27/50: Does God Require Punishment?
This is one of my favorite hymns and it stays in your head for days! Lyrics by Desmond Tutu and Music by John Bell.
“Goodness is stronger than evil;
love is stronger than hate;
light is stronger than darkness;
life is stronger than death.
Victory is ours, victory is ours
through him who loved us.
Victory is ours, victory is ours
through him who loved us.”
What do we mean when we talk about God saving us?
The formula I was taught from a young age was illustrated in the wordless book that had five blank pages of different colors. The first page was black, symbolizing that we are all sinners and that our hearts are black with sin. (So many things to unpack there, but particular apologies for all the wrong racial implications.) Second page was red. Jesus shed his blood to wash away my sins. Third page is white to symbolize that my heart is whiter than snow when Jesus forgives (see aforementioned apology). The green page symbolized growing in our faith through prayer and Bible reading. The final gold page said that if we prayed the right prayer, we would go to heaven when we die and walk the streets of gold.
This is one way to understand the meaning of salvation. It is called Penal (someone has to be punished for our sin) Substitutionary (Jesus took the hit for us) Atonement (so that we could be saved/at-one with God). This theological construction assumes God is unable to relate to anything less than perfection without some sort of sacrifice. It draws on ancient Israel’s sacrificial rituals in which sin could only be satisfied with the sacrifice of a perfect and spotless lamb.
This is the most common way to describe salvation in contemporary Christianity, but it is not the only way. Others (see again Greg Love’s book) have done a thorough job of exploring this theory’s historical roots in empire and violence and the problems it presents. While penal substitutionary atonement has sources in Scripture and tradition, it is not the oldest construction of salvation. There are and have always been other options. I think it has a lot of problems, but my primary issue with it is the assumption that God’s justice is retributive.
Is God’s justice retributive? A glance at twentieth century history demonstrates that retributive justice is a reflection of the worst of human nature. Seeking a just punishment for wrongs only escalates into anger and alienation. “An eye for an eye will leave everyone blind,” Gandhi reportedly said. Retributive justice is ineffective at achieving genuine reconciliation. Richard Rohr once said in a podcast that if God is not better than the best human we know, it’s not God. Retributive justice is not humans at their best. Is God bound to it?
The late twentieth century provided us with another model: the messy and courageous attempt of post-apartheid South Africa to heal through the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The TRC was rooted in restorative justice, which seeks restored relationships rather than punishment.
The TRC was made possible by a man who’s 90th birthday is today. So I’ll close tonight with a prayer of gratitude for the life and work of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Your life is a blessing and an inspiration. Can’t wait to talk more about your work tomorrow.