The Limits of God's Grace

TheLimits of

Written by Bart CampoloA few years ago, after being politely asked to depart early from yet an-

other speaking engagement for giving the wrong answer to a question about the limits of Gods mercy, I decided it wasnt fair to keep sneaking up on

unsuspecting Evangelicals.

Strange as it seems to me, I know all too well that to proclaim a God compassionate enough to seek the rescue of every one of his chil-drenand powerful enough to pull it offis a dangerous scandal to such folks. In a very real way, they dont even hope for universal salva-tion. After all, without the fear of their unsaved loved ones eternal

damnation, how would they motivate one another for outreach and missionary service?

And yet, almost everywhere I go, I meet peopleespecially young peoplewho are not motivated at all by such fear. On the contrary, these people are utterly horrified by the notion of a Heavenly Father who essentially says to his children, I love you, but if for any reason you fail to accept that fact before your mortal body expires, I will kill and torture you for all eternity. Especially if that same Heavenly Father holds in hand all the reasons the children do or dont ac-cept in the first place.

These are the people who ask me the questions that used to lead to my early departures, and who write me letters and emails like this one:

God sGraceS

September/October 2006 www.thejournalofstudentministries.com

This article is brought to you FREE by The Journal of Student Ministries.

Dear Bart,This might be kind of weird, but I have a question for you. I lived and worked among the poor with Mission Year in the inner-city of Atlanta last year. When you came to visit my team, you told a story about how when you first started working in rough neighborhoods, you got to know a girl who was gang-raped as a nine-year-old andafter her Sunday School teacher told her God must have allowed it for a rea-sonrejected God forever. Because you believed God was indeed in control, and because you believed that girls lack of faith doomed her to eternal damnation, you decided that God must be a cruel bastard. You sort of said the words inside my head out loud, words I had wanted to say for a long time.

Anyway, after putting this off for almost a year, I want to know how you reconciled that. How did you make it from, God is a cruel bastard back to I can trust him? I cant seem to make that leap. Sometimes I begin to really trust him, but as soon as I think about my past abuse and those I know and love who are bound for Hell, it just doesnt add up. I want to know the God you knowwho apparently al-lows for horrible things in this world to happen, yet remains pure and holy and trustworthy and faithful and loving.

I dont know if any of this makes sense to you, but as I was wrestling with it again today I was reminded of you and hoped you might be of some help.

Sarah

Dear Sarah,Thank you for writing to me. Over the past few years, I have become convinced that yours is ac-tually the single most important question in the world. As Rabbi Harold Kushner observes, Vir-tually every meaningful conversation Ive had with people about God has either started with that question or gotten around to it before long. While I am sure my answer will not be as eloquent as his, I will do my best.

First of all, while I certainly believe my most cherished ideas about God are supported by the Bible (what Christian says otherwise?), I must ad-mit they did not originate there. On the contrary, most of these ideas were formed during that dif-ficult time I described to you, when I was suddenly disillusioned by the suffering and injustice I discov-ered in the inner-cityI suddenly did not trust the Bible at all. At that point, for the first time, I real-ized that peoples lives dont depend on whether or not they believe in God, but rather on what kind of God they believe in. I also realized, for better or worse, that the only evidence I could rely on was that which I saw for myself.

What I saw then, and still see now, is a world filled with dazzling goodness and horrific evil, love and hate, beauty and ugliness, life and death. In

Gracethe face of such clear dualities, it seemed to me then, and still seems to me now, that there are but a handful of spiritual possibilities:

* There are no spiritual forces. The material uni-verse is all. Our lives bear no larger meaning, and those who hope for more hope in vain. In this case, considering that nine-year-old rape victim, I despair.* There is only one spiri-tual force at work in the universe, encompassing both good and evil. This world is precisely as this force wills it to be, and everythingincluding the rapes of children happens according to its plan. In this case, again, I despair.* There are two diametrically opposing spiritual forces at work in the universe, one entirely good and loving and the other entirely evil. Satan (or whatever one chooses to call that evil force) is most powerful and therefore will utterly triumph in the end. The suffering of that poor little girl is but a foretaste of the com-plete suffering that is to come for us all. In this case, of course, I despair.* T here are two opposing spiritual forces at work in the universe, one entirely good and loving and the other entirely evil. God (or whatever one chooses to call that good and loving force) is most powerful and therefore will utterly triumph in the end. The suffering of that poor little girlevils doingwill somehow be redeemed, and she herself will be healed as part of the complete redemption and absolute healing that is to come for all of us. In this caseand in this case aloneI rejoice and gladly pledge my allegiance to this good and loving God.

I cannot prove or disprove any of these possibilities, of course, based on the evidence of my experience. What I know with certainty, however, is the one that makes me want to go on living, the one I choose for my own sake, the one I deem worthy of my allegiance. I may be wrong in this matter, but I am not in doubt. If indeed faith is being sure of what we hope for, then truly I am a man of faith, for I absolutely know what I hope to be true: that God is completely good, entirely loving, and perfectly forgiving, that God is doing ev-erything possible to overcome evil (which is evidently a long and difficult task), and that God will utterly triumph in the end, despite any and all indications to the contrary.

-------------While I certainly believe my most cherished ideas about God are supported by the Bible, I must admit they did not originate there.-------------



This is my first article of faith. I required no Bible to determine it, andhonestlyI will either interpret away or ignore altogether any Bible verse that suggests otherwise.

