god is just

I've been thinking about this blog post for a while now. I have a weird tendency to want to be marcionistic when it comes to faith. It is so much easier to reconcile Jesus and the New Testament, as opposed to the Old Testament.

For those of you who don't take Historical Theology in your off time, Marcion was considered a heretic because he viewed two separate gods in Scripture.

The Old Testament God was vengeful, wrathful, and desired blood above all else. He would be the unapproachable, strike-you-with-lightening-bolts type of god. This was Yahweh.

The New Testament God was a lovely, sweet, kind-hearted God who forgives all and came to appease the Old Testament scary God. This was Jesus.

This is all according to Marcion. (PS-- Try pronouncing his name out loud. I could just say it over and over... Marcion. Marcion. Sometimes I wish I spoke French).

While I can clearly see the heretical and false theology in Marcion's argument, when I read Scripture, I can't help but side with him, even just a little.

On the surface, it does seem like two opposing gods. Two opposing canons. Two opposing dispositions.

But when you dig deeper, you see how completely wrong Marcion was.

Over the last several months (since like, November), I have been listening to the Bible on my iPod in my car. starting with Genesis... allll the way through to Revelation. I am not going to pretend like this is a daily occurrence. Sometimes, I'll go a week or two without. It isn't always the easiest or most attention grabbing thing to do whilst driving.

But on this reading (listening-- by the way, listening to a British women read through Numbers is definitely the way to go), I have really been focusing on how fluid and whole the entire canon really is. God is the same from Genesis to Revelation-- despite what the surface may tell you.

My Marcionic tendencies would read about God striking down hundreds of thousands of people, and gasp-- slamming my Bible shut, my eyes darting around the room hoping no poor unbeliever read that passage with me. That isn't the God I claim to serve. That isn't the loving, sweet Jesus who called me his friend. Where did these people get this garbage?! I would tiptoe around these passages, even ignore them alltogether.

I would read about Jesus serving the poor, healing the sick, loving the marginalized. How in the world could that be the same God? For a while, I even told people that I just ignore the Old Testament because it is so confusing. Just call me Jessica Marcion.

But what I didn't understand, what I was missing, was the concept of justice. To be just is to be righteous, lawful, and fair.

God is just.

People claim to desire justice, but really, if we all deeply wanted justice, we would be condemning ourselves in God's eyes. According to his law, we are completely bound in sin. We are completely of this world. We are slaves to sin-- according to Paul in Romans 6. If God was completely just, we would all be headed to hell in a hand basket (I have absolutely no idea what that expression means). So yes, without Jesus as our substiutionary atonement, God does seem wrathful. But that is his justice. He seeks justice. He offers nothing in its place.

But, as recorded in the New Testament (and prophesied in the Old), God sent an atoning sacrifice for our sins. He sent his son, to die... once and for all... in place of our sins. God no longer sees sins upon his children, but he sees Jesus. So after Jesus lived, was crucifed, and rose again-- a physical, God with skin on-- the Immanuel, we are no longer slaves to sin. But instead, we are slaves to righteousness. We are slaves to God's justice. But don't worry folks. God promises that our new master offers only light and easy burdens. That we are freed finally from the oppression of sin, and can actually look up toward God-- seeking santification and righteousness. This grace-- this free gift-- is ours, so that we can avoid the wrath and firey inferno. Ephesians 2:1-10 says it really well. Go check it out.

So no. The God of the Old Testament is no different than in the New. The entire canon just proves God's desire for justice, and his perfect love that he pours out on his children-- through grace and mercy.