#-993 Is God an Unjust Liar?
April 17, 2018I have a question about God's justice.
The Bible says: "Vengeance is Mine. I will repay."
Suppose there is an abortionist who personally massacres thousands of unborn children.
If said abortionist repents on his death bed and prays a prayer of salvation, what happens?
My understanding is that the abortionist would make it to heaven and never pay for all eternity (except that he would receive fewer rewards than a person who spent a lifetime doing good works in the name of the Lord).
I don't see the justice in that. I don't see the repayment.
In fact, I can't help the feeling that such a lack of repayment (his brutalization for generations, at the very least) makes God into the most cynical and outrageous liar.
I understand the Sunday school answer about Jesus paying his dept as substitution. But that is not an emotionally or intellectually satisfying answer to me.
How will he, the child abusing monster, actually personally suffer? Will he ever suffer? If not, how can I trust a God who lies in such an egregious and unforgivable way?
Stephen
United States
Dr. craig’s response
A
Goodness, Stephen! Would you make God a liar when he says,
If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved. The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and bestows his riches upon all who call upon him. For, “every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10.9-13)
You’re right about one thing: “I don't see the justice in that.” That’s because it’s not justice! It’s grace!
The Bible says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God— not because of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2.8-9). The wonderful news of the Gospel is that God does not base our salvation on our works.
Just think what you are implying. What sort of God would God be if He just folded his arms and refused to forgive and save someone who turned to Him after a life of sin in sincere repentance and faith? Such a being would not be a God of grace and love, such as God is. Do you think that God would really send people who truly believe in Him to hell?
The passage that you quote is out of context. In context, Paul is saying that we should not seek vengeance ourselves when others do us wrong, but trust things to God: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’” (Romans 12.19). Paul also taught that those who have come to Christ Jesus for salvation are no longer under the wrath and justice of God but are under His mercy and grace.
Does that mean that some sins go unpunished? Not at all! Any biblically adequate theory of the atonement must include the motif of Christ’s penal substitution. As our proxy before God, Christ bore the punishment that we deserved, thereby meeting the perfect demands of God’s justice and affording us the possibility of a divine pardon. The genius of a penal substitutionary atonement theory is that it fully satisfies both the justice and the mercy of God without compromise.
This is not a “Sunday school answer” (what a condescending expression!), but Paul’s answer, as well as Luther and Calvin and Wesley and a host of other theological giants’ answer. You say that you do not find it “intellectually satisfying.” In that case, I recommend to you my book Atonement and the Death of Christ (Baylor University Press, 2021), which defends the theory in light of modern philosophy of law and justice. Probably more significant is that you do not find it “emotionally satisfying.” That is a red flag, Stephen, indicating that you do not have an adequate understanding of the depth of your own sin and condemnation before God or an adequate appreciation of the depths of Christ’s love and of God’s grace that reaches out to us and saves us regardless of our sin. These red flags are indicative of a spiritual hardness that you need to address. Rather than marveling at and reveling in God’s grace to you, you are pointing the finger at others and resenting God’s forgiving them. Meditate on what Paul wrote in I Timothy 1.15-16:
The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the foremost of sinners; but I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience for an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
Then you will come to rejoice in the salvation of a repentant abortionist.
- William Lane Craig