This first article of faith was the starting point of my journey back to Jesus, and it remains the foun-dation of my faith. I came to trust the Bible again, of course, but only because it so clearly bears wit-ness to the God of love I had already chosen to be-lieve in. I especially follow the teachings of Jesus because those teachingsand his life, death, and resurrectionseem to me the best expression of the ultimate truth of God, which we Christians call grace. Indeed, these days I trust Jesus even when I dont understand him, because I have become so convinced that he knows what hes talking about, that he is who he says he is, and that he alone fully grasps that which I can only hope is true.

Unfortunately for me, God may be very differ-ent from what I hope, in which case I may be in big trouble come Judgment Day. Perhaps, as many believe, the truth is that God created and predes-tined some people for salvation and others for damnation, according to Gods will. Perhaps such caprice only seems unloving to us because we dont understand. Perhaps, as many believe, all who die without confessing Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior go to Hell to suffer forever. Most important of all, perhaps Gods sovereignty is such that al-though God could indeed prevent little girls from being raped, God is no less just or merciful when they are raped, and those children and we who love them should uncritically give God our thanks and praise in any case.

My response is simple: I refuse to believe any of that. For me to do otherwise would be to despair.

Some might say I would be wise to swallow my misgivings about such stuff, remain orthodox, and thereby secure my place with God in eternity. But that is precisely my point: If those things are true, then God might as well send me to Hell. For better or worse, I simply am not interested in any God but a completely good, entirely loving, and perfect-ly forgiving One who is powerful enough to utterly triumph over evil. Such a God may not exist, but I will die seeking such a God, and I will pledge my allegiance to no other possibility because, quite frankly, anything less is not worthy of my worship.

Please, dont get me wrong. I am well aware that I dont get to decide who God is. What I do get to decide, however, is to whom I pledge my allegience. I am a free agent, after all, and I have standards for my God, the first of which is this: I will not worship any God who is not at least as compassionate as I am. If Mahatma Gandhi and my young friend

who got gang-raped are going to Hell because they failed to believe the right stuff, then I suppose I am too, for the same reason.

John Calvinor Jerry Falwell for that mattermay well be right after all, but if they are I would rather cling to my glorious hope than ac-cept their bitter truth just to save my own skin.

You can figure out the rest. I dont hate God because I dont believe God is fully in control of this world yet. Heck, God is not fully in control of me yet, even when I want God to beso how could I possibly believe that God is making all the bad stuff happen out there in the streets? I dont hate God because I believe God is always doing the best God can within the limits of human freedom, which even God cannot escape.

On that last point, consider for a moment the essential relationship between human freedom and love, and then consider the essential identity between love and God. If God is love and made us for love in Gods image, then God had no choice but to make us free, to leave us free, and to win us over to his Kingdom as free agents (which, evidently, is a long and difficult task). So God did, I be-lieve, and so God will.

I dont hate God because, although I suppose God knows everything that can be known at any given point in time, I dont suppose God knows or controls everything that is going to happen. I also dont hate God because in more than 20 years on the street, I have seen too much of evil (and too much of my own, moving-in-the-right-direction-but-still-pretty-doggone-sinful nature). I dont hate God because it seems to me that this world is a battleground between good and evil, not a puppet show with just one person pulling all the strings. I dont hate God because the God I have chosen to believe in isnt hateable, and because I refuse to believe in the kind of God that is.

Now here is the good news: I may be entirely wrong, but even in my darkest hours, my God of love hasnt stopped speaking to me. On the contrary, I hear Gods voice in places I never did before, always saying the same things, one way or another: I am with you. Im sorry about all the pain. It hurts me, too, especially when my little ones suffer. I have always loved you, and I always will. Do the best you can, but dont worry. Everything will be all right in the end. Trust me.And I do. And I hope you will, too, sooner than later.Your friend,Bart

Of course, to believe in God the way I do is to change all

-------------I am well aware that I dont get to decide who God is. What I do get to decide, how-ever, is to whom I pledge my al-legience.-------------



Bart Campolo is the founder and chaplain of Mission Year, a national Christian service program recruiting young adults to join outreach teams that live and work in inner-city neighborhoods in partner-ship with strong local churches. He is a part of the Urban Youth Ministry Institute, a Staley Foundation lecturer, a national representative of Compassion International, and a recognized leader in Christian social action. Hes also the author of many books and articles, including Kingdomworks: True Stories about God and His People in Inner-City America (Servant Publications).

the rules of ministryespecially of youth ministry. I still do my best to convince young people to accept Je-sus as their personal Lord and Savior, but not because Im afraid God will damn them to Hell if they dont. On the contrary, I want the kids I love to follow Jesus because I genuinely believe following Jesus is the best kind of life. Eternity aside, I want them to be transformed by the Gospel right here and right now, for their sakes and for the sakes of all the lost and broken people out there who need them to start living as Jesus disciples. After all, the sooner we all start following Jesus by feeding the poor and freeing the oppressed, the sooner Gods will shall be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Most of all, however, I evangelize people because, having discovered that they are the beloved children of my beloved God, I dont want them to suffer one minute longer than they have to without knowing that most wonderful fact of life.

And I stay in the inner city, in spite of all the suf-fering and injustice I see here every day, because I can. No longer do I blame God for what is beyond his control or hate God for so much pain his little ones endure. Even in the midst of such ugliness, I can stay here because I am full of faith. I may not be sure of what I know anymore, but I am absolutely certain of what I hope for, and most of the time I manage to live in that direction.

I stay here for one more reason, of course: In places like this, nobody asks you to leave early because you cant find the limits of Gods grace. z

-------------I may not be sure of what I know anymore, but I am absolutely certain of what I hope for, and most of the time I man-age to live in that direction-------------



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The Limits of God's Grace