The Problem of Forgiveness, Part 2 June 13, 2011
Why can’t God just overlook our sins? Or why can’t He just do kind of like we do with each other and say, “It’s OK. I forgive you”? Paul addresses this exact question in Romans 3:5-6:
“But,” some say, “our sins serve a good purpose, for people will see God’s goodness when he declares us sinners to be innocent. Isn’t it unfair, then, for God to punish us?” (That is actually the way some people talk.) Of course not! If God is not just, how is he qualified to judge the world? (NLT)
If our God is just–and He is–then He must exercise His justice sometime! He cannot possibly just overlook our sins forever or offer a quick “I forgive you” like we do with one another. No! He is just, the upholder of justice and righteousness in the universe.
Isn’t this exactly the kind of judge we want to judge the world? We need to know that justice will be done for victims of the Holocaust and the genocide in Sudan and Rwanda. We naturally want a God who is going to bring justice against the wealthy who hoard their money while so many go homeless and hungry in this country. We need to know that the sex crimes against children in America and on a massively unthinkable scale in Southeast Asia are going to be prosecuted with justice.
The God of the Bible is not like Allah, who is called “the Most Just, the Most Merciful” but who has no means to be both at once. Either Allah must be just and thus punish sin or he must be merciful and let it go, but he cannot do both. Why? Because Islam offers no sin-bearer!
This is what makes Christianity distinct from Islam and every other world religion. We believe in a cross where God’s justice and His mercy are simultaneously expressed. The center of our faith is not mercy “per se.” It is the atoning sacrifice of God’s Son, which allows God to be both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom 3:26). The cross allows God both to punish sin and to forgive sinners. Because of the cross, He can call the guilty “clean,” and the cosmic problem of forgiveness is solved once and for all.