“Instead of dealing with the tension some sanitize the conversation with theological language. The matter is theological, but theology is not to be done in test tubes; it intersects with real life and a living God. Abraham was overlooking a city that had the dark clouds of death hovering about it with angels marching toward it. You can’t sanitize this.”

Followers of Christ will encounter questions about the relationship between God’s mercy and his judgment. These questions will certainly come from those are not Christians as well as those who are newer believers. And, if we are honest, those of us who have been studying our Bibles for years, we too have questions about the relationship between God’s mercy and his judgment.

In Genesis we see a man who has been faithfully walking with God asking questions and feeling heavily burdened about God’s justice. The setting is found in Genesis 18. God is about to judge Sodom for their “very grave” sin (v.20). But Abraham is concerned about the potential for some who are righteous in that city being swept away in judgment. In other words, he is concerned that God’s mercy might be eclipsed by his judgment. Earlier in the chapter Abraham learned that nothing was too hard for the Lord (v.14). Now, perhaps, God might do the unthinkable and judge the righteous along with the wicked. This tension between mercy and judgment is weighty for Abraham, just as it often is for us.

So what do you do? How do you reconcile God’s justice with his mercy?

Perhaps it is better to say, what do you not do?

1. Don’t Depersonalize It.

It is unhelpful to detach the reality of both mercy and judgment from real people and a real God. The weightiness of the matter is the intersection between a righteous and merciful Creator and his creation. We have sinned against him—all of us. To generalize this truth is to declaw it of its weightiness—on both sides.

2. Don’t Theologize It.

Instead of dealing with the tension some sanitize the conversation with theological language. The matter is theological, but theology is not to be done in test tubes; it intersects with real life and a living God. Abraham was overlooking a city that had the dark clouds of death hovering about it with angels marching toward it. You can’t sanitize this.

3. Don’t Liberalize It.

The Bible always means to draw us into a deeper understanding and appreciation of who God really is. The Word communicates the character of God. To declaw this passage of its tension in judgment is to cast a new God. We can’t simply mythologize all of the hard passages in the Bible any more than we can mythologize the hard questions of life. God is a God of answers even as we are a people of questions.

Instead, we ought to . . .

1. Allow Yourself to Feel the Tension.

I’m not sure if Abraham is specifically thinking of Lot here; perhaps he is. At any rate he is looking over the city like Jesus looked over the city of Jerusalem in view of her coming judgment (Lk. 19.41-44). Like Abraham before him, Jesus feels the weight of the coming judgment. I wonder what our prayer lives would be like for our lost family, friends, and cities if we felt the tension here between mercy and judgment. The ominous clouds of judgment still hover.

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