So if God our father loves us simply for who we are–and not because we have somehow earned his favor by good deeds or by a strong faith–then what’s the point of any sort of action or effort or even worship on our part? If God is always eager and willing to forgive us, no matter what we do (if, indeed, there’s nothing we could ever do to make him love us less), then why not just follow the broad, easy road, the path of least resistance? Why not be perpetual prodigal sons and daughters? Even more so, if God is apparently so scandalously gracious, then what was the point of Jesus’ death and resurrection? What about hell and punishment?
First to the question of Jesus: It has often been claimed that any notion of universal salvation undermines the cross and renders Jesus’ death and resurrection pointless. But I honestly can’t understand this objection. Not for a moment. Part of the problem may be that universalism is such a broad and imprecise term, so many people have Unitarian Universalism in mind when voicing their criticisms. But Christian universalism is simply to answer the question “who will be saved?” with “all people.” The means of our salvation is still Jesus Christ. The wages of sin is death, and it is only through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that we receive the gift of God, eternal life.
As to the questions regarding spiritual growth and refinement and sanctification: Traditional Protestantism hasn’t really had a compelling answer for these questions. The traditional answer has been that spiritual growth is the natural outpouring of our new life in Christ, and that it ought to flow from the abundance of our joy and peace and thankfulness. Of course this is true, as far as it goes. But if I can be forgiven for making a broad and sweeping generalization (and presenting somewhat of a caricature, as well), it seems that many Protestants consider sanctification to be an optional process. As in, “Yeah, it would be nice if we were to become increasingly conformed to the image of Christ–and we should strive by the grace of God toward that end–but it doesn’t ultimately matter. At the end of the day, if we have faith in Jesus Christ as our savior at the moment we die, we go straight to heaven and are immediately made perfect.”
But that seems to me like a very unbiblical idea, and it results in all sorts of absurd conclusions and impenetrable questions. Without traveling too far down that detour, I would have you ask yourself what heaven can possibly be like, under that scenario (that is, the get-sanctified-free-and-easy-upon-death scenario). Will we have free will in heaven? If the answer is “yes, we will,” then won’t we be at risk of a second fall into sin? If the answer is “no, we will not have the ability to fall into sin,” then why did we fall into sin in the first place? Why did God create us with that capacity? If we are going to be automatons in heaven, why didn’t God just create us that way in the first place and bypass the entire painful creation/fall/redemption storyline? If God simply perfects us automatically upon death, then I can’t find any reasonable way to make sense of any of this.
If, on the other hand, sanctification is not an optional process, then suddenly these questions begin to fall into place. It has often been said that our choices become patterns, which become our habits, which become our character. Spiritual growth and sanctification is the process by which we become increasingly filled by God’s Spirit, pouring forth genuine fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. It isn’t that we somehow earn God’s love or approval by becoming increasingly conformed to the image of Christ. He loves us simply for who we are (that is, his dear children), and he is always ready to forgive us and pick us up and turn us back in the right direction. But neither does he want for us to remain in a state of continual pain and brokenness. He wants to grow our character so that we become increasingly Christ-like and increasingly filled with joy and peace, until finally our inner character is fully Christ-like. At that point, our freedom of choice will always lead us toward Christ, and sin will no longer have any possible grip on us. For most of us, I suspect this process will continue throughout this life and into the life to come. I don’t think that this process is ever optional, and I don’t think that God simply forces us into perfection upon death.
And as to the questions of action and of loving and sacrificing for others, Rob Bell has this to say, in Love Wins:
So is it true that the kind of person you are doesn’t ultimately matter, as long as you’ve said or prayed or believed the right things? If you truly believed that, and you were surrounded by Christians who believed that, then you wouldn’t have much motivation to do anything about the present suffering of the world, because you would believe you were going to leave someday and go somewhere else to be with Jesus. If this understanding of the good news of Jesus prevailed among Christians, the belief that Jesus’ message is about how to get somewhere else, you could possibly end up with a world in which millions of people were starving, thirsty, and poor; the earth was being exploited and polluted; disease and despair were everywhere; and Christians weren’t known for doing much about it. If it got bad enough, you might even have people rejecting Jesus because of how his followers lived.
Is it optional to care for the poor and the sick and the oppressed? Is it optional to be good stewards of creation? Is it optional to push back against the ravages of war and violence and hatred and greed and racism and sexism? Again, God’s love for us is never contingent on our efforts, but neither is all of this optional. This is God’s good creation, and he wants to partner with us to take it back from sin, death, and Satan. He’s not waiting around just to consign it to the garbage heap and to take us instead to a heavenly realm somewhere out there. We are the body of Christ. We are his hands and his feet and his eyes and his ears. It is primarily through us that God works to restore and reclaim his good creation. If we’re sitting on our hands–or even moving in the wrong direction–then the kingdom of God is not advancing. I’m not at all claiming that it is only through us that God can and does grow his kingdom and reclaim his creation. But it seems that not only does God want us to partner with him, he needs us to do so. He gives us a genuine role in the restoration and reconciliation of all things. So let’s get to work–today rather than tomorrow.
So will all people, finally, be saved? I don’t know. The Bible seems to answer “yes” in a number of places: “All will be made alive.” “Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.” “I will draw all people to myself.” God’s grace and love for us never dry up or run out, but it could be that some are able to continually resist and reject God, and finally completely sever themselves from him. I don’t think he ever forces anything on us, so if anyone is ever able to definitively and perpetually reject him, at that point I believe he graciously releases them from existence. But it seems to me that no one could resist God’s wooing forever. It seems to me that he will, at last, have melted every heart. He certainly doesn’t arbitrarily cast us off at death (if we die apart from him) or turn away any who would seek him, no matter how many times we may slip and fall. There’s nothing we can ever do, that would make him love us less!
You might be wondering at this point if I’ve completely tossed the idea of hell and punishment out the window. Let’s touch on that next week…
