Spirituality Column No. 507
August 2, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

By Bob Walters

“And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy.” – Micah 6:8

Seven hundred and fifty years before Christ, the minor prophet Micah announced the always consistent news of God: He both loves and delivers justice and mercy.

The larger lesson for mankind – faithful trust in a loving God’s justice and mercy – easily bridges the Bible’s Old Testament law and New Testament grace, though it’s a key point easily missed.  Amid the wrath and chaos of the Old Testament I and many others have honestly wondered, “How could God be so mean?”

The Old Testament “problem” isn’t that God is mean or unfaithful; it is fallen man’s utter inability to follow God’s laws.  Man further muddles grace by trying to rewrite God’s central truth: God is eternally faithful both to Himself and to His creation.  We sing about God being “Faithful to me.”  Fine; He is.  But first we must understand that God is faithful to Himself.  He acts justly and loves mercy.  God wants each of us to get the hint: loving what God loves opens up the front door to His heavenly kingdom.

One needs mentally to hang in there through the Old Testament’s condemnation into the saving light of the New Testament where Jesus embodies and reveals God’s justice and mercy in relationship with His righteousness and love.  It’s tempting but wrong to interpret the appearance of Jesus as some kind of divine do-over with God reconsidering Old Testament laws and pandemonium and saying, “Oh, never mind.”

If God was planning our salvation all along, we wonder, “Instead of Eden and the fall, why didn’t He just start with Jesus, save everybody, and spare us the trouble?”

I figure the answer to that one is “relationship”: the necessity of God and man building a loving bond that is built on trust, not on a meaningless “do-over” and certainly not on coercion.  Love must have meaning and can’t be forced; otherwise fellowship and freedom dissolve into empty slavery.  In the Old Testament we learn who God is and what He does, and who we are and what we do.  The New Testament reveals God’s righteous plan of restored relationship: Jesus on the cross, man’s sins forgiven.

Surface appearances aside – the justice of the cross and mercy of forgiveness – justice and mercy are not opposite ideas; they are vital and complementary components in the heavenly equation of relationship with and among imperfect human beings.

I’m guessing justice and mercy aren’t much of an issue within the perfect, eternal relationship of the Father-Son-Spirit Trinity.  Imperfect man’s narrative however is a less balanced, “I want mercy for me, and justice for everyone else.”

God simply wants us to want what He wants.

That doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) neither deserves mercy nor fears justice. Instead, he trusts God’s love.

Spirituality Column #440
April 21, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

By Bob Walters

“Commandment” is a word our modern ear hears as a militaristic, non-negotiable, subservient-signifying, dread-invoking, hellfire and damnation-laden directive: 

“Do this or else.”

Scripture actually communicates a more subtle, more circumspect and more loving message than that.  The Greek and Hebrew words translated in modern English as “commandment” each contains an ethical component in the ancient meaning.  A “command” – an “entolay” in Greek or “mitzvah” in Hebrew – is more than just a directive; it is “the right thing to do” in the Greek or even a “good deed” in the Hebrew.

So what Jesus or Moses or anyone else with a Godly “commandment” was saying was “Here is the right way” – “Here is God’s way” – to do something.

The Biblical Jesus left only a few instructions and no laws.   The few commands Jesus verbalized are not commands limiting our freedom.  They are Godly, ethical and wise parameters allowing us to realize our freedom, appreciate His sacrifice and participate in the divine love.  We obey His commands because it is the right thing to do.

Jesus isn’t a “Do this or else” kind of Savior.  His bidding is an invitation, “Follow me,” and a promise, “I tell you the truth.”  He provides information – “God so loved the world” – not orders; warnings – the narrow gate, etc. – not ultimatums.

In love and in truth Jesus teaches humanity to honor Him, thereby glorifying God.  In words and example, Jesus teaches that the “two greatest commandments” are to love God and love others (Matthew 22:36-40).  Why?  It is how humanity functions best in God’s creation.

When we follow Jesus and do as He commands, our actions help us better understand Jesus’s life, sacrifice, love, and God’s Kingdom.  Our Christian relationship is enriched.  Our goal becomes God’s glory, not our own.  We obey not by fear, but by love; in wisdom, not ignorance.  We obey because we can.

Jesus tells us that our yoke and burden with Him are “easy” and “light.”  His commands help us help others: “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,”  “don’t hinder a child’s faith,” “help the least of these,” “remember the prisoners,” “help the poor,” “feed the hungry,” “be hospitable to strangers,” “love your enemies,” “carry your cross,” “feed my sheep.”

And then there is this one … “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).

This last one, from the last supper, is Jesus sharing bread and wine – His body and blood – with the disciples.  We know this rite today as communion, and our joy should always be in remembering Christ.

Not because we have to, but because we can.  Cosmically, it’s the smart play.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) reminds: it is Satan who says. “…or else.”

Spirituality Column #363
October 29, 2013
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

By Bob Walters

Let’s consider the confusing, co-existent Christian truths that while God never changes, the Bible’s Old and New Testaments make God seem very “changed” indeed.

The Old Testament tracks God as He creates the world, sets the heavens in motion, creates the firmament, fish, flora, fauna and mankind, declares His own glory, goodness and righteousness, instructs His nation Israel, demands obedience and worship, fearsomely inspires the prophets, and all along has a ring-side seat for a world of sin, calamity and chaos over which He reigns with wrath, judgment and retribution.

Who wants that God?

The New Testament gives us the suffering servant Jesus Christ.  He was God born fully-man into poverty and questionable family circumstances who toiled most of His earthly life in the remote obscurity of an un-respected village.  In His late 20s He began preaching a message of divine love and salvation few could fathom, drafted a ministry team of misfits few could understand, performed miracles few could ignore and professed truths few could grasp.  He drove out demons who knew who He was and befuddled religious leaders who didn’t.  Jesus was betrayed, arrested, abandoned, beaten, convicted, humiliated, tortured and crucified; dying gruesomely, miserably, alone on a cross.

Who wants to follow or obey or share the misery of that God?

We are to believe Jesus is the same strong God of the Old Testament, where 33 times we are told God is everlasting and unchanging.  How does the same eternal God of wrath, judgment, and retribution become a temporal man who suffers the wrath, judgment and retribution of mankind?

We need only to understand that it is not God who is different; it’s the end of the story that is different.  And Jesus Christ is the end of the story.

Notice that the New Testament actually has a conclusion – the Resurrection, Ascension, Reign, and Victory of Jesus Christ over death, sin and Satan, while the Old Testament – enormously and tellingly – sets up a narrative without an ending.

God’s Old Testament covenant of laws teaches us important truths about both God and humans alike.  Truths such as, God is good, creative, righteous, and demands glory.  And truths like, man generally does a miserable job of following God’s rules.

What’s changed in the New Testament isn’t God; it is God’s New Covenant of faith in Jesus Christ providing loving, flowing grace in the face of man’s many failures.

Mankind is still befallen by sin, calamity and chaos, so our merciful opportunity in Christ – for joy in this life and eternal life glorying God – is a real switcheroo.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that while learning grace is the first lesson of Christ, forgetting grace is the first mistake of many Christians.