In the Bible there are numerous images of God. Early on we have God casting the couple out of the Garden. Then shortly after, we have God destroying the world with the exception of Noah and his family. Then we have the horror of Abraham called to sacrifice his son Isaac, the heir to the Promise. In Exodus we have the thousands of unfaithful killed by the snakes.You can continue on with the devastation of the Northern Kingdom and the Babylonian Exile followed by the centuries of oppression to other dynasties. There is much more in this vein. We have an image of God of wrath, judgement and devastation.
On the other hand, we have a God of Salvation who makes the Promise to Abraham, who hears the cry of his people and leads the forsaken into the Promised Land. In Psalm 54 we have a picture of a God collecting our tears and placing them in his jar. There is Isaiah, 40-55 where we have a God who leads the abandoned back to their land in a gesture of tenderness and compassion. In Ezekiel, we have the beautiful story of hope in the “dry bones.”
We know that the Bible is the story of the family of Abraham’s experience of God over two thousand years. In this story there is a maturing process of their understanding of God and consequently their image of God.
One part of the maturation is growing out of the idea that we earn God’s love by our good behavior. This is easy to see how this mentality can come from the reading of Bible. Likewise, in this approach we easily create an image of God as a God of mood swings between graciousness and fierce anger. We see God looking over our shoulder weighing our every move.
Just as the Jewish people evolved in their image of God, It is the same for us. The spiritual journey involves a steady growth in the transformation and refinement of our image of God. We are being called into a Mystery of Love. The more real our image of God, the easier is our journey.
A major section of the Bible continues this theme of reward and punishment. There are consequences to human behavior. We have a choice. We are no longer dealing with a puppeteer God who holds all the strings of life and is arbitrary and capricious. Now we, as responsible adults, are called into the process.
This image of God of moral sanctions inclines us to suppose that we earn God’s love by our good deeds, that we are blessed by our virtuous behavior. This attitude leads to the distortion of the Gospel of Prosperity.
The God of Deuteronomy leaves us with all kinds of questions as the Book of Job points out. Evil still is a harsh reality in all human experience. This image of God offers little relief in the tragedies of life.
Jesus, the Word of God, teaches us who God is. Jesus offers a radically new image of God. This God does not want to be served by us but wants to serve us. This God’s idea of privilege is not the highest but at the bottom. This God identifies with the sufferings of the poor, neglected and isolated. The God revealed by Jesus is one of compassion and mercy, of liberation and deliverance from every oppressive situation. The God of Jesus does not deny the importance of our humanity but offers its truest and most authentic expression in the life of Jesus.
In I John 4:8 we read the conclusion of the Bible’s revelation of God: “God is love.” In Jesus we learn what love is.
The contrast between John the Baptist and Jesus is very enlightening. John had the message of Deuteronomy: repent or pay the price of catastrophic consequences.
Jesus also preached repentance. However, his call to repentance was followed by an invitation to accept the mercy and love of God that is always there.
This was a starkly new image of God. The God of Jesus put no condition on God’s love. This teaching cast away the fear wrapped up in John’s preaching. The unconditional love proclaimed by Jesus links with the three hundred plus times Scripture says. “Don’t be afraid.” Each time this expression of God’s providence is proclaimed, it always is in the context of a message of God’s loving presence.
Jesus never taught God loves us if… He taught simply, God loves us: no conditions, no limits! This was most evident on the Cross: “Father, forgive them they know not what they do.”
When we reflect on the life and teachings of Jesus we see the story of the Bible in its entirety. It is a love story. God loves us and God accepts us not because we are good but because God is good. Karl Barth, a great Protestant theologian of the last century put it this way. It is not the natural therefore but the miraculous nevertheless. It is not that we are unworthy therefore God rejects us. It is that we are unworthy nevertheless God embraces us.
Thomas Merton caught the wonder of this mystery of love and our image of God in his text, The New Man.
Teresa of Avila put it more simply when she declared a truth relevant for her and all of us. “The story of my life is the story of God’s mercy.”
It is good to remember that this message of love does not remove our moral responsibility. It does, however, transform it from a burden to a joy.
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