I've been strongly advocating for InSite, which follows a grace-based philosophy of care (also known as harm reduction). Being immersed in this grace mentality has lead me to Canada's justice system, as the fate of InSite lies in the hands of the Supreme Court of Canada in May of this year. In this case, justice will enable grace, in the context of mercy.
Grace and justice often present, however, as mutually exclusive ideas. Grace for victims of human trafficking who become adult prostitutes. Justice by prosecuting their pimps. But what about the pimps - do they deserve a break also? So then, how do we hold both grace and justice in our hands in any kind of conflict?
Life in the midst of these tensions highlights my struggle with traditional atonement models. The question of Divine intentionality in the crucifixion profoundly disturbs me - if God's wrath needed to be sated by violence, what does that say about His character? Can I trust a God like that in the midst of the evil that is predominant in the world of human trafficking? But if God had no control over evil, that it was human violence alone at the cross, then why didn't He step in to prevent it? It seems to set up God as either sadist or masochist.
I want to believe in a God who forgives all, who loves, who doesn't judge. But that's not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible forgives, loves, AND judges. He somehow manages to combine justice and mercy, and asks the same of us. Perhaps justice is in the heart of God, along with mercy. I just finished listening to Hans Boersma (Regent Prof) as he discussed his book Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross. He supports a modified traditional model of atonement, trusting that God is not mean, but just. I think that Scripture supports this idea, but I'm still wrestling with it.
Here are the things I know about God. 1. He isn't sadistic. 2. He isn't masochistic. Anything that comes out of the cross is deeper than either of those things - touching on a fundamental sense of justice, a fundamental sense of grace, and a fundamental sense of mercy within me. I don't understand how all of those things go together. But I trust.
Perhaps the cross was needed for justice, in order to enable grace. So I am learning to embrace human need for grace, and trust in Divine justice. I don't understand why Jesus had to die. I don't understand why so many awful things happen, or trafficking has not been eradicated. But I do understand that I have been given boundless grace, and I am to spread that in a wise and discerning manner, in line with justice and mercy.
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly[a] with your God.
Micah 6:8
I worry that I may be missing something that you're seeing because the problems you outline don't really bother me all that much. Strange as the cross is, I can't see it as being anything other than absolutely necessary.
ReplyDeleteIn my mind pimps are about the most damnable people that I can think of. They don't deserve grace for the atrocities that they commit. It would be an absolute insult to the prostitutes that they slave out to absolve them of their guilt without there being any punishment.
However, in a different lens it's tough to say whether the sins I commit are any less evil. I've been born into a family with love and stability. My natural inclinations towards love and sympathy have been fostered while those of selfishness and indifference have been stifled. So if I deserve grace, which by definition I do not, then I certainly can't turn around and say that the pimps don't either. I don't think that it's God's wrath that's being sated but his justice that's being filled.
While the cross may not seem just I can't think of anything else that would make sense. The human intuition on justice is, I think, universal in the sense that everyone agrees that wrongdoing should not go unanswered. Grace is the trickier concept.
In my philosophy class we were discussing the divine attributes and whether or not it is even logically possible for a being to be perfectly just and also perfectly merciful. I wonder if the cross is God's answer to that question.
People develop in different environments and it shapes their actions in the future. This along with possibly just having a genetic disposition cause people to inflict harm to others and the only thing we can do about it is minimize their damage to society as a whole. It's basically as simple as that. If they can't be reformed then they either need to be isolated or disposed of. I'm not sure what all this talk about grace really has to do with anything ultimately.
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