Rethinking What We've Believed

            I want to tell you a story – this is “a big story.” I think you agree after you’ve read it. 

           One of my adult children has a friend who, while she was in our home, broke something very valuable in my house. As much as I hated it, I had to tell her that she owed me for the cost of the thing she had broken. It wasn’t a pleasant situation for anybody but she broke the thing and it is what it is.

            Months passed and she wouldn’t pay. Finally, I took the necessary steps to recover my loss legally. Before the day came for me to recover the debt she owed me in court, my own child came to me and said, “Dad, I don’t want you to sue her over this. I know she owes you, but this is my friend, somebody I love.”

            “I know, but she owes me the money. To pay it back is only fair,” I answered.

            “Yes, but this is my friend,” my daughter answered.

            While I appreciated her compassion for her friend, the situation was what it was. In the end, my daughter paid me what her friend owed me and I forgave her friend’s debt. The odd thing is that the “friend” of my daughter never even thanked me. Can you believe that? I was that kind to her and she didn’t even appreciate it? So much for showing her mercy.
            Okay, let’s stop. I can’t continue. I'm feeling disgusted even writing about that. Here’s the truth: It never happened. I made up that story to illustrate a point.

            What kind of feelings did that story evoke in you as you began to read it? Did it affect what kind of person you perceived me to truly be? Did you think it was horrible for me to take a legal approach toward a problem in which the relationship should have been the most important thing to consider? Did you see the foolishness of me saying that “I forgave her friend the debt” when, in fact, the debt had been paid by my daughter? Did you think it was ridiculous that I would even suggest I showed her mercy?

            Why is it that we can see the absurdity of this sort of thing when it comes to people but, on the other hand, have no problem believing these very things about God? Here’s the beliefs of many, many Christians today:

1.     Mankind broke something important to God (His command not to eat from the forbidden tree) and as a result owed God something for it.  God hated that but, “it is what it is.”

2.     Humanity had to pay God for what we did. “That’s only fair.” (We’re told that somehow God’s “justice” demands payback.)

3.     Jesus steps up on behalf of the friend (mankind) and pleads our case, finally paying back God what He was owed so that we no longer owe the debt and God will be satisfied.

4.     Now, we’re supposed to thank God for His kindness and mercy for forgiving the debt that Jesus paid.

It’s insanity. Some offer their parroted response, “God’s ways are not our ways.” It the description above was correct, that response would be true. And I’d respond to it by saying, “You’re right. God is meaner than I am.” But it’s not true; not at all.

This Western World theology of retribution has created a concept of our Father that is totally demonic. Think of it: Satan has been able to cause much of the church world to believe that, although Jesus is a nice guy, His Father is one demanding deity who was so ready to fling His rage into us with a vengeance that He couldn’t rest until He could discharge (get it out of His system) that anger in some way.

There is another way to see God the Father. It’s how the early church saw Him before Anselm came along at the end of the 11^th century and detonated this blasphemous bomb of penal substitution – the idea that God punished Jesus instead of us.

Jesus did take our place and was punished by sin, not His Father. As I’ve said, “there is another way to see God the Father.” It is a theology of affection. It would be a great thing if we all were willing to consider that there may be another way of seeing things – a way that is consistent with the teaching of the Bible and the understanding of the early church.

Sometimes this sort of post can trigger an instant reaction from the “Save The Sacred Cow” group, but remember this: “Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish”  - Proverbs 18:13. Most people have never seriously studied or considered views that contradict what they’ve been taught and believed all their lives. Do we want to know the truth, or not? Don't take anybody's word for it. Study. Pray. Learn. You have the Teacher who will guide you into all truth. What is He saying about the Father of Love?