Divine Law is where theology begins. Attempting to explain God in relation to man by what we can observe from nature only gets us to the conclusion that He exists, that He is good, and mankind is constantly quarrelling with Him. To understand any more about Him we must turn to what He has revealed about Himself. If we want to get to know a person, we can snoop around his house with a notepad trying to interpret what we see, or we can pick up his diary and read it. Better still, invite him to sit with us and have a go at conversation. I will dispense with all other theologies and focus on Christianity for two reasons. It was explicitly discussed in the masturbation debate; and, only Christianity makes complete sense out of the observable reality of man. The Christian Bible is where a Christian derives Divine Law.
Summarizing the Christian Bible, we see exactly what we would expect to see if a great, powerful, complex creator of the universe wanted to reveal Himself to a comparatively less complex, less powerful part of His creation. He would select one person from the group, reveal Himself to that person, spend time letting that person know Him and build from there.
Old Testament
This is exactly what we find in Genesis when God reveals Himself to Abram, Isaac, Jacob, and later in Exodus with Moses. He establishes His authority over Abram by giving him a new name and makes a covenant with him. Because God intended to reveal Himself to all mankind, He established a larger nation from Abraham and transmits to this nation, via the fulfillment of His covenant promises, the sort of God He is and the sort of people they must be in order to represent Him to the world. God demonstrates His divine nature through events that are observable to all, while He teaches the 12 tribes of Israel the inside scoop. The record left by this nation is the beginning of God’s divine revelation to mankind. Then, so the world will know that He is as powerful and sovereign as the record suggests, He preserves a remnant of this nation and its records throughout history.
New Testament
God repeats this same process yet again. He fulfills the covenant promises of the Old Testament by taking the form of man. He removes the mystery of His purpose behind revealing Himself to one man and building one nation by revealing that His Kingdom is to include all nations under a new covenant. The old covenant stands as witness to man’s inability to achieve God’s standard on his own. Jesus demonstrates His divine nature through events that are observable to all, while He teaches the 12 disciples the inside scoop. The record left by these disciples is the completion of God’s divine revelation to mankind. As before, the record is preserved supernaturally by God so the world will know that He is as powerful and sovereign as the record suggests.
Grace-based relationship
The summary is obviously a drastic simplification. The real magnificence of God is in the details. I’ll leave most of the details for you to find on your own. I will focus on the new covenant relationship that God revealed and accomplished through Jesus. It is no accident that one of the 12 original disciples (Judas) betrayed Jesus. It is no accident that one of the 12 original tribes (Levites) was instrumental in His death. What is common between them? They were both tasked with overseeing the money and goods dedicated to God’s use. In the new covenant, they are like each of us. No better, no worse; since we all are responsible to God for overseeing what He entrusts to us while here on Earth. The most common misconception about the covenant relationship is that it operates like a legal contract. We do our part, putting God into our debt; whereby, He is contractually bound to do His part. He gives us the laws, we follow them, and He repays us with eternal life. This is not Christianity. The first thing Christianity does is destroy this misconception. The harder we try to resist temptation, the stronger temptation becomes. We cannot keep our part. Christianity makes it explicit that we bring nothing, and offer nothing of value to God. Consider a child who asks his dad for $20 to buy a birthday present. The child goes and buys a gift and gives it to his dad for his birthday. What has dad gained in the transaction? (*)—only the happiness of his child. This is Christianity—a grace-based relationship with God.
Alright, let’s consider how the grace-based relationship prophesied in the Old Testament and realized in the New Testament foils the notion that God is like Barbara. In the masturbation debate, NEGATIONofP argues that in order to maintain or improve our relationship with Barbara we must be perfect in Barbara’s presence regarding certain behaviors. Specifically, we mustn’t lie, steal, or masturbate in front of Barbara lest we damage her opinion of us. This describes a works-based relationship. The God of the Bible makes it clear that we are nothing and capable of nothing apart from Jesus, but in Him we are regarded as sons. So supposing we have a relationship with Him through faith in Jesus’ testimony and subsequent death and resurrection; what might we discover about grace from being regarded as sons of God? We’re back to this metaphor. No use complaining about it. It is all a simple creature can fit in his head.
As a man, I can draw on what I have observed about the father-son relationship. My understanding will be limited by how well or how poorly my own father demonstrated grace in his relationship to me. As a father, I can look at my relationship to my own sons. This is a bit better because I get inside information. Still, my understanding will be limited by how well or how poorly I display grace to them. As a Christian, I can pray that God grant me understanding beyond what I have observed. My understanding will be limited by how well or how poorly I accept teaching from God’s Holy Spirit. God wants us to know Him. He promises to give us understanding if we ask (†). He is not like my earthly father, nor like me, because He is never unavailable, never unwilling, never unable, and never uncaring. These are human limitations. If my sons want to ask me a question, they have to wait until I am home. When I am home, I am sometimes too busy to give them my attention. Sometimes, I just don’t know how to answer. And I really don’t care to answer some questions if I believe they can figure it out themselves.
