He (Jesus) will come again to judge the living and the dead. (The Apostles Creed)
That sounds ominous!
And for many, it is.
Because our view of judges, especially for those of us living in the US, is that of public officials, sitting behind high desks, wearing intimidating robes, banging gavels, passing sentences and pronouncing punishments on wrongdoers.
As a result, our view of judgment is filtered through a punitive or punishment-driven filter.
In essence, punitive justice is punishment that fits the crime; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, etc.
And that’s often what comes to mind when we confess that Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead: One day we will all stand before the high court of God, with Jesus on the bench, dressed in a stark robe, passing sentence on those who rejected him, punishing them by sending them to hell, and welcoming those who received him into heaven.
The case for a punitive Judge Jesus goes something like this:
Question: How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?
Answer: It is precisely because God is good that he sends people to hell. God is a fair judge who punishes evil and rewards righteousness.
God is good, so he must be just.
Goodness and justice are inseparable.
God is just, so he must punish.
God is a righteous judge who will not ignore evil. Hell is the expression of his just punishment against sin.
Hell is fair.
In his goodness, God has provided a way to escape hell at great cost to himself.
Jesus took our punishment (God’s anger) onto himself so that we don’t have to suffer God’s justice.
This view of God assumes that justice is punitive. And since God is just, God must punish.
The starting point for God’s character, then, is God’s anger and wrath. God is hell-bent on punishing our sin so he takes it out on Jesus. Sin must be punished.
Because the foundation of justice is punitive.
Or is it?
What if there is another way to speak of Judge Jesus? What if his justice is not fair? After all, who will stand a chance if Jesus is fair? What if his justice is recklessly unfair (or fair in that it’s recklessly unfair to everyone!), built on the foundation of grace rather than punishment?
Theologian Jurgen Moltmann (In the End—the Beginning: The Life of Hope) raises some challenging questions around our punitive view of God’s justice:
If the judging God is at the centre, no one knows how righteous he or she has to be. Everyone is delivered over to the unknown judgement of God.
If the responsible human being is at the centre, no one knows what future he or she will arrive at, because voluntary human decisions can vacillate.
If the God of wrath is at the centre of judgement, we must despair of God; if the freely deciding human being is at the centre, each of us must despair of him- or herself.
According to both ideas, human beings are really the masters of their own fate, or their own executioners. In both cases the role of God is reduced to that of executor or accomplice of the human being’s free choice. Heaven and hell become religious images which endorse human free will.
The view of a punitive God is a view devoid of hope and good news. It puts all of the pressure onto us, and we simply can’t stand under it. It lacks Gospel.
Thankfully, the Gospel is Good News. Good News about a God who is for us. A God who runs to us in our brokenness and sin and puts us back together. A God who through Jesus uses restorative justice—a justice that puts to rights what we put to wrong. A justice immersed in grace, not anger or condemnation.
In other words, a justice that is radically and recklessly unfair in that we are not treated as we deserve! And that is great news!
You can reach me at Tim@TimWrightMinistries.org