Spiritual analogies make me nervous. This is because they are attempts to explain the infinite with finite human experience. Don Carson comments on the judge analogy often used to explain Christ’s atoning death:-
A prisoner comes before a judge and the judge finds the prisoner guilty and sentences him to a fine of $50, 000, or three years in prison, whatever it is, and then the judge steps back from the bar, takes off his robes, goes down and writes the check for $50, 000, or alternatively goes to jail instead of the person who ought to go to jail, and this indicates substitution . . . . I’ve used that illustration to get across the notion of how Christ comes along and substitutes himself in my place . . . But you know, there’s something wrong with that illustration – it gets across the notion of substitution but there’s something wrong with it. What’s wrong with it is this – in the Western world our judges are merely administrators of a big system – so that if you commit a crime, you’re not thought to be sinning against the judge – you’re sinning against the state, or you’re sinning against the law, or you’re sinning against the people, or you’re sinning against the government – but you’re not sinning against the judge . . . . Thus the judge is not coming along as the offended party in our systems. He has always got to be the non-offended party and merely the person who is administering the bigger system . . . So in our system, in other words, if the mugger came along and mugged somebody else, then the judge pronounces sentence and then goes back down from the bench and takes the penalty himself, we would view that as profoundly unjust . . . . But with God, God is always the most offended party . . . . But that doesn’t mean he’s unjust! He’s always perfectly just – that’s his character. But he’s always the most offended party. Always. Always.[i]
A couple of Christian allegories on YouTube at the moment I find a little troubling. One has a girl ostensibly a Christian who is seduced by the devil and the world, but who eventually seeks Christ and is saved by him. My problem with it is that all the time she is caught up in other things, Jesus is stage right, anxiously and ineffectually pacing around. This is not the Jesus I read of in the Bible who, in judgment, gives people over to their sin (Romans 1:18-25) and who in his perfect timing unhesitatingly redeems them (Ephesians 1:11).*
Another allegory bothers me for similar reasons. In this a father has to make a split-second decision whether to save his beloved son, or, by killing his son, save a trainload of people. It bothers me for three reasons. Firstly, we learn from the Bible that humanity is not merely a group of people distant from God. Rather, he have done him wrong and are in fact his enemies (Colossians 1:21; Ephesians 2:1-3; Romans 5:7-10). Secondly, Jesus went willingly to his death (Matthew 26:28-29; John 18:11; Mark 10:45). And finally, as in the previous example, God appears to be caught out, here being forced to make a quick, panicky decision. This is not the God who from all eternity purposed to send his Son to his death to save mankind (Acts 2:22-23; Ephesians 1:4-6; Galatians 4:4-5; John 3:16-17 etc). And yet, in their very great defence, I must recognise that Jesus himself used analogy and allegory, and trust that audiences will not take every particular seriously.
There is another analogy that bothers me more. It’s used by Timothy Keller in his wonderful apologetic book, The Reason for God, to explain the need for the cross. In it, he makes divine forgiveness comparable to human forgiveness. He observes that as humans we find forgiveness very difficult. He states that it is in the painful work of forgiveness that we “bear the cost” or “absorb the debt” of our enemy’s sin in their place.[ii] So too with Jesus, he says. I think this analogy is unhelpful and dangerous. It reduces the exercise of God’s justice to a psychological process. This is not how the Bible speaks of God’s justice. It speaks of a just punishment being meted out on Jesus in our place (Isaiah 53:5-12; Romans 3:25-26). The punishment was not somehow bound up in the forgiveness. The punishment was first carried out to perfect completion – so that anyone who relies on Jesus might then be forgiven (Hebrews 9:14, 26; 10:10; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 10:43). Any other conception renders God a little less just, and so a little less perfect, and so it all falls down. [i] D.A. Carson speaking at ‘A Day With Dr Don’, session 1, http://theresurgence.com/a-day-with-dr-don-session-1-video accessed 11/4/09
[ii] T. Keller, The Reason for God (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2008) 192.*On reflection though, our God is a personal God who is far from unfeeling. Perhaps this allegory is in fact a good representation of part of his character . . .
"When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
But the more I called Israel,
the further they went from me.
They sacrificed to the Baals
and they burned incense to images.
It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them by the arms;
but they did not realize
it was I who healed them.
I led them with cords of human kindness,
with ties of love;
I lifted the yoke from their neck
and bent down to feed them.
"Will they not return to Egypt
and will not Assyria rule over them
because they refuse to repent?
Swords will flash in their cities,
will destroy the bars of their gates
and put an end to their plans.
My people are determined to turn from me.
Even if they call to the Most High,
he will by no means exalt them.
"How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah?
How can I make you like Zeboiim?
My heart is changed within me;
all my compassion is aroused.
I will not carry out my fierce anger,
nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim.
For I am God, and not man—
the Holy One among you.
I will not come in wrath.
They will follow the LORD;
he will roar like a lion.
When he roars,
his children will come trembling from the west.
They will come trembling
like birds from Egypt,
like doves from Assyria.
I will settle them in their homes,"
declares the LORD.
Hosea 11:1-11
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