So if I was morally perfect, had unlimited knowledge and resources, could control all of nature, and could attend to each of my sons individually at all times, what kind of father would I be? Clearly, I would be a better father than I am. But as poor as I am in all of those areas compared to God, I can still understand something of grace from my own experience. First, let’s examine grace as it was displayed by my earthly father. When I was young, I set fire to about four or five acres of grassland. Some of it was our own property, some belonged to neighbors. As mad he was over my mistake, he wouldn’t let my mom or our neighbors kill me. They may have wanted to. I don’t know. My dad had taught me to never play with matches. I deliberately disobeyed him. I obviously didn’t intend for the fire to spread as it did; nevertheless, my disobedience had destructive results. I could have killed myself, my family, or my neighbors’ family. This was a pretty serious mistake. But he went right on being my father. I went right on being his son. He didn’t love me less at all. To the contrary, he displayed his great love for me by placing more restrictions on me—-keeping closer watch over me. He was fully limited by his humanity, and yet we can still see a likeness to God’s grace. And that is what we must remember. It is only a likeness to God’s grace. It is not a perfect representation of God’s grace. Human grace always falls short of God’s grace.
My earthly father did not willingly die to discharge the penalty required for my disobedience. He could not. It was not against him that I sinned. It is God’s law that I must honor and obey my parents. Therefore, only God can ultimately discharge the penalty of my sin. God temporarily gives some of His authority to parents. They are obliged to exercise that authority for a time, but eventually, their authority ends. And it is only limited authority. They may forgive offenses, as they should—-as we all should because we all need God to forgive our offenses—-but they cannot forgive sin. This was the case with the fire. It only resulted in property damage after all. Our notion of justice, which is derived from Divine Law, would not require death as a penalty for property damage. But suppose the fire killed my brother or our neighbor’s child. Divine Law, given by God in order for us to understand justice, differentiates between murder and unintentional manslaughter. It is not justice to kill a person for manslaughter, it is revenge. We start to see how difficult it is for us to observe perfect grace in human affairs. Human justice must only look at the immediate consequences of sin, the temporal result. God never intends for men to do His job for Him. This doesn’t imply that capital punishment is wrong, but that God expects us to preserve life whenever possible. Divine Law sets the limits for how we respond to the sins of others. It is God’s job to punish sin. It is to Him we are accountable. Sin is destructive and devastating to everything God has created and there is just one penalty. Perfect grace is Jesus discharging our indebtedness for sin, by taking our sins away from us and nailing them to the cross (††). This is the only case in human history where we can observe perfect grace, because Jesus is the only one with authority to forgive sin. He is God incarnate, against whom sin is an offense.
In hind-sight, I can see that the father-son relationship is not a works-based relationship. The process of being trained to make correct choices did sometimes appear to suggest a works-based relationship. My dad did seem to withdraw his love when I defied him. His affection always returned after a time, but to a child, it could certainly appear to be linked to behavior. However, in order to draw this conclusion, I would have to completely ignore my own inside information about being a father. I know from having to discipline my own children that my love for them remains even when they defy me. I am not always popular as the disciplinarian in my house. At times, my children will avoid me, hide from me, run from me, or say they hate me. When I don’t give them their way, or when they have done something they should not have done, I can expect this behavior from the younger ones. My four year old has a nasty temper. I discipline him anyway, because I love him and because I must teach him to make right choices. That’s a father’s job. Over time, he will learn that withdrawing his affection, whenever he is angry, does not make me love him less. It might get him an extra whoopin, but that’s the love of a father.
In my relationship with God, I have avoided Him, tried to hide from Him, I’ve run from Him, and even said that I hated Him—-for the same reasons that my children do. I wanted my way, and didn’t enjoy being disciplined. So far, he has not withdrawn His love from me. He continues to discipline me for wrong choices. That is very comforting to me. I have yielded myself to the fact that He knows better than I do.
Hebrews 12:5-11
And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,
“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Having this understanding of a grace-based relationship with God provides the foundation for understanding all truth. That’s it for this installment. Next I will discuss foundations in more detail and will answer the question NEGATIONofP was asking in the masturbation debate.
Reference Links:
| * | This installment was edited down and a quote from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis was taken out. The substance was retained. |
| † | Matthew 7:7-12, Luke 11:11-13, James 1:5 |
| †† | Colossians 2:14, 1 Peter 2:24 |