To better understand the implications of Jesus statement, “Today the Scriptures are fulfilled,” we need to consider some of the diversity within the Scriptures and view them canonically from the perspective of all of Scripture. We have already looked at Matthew’s Gospel chapter 19 where Jesus says divorce is off limits except for the one exception clause he state in verse 9 of sexual unfaithfulness.
Mark’s gospel on the other hand simply
says divorce and remarriage are forbidden with no exceptions listed (10:1-11).
If the Gospels were all that we had to go by, there would be only one ground
for divorce listed. But later progressive revelation with new circumstances has
Paul adding another exception and that was desertion (1 Cor.7:15). What about
new circumstances so many fragile families find themselves in today like
physical abuse, destructive addictions, ongoing mental abuse and sheer disrespect
and belittling of their marital partner? Certainly new situations demands new
listening to the voice of Jesus and what the Holy Spirit may be speaking to
God’s community today.
If Jesus is the last Adam to free and
liberate all people into God’s kingdom, what are we to do with the Scriptures
that speak of death, destruction, torment, and universal restoration (Rom.5:18;
11:32; 1 Cor.15:22; Phil.2:11). Certainly there is judgment and hell to come
but no one knows exactly what that entails when it comes to the afterlife.
There is a coming and certain judgment that Scriptures speaks about but there
is also this universal restoration Jesus tells us about.
Jesus speaks about “the year of the
Lord’s favor” in Luke 4:19, this is a reference to the year of Jubilee where
all slaves are to be set free. Notice that Jubilee was not about setting a few
slaves or some slaves free, but all slaves were to be set free. Take a moment
to let that one sink in! Luke 3:6 says ‘all flesh shall see the salvation of
God.’ Jesus famous parables of the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son is where
all are restored back to God (Luke 15).
Listen and see with new eyes what the
gospel of John says about salvation in Jesus. John 6:37-40 says,
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I
will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will
but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I
should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last
day.
What
does the Father give Jesus? Everything! What is God’s will? All people would
not perish but have everlasting life. I love the way 2 Peter 3:8-9 says it,
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is
as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to
fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not
wishing that any perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Jesus
will lose nothing given him by God the Father and God will raise it all up on
the last day. Can we even imagine or picture what this might even look like?
If you still don’t know what all
things given to Jesus is, look at John 17:2.
Jesus prays to his heavenly father and then he says these words, “since
you have given him (Jesus) all authority over all flesh, to give eternal life
to all whom you have given him.”
Are
you starting to get a grander cosmic picture of what God is doing in
reconciling the world (cosmos) through his Son?
Can we imagine with Isaiah that God’s
ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts?
When people stumble over the doctrine of hell seeming unfair, some who support
this doctrine resort to this verse in Isaiah 55:8-9. But if people would read
the broader context of Isaiah 55:6-7, it is not a picture of a vengeful
punishing God but a God of abundant mercy who abundantly pardons people (v.7).
A God of love does care about divine
judgment. God is always putting things right and making all things new! If we
actually read Jesus words more carefully, we might even see that heaven and
hell for Jesus is not just about the afterlife but about present realities
right here on planet earth. Jesus did not talk about outside sinners but inside
religious leaders when it came to hell. In other words, Jesus was turning the
Pharisees own critical judgments about the judgment of God back upon
themselves. The sad truth is too many Christians have preached about hell more
like some of the religious leaders of Jesus day and not like Jesus did.
Well, what about the eternal language
of judgment in Jesus’ parables? I’m always bewildered when people want to talk
about the clearest examples of biblical teaching comes from parables which are
highly figurative and often use hyperbole to make a point. Jesus wants his
hearers to take the hell language seriously but not necessarily literally.
We get ourselves into all kinds of interpretive problems if we press
various points in Jesus’ parables too literally. God in some of Jesus parables
appears unjust and Matthew 25 about the sheep and the goats if pressed too far,
one can say it also teaches a works righteousness doctrine which totally goes
against the nature and teachings of the rest of Scripture. Jesus parables are
more often about this life rather than what some people think about the after
life. If we don’t start understanding how these stories work, we will end up
straining at gnats while we swallow camels.
Heath Bradley in his book Flames of
Love says so provocatively,
Hell is not used by Jesus as a threat for outsiders, but as a challenge
for insiders . . . Can we believe as Peter did in the restoration of all things
(Acts 3:21). Or as Paul did in the reconciliation of all things (Col.1:20). And
as John did in the renewal of all things (Rev.21:5) this does not hamper our
motivation for evangelism but just the opposite . . . it inspires us to preach
fearlessly, love limitlessly, and obey unconditionally (p.70, 140)
Robert
Wild once said, “What a burst of new life would penetrate the human race if everyone
believed God is love and that they were already safe in the arms of love.” One
of the greatest theologians of the last century was a Catholic scholar whose
name was Hans Von Balthasar. He was an incredibly compassionate person and had
a remarkable intellect he used for God in his writings. If we are to really
believe in grace, not cheap grace or hyper-grace but biblical free unearned
grace, here is what Balthasar wrote:
If we think of Hell as a place of punishment, the logical contrast would
seem to indicate that heaven is a place of reward. Yet, the Christian
conception denies that heaven is fundamentally a reward for faithful service;
it is rather, the free gracious gift of a loving God, unmerited by anything we
have done
Why?
Because Jesus has done it all! He has completed what he started and on the
cross, he said, “It is finished.” He accomplished all that he sought out to do
for his mission was complete. Some of my friends answer the question, ‘when
were you saved?’, with the response, “I was saved two thousand years ago when
Jesus died on the cross!” Even death is not the end, it’s only a new beginning!
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