Justice, Judgment, and the Good News of Intolerance

So the twin values (in rhetoric, anyway) of the university world are "tolerance" and "justice." Which is interesting, because the only way to have "justice" is to be "intolerant."

Justice says that something will no longer be tolerated. If a professor on campus was found to always fail Latino students, justice would demand that they no longer be employed by the university. That's good intolerance.

And so when we come to the difficult passages about judgment in the Scriptures, we need to hold this in view. Judgment is simply God saying "enough!" to all that ruins and destroys his creation. He is patient, and his patient kindness is intended to lead us into repentance. But eventually everything will be judged--the good intolerance of God.

That God is a good and fair judge is a matter of faith. That one day all that is wrong will be shown to be wrong is something that most sane and healthy people want.

That our own behaviors might be implicated by that revealing is something that most of us deny or would just rather not think about.

Thank goodness for hell. To have a place where once and for all the corrupt and destructive forces of the world are done away with is the deepest longing of our souls.

George MacDonald proposes that God's judgment is always against sin. In as much as someone is united with sin, have committed themselves to sin, and refuse to let go of sin, then yes, there will be people who are sent there along with the sin that must no longer be tolerated.

Sin will be destroyed. If people refuse to release that sin, they will be destroyed along with it. That is like the professor being fired for failing Latino students--it's the intolerance that justice and love demands.

The joy of this freedom will be un-paralleled. No one and no thing will be allowed to hijack the sheer delight that the saints will have in the perfect goodness of God and the release of our souls from the miserable corruptions of death and destruction and decay.

I'm grateful for the secular/university love of both justice and tolerance...to a point. And then I delight in the fact that the One who is Love dictates that all that is death will some day no longer be tolerated. And I'm grateful that there is an offer on the table to be united with the one Eternal Love and Life that will last forever.