Bin Laden is killed for justice, do you respond with love?

The comments below are that of the author only (me – Andrew Noble) and do not reflect any organization or group I have ever been a part of or am currently a part of. 

Okay, so Osama Bin Laden is dead.

And I guess this would be an awkward time to argue that a “loving” God would never judge someone. Yeah. Bad timing. That’d be awkward. I won’t argue that.

Better yet we could discuss politics, and if we should be implementing a death penalty in Canada for outrageous crimes.  Yeah. That’d be awkward too. I won’t go there.

So what am I posting about?

I think pointing out hypocrisy is important – especially in religious people, or  people who try to act very moral to others.

Is it okay to murder a murderer?

Is it just to kill a killer?

Most people find it easily acceptable to think this is okay with Osama. Rather than focusing on the behaviour instead of the person, we say the person is a bad apple and must be killed. We are “playing god” when we agree with statements like this. I mean deciding who should live and who should die should probably be left up to someone with a little more understanding wouldn’t you say? But that’s off the point.

My problem is that our moral, fluffy-loving culture complains about the Christian view of God: who judges people for their sins and potentially gives them what they deserve. People, including Christians, struggle with that view of God because our culture has made this view seem so ugly. They argue “God is love so therefore he cannot judge or condemn anyone”. But how many people in our culture (who like to play god) would say that God should love Osama and not give him any torment?

No we all say, kill the killer!

Where is the love though? Would anybody in the world be willing to stop that bullet from reaching bin Laden’s head? Probably not. He should get what he deserves. Right?

Let’s go into this justice vs love conflict a little deeper.

You hold to the eye-for-an-eye philosophy with Osama, but would you like the same standard for yourself? If you gossip negatively behind a friend’s back should they do the same behind yours’? If you cheat a few marks on your midterm should the prof cheat you a few marks on the final? If you make an exaggeration on your resume about some past duties you performed does your boss get to make an exaggeration about the salary you’ll actually receive? How about that awkward kid who always raises his/her hand in class that you make fun of with your friends – should you be treated the same way?

This is the problem with the eye-for-an-eye philosophy all alone. Not only does it lack the love our culture love, its simply never taken as a consistent approach. If you cannot take this philosophy seriously for yourself then you shouldn’t use it on someone else.

But wait – am I saying we shouldn’t have killed Osama?

I’m not commenting about that at all – I’m just showing how our fluffy-love culture finds it acceptable to show no love to a killer – using a system of beliefs (eye-for-an-eye philosophy) that they don’t even use for themselves. Its hypocritical.  

But here is the good part.

My goal is actually for you to respond to situations with love and justice. But you will need a better system of beliefs. Let me tell you what you need.

You need a man, a real man, who is willing to stop the bullet, catch the grenade, and give of his own love so that the harm that was meant for you (in fair justice) is given to him instead of you. Then, your just mentality is protected by the love of this man. You can still take killing seriously. While also understand there can be forgiveness from it through this man. This man can’t be a wimp, but must be willing to take on the sins of the world. He’ll need power. He’ll need to be God himself to accomplish such an enormous task of taking the pain that should have been given to others.

You need Jesus. He is the man who is God, come down to us, to sacrifice his life to protect us from the pain we justly deserve.

Yes, this eye-for-an-eye thing makes sense, that’s why you wanted Osama dead!  But you must also see that love makes sense! That the two can come together because of Jesus’ great love. Humans, as communities and individuals who screwed up, deserve a just & fair consequence for our actions. But it is Jesus who protects us against that consequence. Because he is that man.

If only we all believed this, so help us God.

If you are interested in what the Bible has to say about celebrating justice and loving our enemies, all with some very nice graphics, click this.

Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

Almost 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ mas murdered. This is historical fact. Non-Christians that attested to Jesus’ death: Josephus (late first century), Tacitus (early second century), Lucian (early to mid second century), and Mara bar Serapion (second to third centuries) all report the event (source http://tiny.cc/hj2j2 ). This is in addition to many Biblical sources.

Killed. Executed. Crucified. He was nailed to a cross and people watched him take his last breath. They even drove a spear through his side to make sure he was dead.

But why? Why die?

Jesus was not shocked when he was killed, at least 3 times Jesus clearly told his friends that he would die (source http://tiny.cc/oolro ). Jesus was sent on what seemed like a suicide mission. This man said he was God, yet he could not get himself down from the cross. Shouldn’t he have sent angels to save himself? I’ll let the question of “why die” remain for a second.

Who are you?

Take a second. Who are you? Good person? Bad person? Now I know some will read this and start to expect a judgmental approach. But let’s simply do this by comparison, how good are you? No matter what, your opinion of yourself is subjective. It’s based on how you feel, and perhaps not truthfully who you actually are. Your peers may say you aren’t as good a person as they are (in comparison), perhaps because you don’t show genuine interest in their life and appear selfish and greedy with your time. But your peer may not be right; they may simply want to be higher on the “goodness” scale then you.
It’s like marks in a physics class, as long as you study more than your peers and do better, you can still get an A even if you fail. The good old bell curve. It’s all about comparisons.

And this moral bell curve is how some people (maybe you) think of God. You compare yourself to murderers or rapists and you figure God likes you. Perhaps to a lesser extent you compare yourself to smokers, or people who get drunk every weekend. You think your good, you even recycle! But this comparison is flawed, because like physics its not your actual grade… it’s based on an expected bell curve. Jesus said for you to be as perfect as God. That is your comparison! You don’t compare yourself to your peers (no one likes to be judged by imperfect people), you compare yourself to Jesus. And if you don’t meet that cut off, you fail.

There is no such thing as a moralistic bell curve when it comes to God.

God hates anything less then perfection. Perfect is the standard, pass or fail. God hates  liars, condescending pride, impure hearts, and feet that don’t follow in God’s desired path. (Prov 6:16-19)

That’s right, God hates you and me.

This is why Jesus’ death is so significant, because Jesus was hated instead of followers of Jesus. A substitution happened on the cross. Jesus took your place, and my place. Jesus Christ became sin. He became my sin (lying, disobedience, pride) in order to provide a costly forgiveness. You can’t simply forgive someone and let them go free after they abuse a child. They need punishment. Likewise, God does not forgive someone without providing the proper sacrifice. So although hate is deserved, God instead puts his hate on Jesus who took on the sin of those who follow him (Christians). God wants everyone to be saved through this costly forgiveness, and one key step is to have faith in him. A believer has the sin put to death, so that they be free from that sin.

That’s right, God loves you and me more.

God provides costly forgiveness to those who believe. This is the best love, for someone to lay down their life for you. A Jesus did rise for you as well. Jesus also rose to set you free from death you deserve. He’s alive! His mission was to save you, so you shouldn’t feel sorry for him being on the cross.

Summary: Jesus died the death we should have died, so that we would no longer be hated by God. But God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness is seen as so important because of the hate that it had to overcome. God does judge in comparison to perfection, we know he takes judgment seriously because of how brutal Jesus’ death was. God is the only objective perfect judge. This is good Friday, because this is such good news – a remembrance that our sins are taken away!

This is central to Christian. A belief in this will rock your world. I’d love to talk to you about it. Message me!