God's love and mercy

How can this talk of judgment be squared with the many Biblical assertions about God's love and mercy?

We need to remember that when we have spoken of God as judge, the description is still "to be continued" as the next section of this chapter will show. But before turning to the other affirmation about God we need to remember that we cannot eliminate the Biblical emphasis on God as judge. The danger is that we will sentimentalize God's love to such a degree that justice and judgment are no longer present. But love itself may have to include an element of stern judgment. Sentimental indulgent love may not be real love at all. The parents who say: "We can't understand why Johnny went wrong. We always gave him everything he wanted," may be less loving than the parents who sometimes said "No" to him and helped him to realize that he was living in a world where Johnny could not call all the signals.

Human wrongdoing and sin are an offense to God. They degrade his world and they represent a repudiation of his Lordship. He cannot simply "wink" at sin or refuse to take it seriously. It is wrong and must be punished. Otherwise there is no moral meaning to the universe and all we can say is that "anything goes." We are thus in the curious position of realizing that judgment can be the "negative side of love," love as it must express itself toward wrongdoing. Love must not let wrongdoing "get away with it." Thus justice and love are two sides of the same coin.

This means that God's judgment has a purpose behind it, which is redemptive. He does not punish simply to "be mean," but to try to change the wrongdoers. If they will not respond to persuasion, perhaps they will respond to sternness. Judgment is a kind of "shock treatment" which God employs to bring erring nations and peoples to their senses. The Biblical writers are able to appreciate that judgment is a way of making God's love reach them. The author of Ps. 76 points out that "God arose to establish judgment to save all the oppressed of the earth" ( Ps. 76: 9). There we have it in a nutshell -"judgment to save." Judgment for the purpose of salvation is an indispensable part of the Biblical notion of God as judge. With this in mind, we can turn to the "other side of the coin."