Theology for Everybody: RomansSample

Paul addresses the third common objection to Christianity in Romans 3:5–6: “It is unloving and unrighteous for God to punish people.” The apostle deals largely with more of an emotional struggle some people have than a mental one. These people simply feel a God of wrath who punishes people in hell sounds terribly unloving and even unjust.

The truth is everyone wants God to judge human behavior, but we aren’t willing to wait for Him to do it. We set up little thrones on social media and judge the world. When someone steals from us, abuses us, cheats on us, or in any other way harms us, then we get angry, report them to someone in authority, and expect justice.

Our hypocrisy is that we don’t want to be judged similarly. This is the problem with humans. We tend to see our transgressions as less damaging and less hurtful. We often feel we have good reasons for the harm we cause others, especially in comparison to the harm they cause us. It’s become very popular today to talk about everybody else’s sins but not ours. When we have failures, we blame everyone and everything else. It’s their fault we aren’t perfect.

I recently had an interesting conversation with someone who regularly protests in the streets for justice from the government and police. He shouts things he sees that are wrong and demands they be made right. I also know this man has a child with another woman and does not pay his child support or spend any time or effort to invest in his own child.

Since we want justice for ourselves, what’s wrong with God wanting justice for Himself? God will judge everyone. But He has graciously given us a way to escape the payment for our sins by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to be judged in our place on the cross. Jesus did something extraordinary—He took all our unrighteousness and gave us His righteousness. He took our death and gave us His life. He took our separation from God and gave us reconciliation with the Father. Jesus endured God’s wrath so we could receive His love. God is more loving than anyone! If we reject this kind of offer, then we subject ourselves to eternal judgment, and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Today’s Reflection

Do you sometimes struggle with the false notion that God is unloving or unjust to any degree?