God seeks to do what can be done to make things right with us. God does not wish to punish us. God certainly does not desire us to suffer eternal perdition (cf. 2 Ptr. 3:9). God loves the world and all that is found in it (cf. Jn. 3:16). Through that love, God will do all that is possible to help us, to save us, even from ourselves and our rejection of divine love itself (that rejection is seen in and manifested by our sin). And because of that love, when God judges us, God does so, not to condemn us, but to reveal the truth of our lives to ourselves. That is, God makes sure we cannot hide ourselves from ourselves, hide the truth of our actions from ourselves, but rather has us confront them so that we can then determine what we truly want to be in all eternity. It will be done for our own good, to help us become aware how we have closed ourselves off to grace and hurt ourselves so that we can then be ready to truly accept all that God has to offer us. Or, as Christos Yannaras wrote:
God is not the “judge” of men in the sense of a magistrate who passes sentence and imposes a punishment, testifying to the transgression. He is judge because of what He is: the possibility of life and true existence. When man voluntarily cuts himself from this possibility of existence, he is automatically “judged.” It is not God’s sentence but His existence that judges him. God is nothing but an ontological fact of love and an outpouring of love: a fulness of good, an ecstasy of loving goodness. [1]
God seeks our salvation, but will not take away our free will. No matter how much we sin, no matter how much we turn out back on God, God, with such great love and compassion, will give us the chance to repent. We were made for the kingdom of God. We were made to participate in the divine life. We were made for theosis, but we have gone astray. We have hurt ourselves; we have lessened our potential with our sin. But God makes sure sin does not have to have the final say. God’s grace can heal the wounds caused by sin. We can go back. We can have what we lost. We can, indeed, have what we were meant to have.
It is because God had such love for us that we have been given our freedom. However, such freedom comes with responsibility. If we abuse it, we can and do hurt ourselves, indeed, even hinder our own freedom through our actions. Is that not what we do when we create for ourselves bad habits which we find difficult to break? And so, while sin weakens us, yet even in that weakness, God loves us and comes to us in Jesus, willing to share with us all the love and grace we need to overcome all the consequences of sin. God comes to us in our weakness, in the midst of our bad habits, and reveals to us, through grace, we can still realize our full potential. This is one of the many takes we can have from Paul from the book of Romans. “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6 RSV). No matter what we have done, no matter how far we have gone astray and become, as it were, “ungodly,” God’s love for us continues.
We might consider ourselves to have become enemies of God, and yet even then, God is looking out for us, showing us love and compassion. That is because God does not see us as enemies, but rather, God sees us with the goodness given to us at our creation and through that goodness, God considers us as one of the beloved. God shows us this in and through the incarnation, for in the incarnation, the God-man offers himself to the whole of humanity, allowing humanity to do with him as it will. God allows the sin of humanity to reveal itself in such activity, to play itself out and come to its end, for then, once it has come to its end, then reconciliation can be made between us and God. Such reconciliation was needed, not because God stopped loving us and so needed something in order to love us again, but rather, because we lost our love for God and turned our back on God; that is, we needed God to do something to order for us to take notice so that we can reestablish our own love for God “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Rom. 5:10 RSV).
If we can find that love rekindled in us, it is thanks to Jesus and what Jesus did to make that happen. Jesus established the way in which humanity, indeed, the rest of creation, can find its way back to unity with God’s love, and through such unity, find its proper place in the kingdom of God, experiencing the divine life for itself. This is what salvation is about. It is about restoring what was lost to us because of our sin, that is, due to our abandonment of divine love. Sin causes its own punishment. This is because when we turn our back on God, we cut ourselves from the grace which is found in God’s love. And yet, thanks to sin, we feel as if we are being punished by God, that is, we do not perceive God’s love, but instead, think God is showing us great wrath. In truth, such wrath is not real, it is a delusion which has us misinterpret and misunderstand God’s love. We must keep this mind when we read Paul saying: “Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Rom. 5:9 RSV). We are saved from God’s wrath because there is no such wrath, there is only the delusion of such wrath; our sin, however, will make us continue to experience reality as if God were angry with us, and so, saving us from our sin, we are saved from the delusion that sin brings to us, the falsehood which suggests God is angry at us and does not love us. In reality, it is not God, but our own self-created judgment and punishment which we experience thanks to our sin, and so we are saved, not from God’s wrath, but from ourselves. God shows us, through Jesus, that God is love, and God desires us to experience that love for ourselves. Certainly, we will have to face the consequences of our actions if we do not turn back and work with Jesus, repairing all the damage our sin has caused, both to ourselves, and to others. Jesus makes sure there is always a way, there is always grace being offered to us, so that the last word does not have to be given to sin.
Jesus, even before his death, before showing us how far God is willing to go to help us see that love, explained that God is always acting on our behalf, giving us the goods which we need:
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, `What shall we eat?’ or `What shall we drink?’ or `What shall we wear? (Matt. 6:30-31 RSV).
The more we turn away from God, the more desperate we will get, the more we will feel great anxiety as we wonder what is in store for us for the future. We will feel the weight of our actions and the consequences that they bring. But the more we open ourselves up to God, the more we will realize God is love, and the more we will trust in God and God’s providence. This does not mean we should expect things to magically go well in the world. We still have freedom. We still make choices and act upon them, choices which will bring about various consequences with them. We will likely make bad decisions, and in and through them, cause some kind of suffering in the world, either for ourselves, others, or both. But we will also turn it over to God and God’s love. We will let God’s love, not our failure, have the last word. We will know that all such suffering is conditional and limited, but God’s love is unconditional and unlimited. This is why we can trust and hope in God so that in the end, in the eschaton, we believe we can and will experience the fullness of love, and in that fullness, see and experience how all things end up being well, that indeed, God, through grace, has made a way so that all will be well.
[1] Christos Yannaras, The Freedom of Morality. Trans. Elizabeth Briere (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1984), 36.
Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook.
If you liked what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends and family!
N.B.: While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In