God Solved the Justice/Grace Problem

While it’s still unclear how LOST will ultimately end up, some recent developments seem to provide a good illustration of one way people have chosen to resolve the problem that has plagued humanity throughout history: Deep down, we know we deserve justice from God, but we want grace. How can we who know we are guilty get mercy from a perfectly good and just God?

Justice and grace seem to be irreconcilable. We want God to be good. But if we deserve punishment, then for God to be truly good and just, He must punish. We long for grace. But for God to show us grace it would seem He must violate perfect justice, and therefore He would not be truly good.

One way to resolve this is to split God into two and reject one half.

We love a god of mercy, but fear a god of justice. Therefore, deny His justice and suddenly God loves us no matter what, and it doesn't matter what we do. There is no justice to face. But is this a good god? Is a god who doesn't right wrongs, who ignores evil and sweeps it under the rug, who tells you, "Hey, just learn to make your own kind of music--it's all good," is that a god worthy of our respect? Justice is real and good, so a god who allows evil and injustice to remain is less than good.

Then there are those who grasp the idea of God's perfect holiness and the goodness of destroying evil, and so they despair of mercy and live in fear. These people hang on to God’s righteousness and reject the possibility of grace.

God's answer to this problem is beyond brilliant:

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

God did not lay aside His good and perfect desire to completely wipe out all evil, and yet neither did He lay aside His grace--He became both just and justifier, righteous judge and gracious redeemer. He satisfied His perfect justice and upheld His righteousness by demonstrating His wrath against evil on the cross. Now grace is freely given because it’s no longer in conflict with justice. Rather, it’s because of the justice fulfilled through Jesus’ willing sacrifice that the full beauty and power of grace is revealed, for we see the real price of it.

This is the true, complete God. The true story is not one where justice and grace are forever at war with each other, but one of redemption through a justice-satisfying, grace-enabling, costly sacrifice by a good judge who has the right and authority to convict.

This is the Gospel, yet I've found that many people who hear the Christian story are only able to hear the part about the perfect judge who they know will destroy them when all wrongs are punished in the end. They can’t see past God’s righteous wrath to the cross. And people who recognize their own guilt and know nothing of the cross will either acknowledge God’s unbending justice and hate Him, or deny His justice and live with a morally weak god.

This is what seems to be playing out on LOST (spoilers ahead). The writers would like to embrace grace, as they did so powerfully in the episode "Dr. Linus," but at the same time deny the goodness of justice by associating judgment with the apparently devilish Man in Black. They can't see that by denying the value of judgment they remove all power from grace, making it weak and meaningless. For if "God" wants us to make our own way morally, and does not judge evil, then there is no guilt to be released from, no grace needed. It's just to be expected that someone would say, "Eh, your lying, manipulation, and murder is no big deal. Let's just move on." That is neither good nor powerful.

The creators of LOST can’t see a way for righteousness and justice to be truly good and desirable at the same time that grace is possible, so they jettison judgment in favor of grace (or so it seems for now). Without a cross by which justice can be done and grace given, they must split God into two, putting His grace into Jacob and His condemnation of evil into the manipulative Man in Black. And so it becomes Jacob vs. Man in Black, grace vs. judgment, "Jesus" vs. scary "Old Testament God." And in this way, they lose both justice and grace.

Comments

[Mark Hunsaker]

Amy,

Thank you for your excellent post! It reminds me of how Luther described "Law and Gospel" in many of His writings.

It is odd how we humans try to relativize justice is it not? As I read your post, I kept thinking that this is such an obvious thing, and yet we all do it at one time or another. We always want justice for others but never for oursleves...thanks be to God for sending His Son!

Thanks be to God for His true nature...finding a way to save us while we were yet His enemies.

Great post!!!

[MijkV]

Amy,

Thanks for the good post. I'm surprised that STR doesn't blog more on LOST given the intentional philosophical themes of the show.

I'm a little confused by this sentence...”For if 'God' wants us to make our own way morally, and does not stop evil, then there is no guilt to be released from, no grace needed.” How does that follow?

Isn't a main metaphorical point of the island that it is a place of grace, where people are released from their guilt because their past sins are forgotten (so long as they stay on the island)? In the context of that forgiveness, it is only then that Jacob looks for a character's redemption. Therefore grace is needed because there is guilt to be released from. Likewise, could God want his people to “make their way morally,” but know that this can only happen within a foreign context, a context not of their own making...a context of desperately needed divine grace? (I am taking the “make their way morally” to mean living righteously, rather than earning or attaining righteousness through moral acts.)

It is here that I have to disagree with your portrayal of Jacob. By bringing people to the island, he is not simply letting bygones be bygones and giving them a fresh start, like cheap grace. Far from being cheap, this project ended up costing Jacob his life.

I'm not arguing for a model of atonement that is secretly embedded in LOST, but I think that there is more going on here than a simple grace/judgment dichotomy between Jacob and Locke (fake Locke, of course).

[Amy]

>>For if 'God' wants us to make our own way morally, and does not stop evil, then there is no guilt to be released from, no grace needed.” How does that follow?

I can see how that’s a little unclear. By “making our own way morally” I was referring to the way Jacob talked about it. That is, they should come up with their own moral rules—there’s nothing to conform to (they’ve got to “make their own kind of music”). And by “stop,” I meant set right, or judge, not really “prevent.” (In fact, I think I’ll change that word in the post.)

If there are no moral rules to be broken, then there is no sin. If there’s no sin to be judged, there’s no judgment. If we’re not under judgment, then we don’t need grace. Thanks for asking me to clarify. I think the change will help.

>>Therefore grace is needed because there is guilt to be released from.

This is where I thought the series was going, and why I think what they’re saying now is inconsistent with what they were saying in the past (which is why I was surprised by the recent developments). The show really has shown sin, guilt, and redemption in a real way. This doesn’t go with the kinds of things Jacob was saying last week, however.

I think they’re just being inconsistent. They’re good storytellers, and because they’re good storytellers, they say true things about the human condition. But they’re also compelled by our current cultural story (that we’re not sinners) to go in that direction, so it’s starting to become confused.

>>Far from being cheap, this project ended up costing Jacob his life.

I really did think they were going for an atonement theme at the end of last season, and I loved it. I just think they’re starting to go in directions now that are inconsistent with what they’ve done in the past, or at least, what I interpreted they were doing in the past.

[Amy]

I will add, too, that it's not over yet! Jacob may yet realize that people really are sinners who need saving. He did have a moment of that last week when he moved from not interacting with the people at all--keeping his distance--to using Richard as a mediator to communicate with them. Things could still come together.

[MijkV]

Hi Amy,

Thanks for the clarification, I see your point now. I'm not sure if the show has changed directions or if it is simply drawing on more than one view of sin and evil (mixing both individualistic and systemic views), I guess we'll see how it pans out. There's definitely a lot going on, and that's what makes it a good show.

Keep up the good work,
Mike V.