working to build the family of God on earth. What did he say about God’s attitude toward us, and how we get saved?

The Outrageous Generosity of God

Consider the parable of the Prodigal Son. First we must know that the conventions of the time said that fathers had status and honor, and that sons were supposed to be respectful and obedient. In the parable, the first act of disrespect is when the younger son impatiently demands his inheritance. That is rude and selfish, but the father goes ahead and gives him his share of the property (Luke 15:12). The son takes it, goes off, and behaves badly, ending up in poverty, having to tend swine. What a shameful situation for a Jewish young man! He has an awakening and makes up his mind to return and beg forgiveness from his father. He carefully works on his apology speech, which will include a heavy dose of self-humiliation. He plans to say “I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands” (Luke 15:19).

He sets off for his father’s home, and when he was still far off, “his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him” (15:20). He is delighted to welcome his long-lost son. The son starts to give his self-shaming speech, but the dad doesn’t even want to hear it. He needs no apology, no humiliation, no admission of guilt! It seems that he interrupts the son, orders the servants to bring out the best robe, a ring, and sandals for the young man, and a fatted calf to be slaughtered for a feast (15:21–23).

The father whom Jesus pictures is shockingly forgiving. He is not at all concerned with his own image, reputation, authority, or even his honor. He runs to greet the son, and never asks for any expression of submission or shame. In fact, he showers honors upon him. Jesus knew how surprising this image of an astonishingly kind and forgiving father would be. Even today, it is more than many believers can accept. A father who would embrace his irresponsible son without shaming or scolding him is still very counter-intuitive for many people.

When the other son, the self-righteous one, refuses to join in the joyous celebration, the father says “we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life” (15:32). In other words, “don’t you get it? I am forgiving and loving. You need to forgive and share in the joy of your brother’s return. Stop being so joyless and judgmental! I am not about assigning blame, inflicting punishment, or demanding submission.”

This goes against the beliefs that many people have about God. Many assume that God must be authoritarian, demanding, and punishing. They take it for granted that strength must come with violence. But Jesus goes out of his way to shatter that idea, to show that God is energetically loving, and is strong enough to forgive, to heal relationships, and to change human lives. God embraces, gathers together (John 11:52), seeks out and saves the lost (Luke 19:10), does not set out to punish, but simply to save! God is love (1 John 4:16).

Jesus tries to get people to accept that God is extraordinarily kind and inviting, but this is too radical for many to accept. How can there be no payment system, no repentance schedule, no penance imposed upon either the prodigal son or upon us? And yet, Jesus shows that salvation is available to anyone—even to a bratty son—who sincerely turns to God.

Sincerity is the key. This story does not teach that it is all right to be lazy and irresponsible. The parable only works if we assume the young son is honest, and his repentance sincere. Dishonesty is spiritually fatal. There is no salvation for the insincere, the pretender who is trying to get cheap forgiveness for evil behavior, but will actually go on misbehaving. It is doubtful whether a habitual liar can be saved at all: “the liar will perish” (Prov 19:9). Jesus’ message of mercy is not meant to remove the necessity of moral seriousness on our part. But it is helpful if this seriousness is love-motivated rather than fear-motivated. One does one’s best for a beloved parent because of love, not from anxious fear of punishment. If we truly love God, we will not be lazy, but will exert every effort to follow God’s way, seeking to embody God’s spiritual values. To understand the parable, one must have some of the same honesty and sincerity that the young son has.

Sometimes it is hard for us to accept the unconditional kindness of God. It may go against what we have learned. But if we open our hearts sincerely and learn about God’s love, then we can understand what is meant by this: salvation is God’s gift, not paid for, but freely granted. Jesus gets this message across by showing the father in the story being so generous, and demanding no payment through penance or suffering. There is no retribution, no punishment, only restoration and rejoicing.

God’s generous desire to save is also the point of the nearby parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin. “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4). Is Jesus saying the shepherd will neglect the ninety-nine? Of course not. He is using this exaggerated imagery to show that one “sheep” really matters, and the shepherd will go out and rescue that one! God cares for each individual person. There is “joy in heaven” when the one is found and recovered (15:7).

Similarly, a woman who loses a coin will sweep the floor, light the house, and search until she finds it, for there is value in the one coin (15:8–10). There is value in the one human being. The three parables in Luke 15 show God seeking out the lost to save them, without any punishing, scolding, or making anybody “pay.” The emphasis is on God’s love and generosity.

Jesus went out of his way to try to convince people that the Father is loving, all wise, abundantly forgiving, and provides a way for us to grow Godward. But people always find it hard to accept new ideas without mingling them with some old and unexamined ideas that they are carrying around. This happened with the early Christians as well.

One of these old ideas (held by Gentiles as well as Jews) is that justice requires retribution. A recent book by Ted Grimsrud shows how Jesus rejected the common belief that wrongdoing has to be met with violent retribution. He argues that “the logic of retribution” is still “deeply ingrained in the religious consciousness” of many Americans who assume that “God’s holiness or honor” has to be “satisfied” through some act of retribution against sin.2 Grimsrud points out (as I will) that Jesus heals and saves people simply out of God’s desire to make them whole, and without any accompanying theology of retribution. When he shows compassion to people, he is showing them God’s compassion, but they are slow to learn, even the ruler of a synagogue, to whom Jesus says: “ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” (Luke 13:16). He is trying to get the ruler to see that God cares so much more for this woman’s real needs than for rigid Sabbath rules!

But people were constantly misunderstanding Jesus, especially his own apostles. Jesus had to scold James and John when they asked if they could call down fire upon Samaritan village, in retribution for their lack of welcome (Luke 9:52–55). He worked tirelessly to wean the apostles from their biases and misconceptions. How often do we allow our material and earthly concepts to diminish our understanding of God?

Let us look into this by digging more deeply into the biblical record. By the way, this does not imply that I consider the Gospels to be flawless records, like tape recordings, but I do consider them to be largely reliable reports.

1. I am using the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) for Bible quotes, except when otherwise indicated.

2. Grimsrud, Instead of Atonement, 5, 7.