Most modern evangelicals are fine with salvation, but want no part of damnation. They like heaven, but despise hell, they are fine with mercy, but seem to forget that the offer of mercy always implies that judgment and condemnation is what is actually deserved. This is an extremely dangerous position to be in, because it’s not big step from overlooking chapter 9 of Esther to Rob Bell’s position in “Love Wins.” Once we have embraced the idea of a “VeggieTales” God who saves, but doesn’t judge, we will inevitably come to the conclusion that everyone is saved somehow and that judgment is deserved by no one. This inevitably leads to the conclusion that no actions are really worthy of judgment, except perhaps the action of judging itself. If we reject the God who judges, we will inevitably reject the people who judge as well, and so the entire concept of sin will be reduced to one cardinal sin – the act of judging others. As a result, the only verse from the bible that seems to be remembered these days is Matthew 7:1 “Judge not, that you be not judged” which is wrenched out of context to imply that all judging of sins by anyone, including God, is forbidden. The fact that most of chapter 7 is taken up with Christ’s warnings against Hell and lawlessness is either forgotten or never known.
Grace in modern evangelicalism is in danger of degenerating from the most costly thing in the universe won for believers through the atoning death of the Son of God, into something cheap that is automatically given to everyone for nothing. It is rendered worthless, because there was never any wrath in God, or any danger that God would judge anyone for their so-called sins. Dietrich Bonhoffer warned against such cheap grace in his classic work, The Cost of Discipleship:
“Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian ‘conception’ of God. …. In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God. … Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession…. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”
Let us hope that evangelicals will search for and recover the ninth chapter of Esther, and that they would recall that the real love story in Esther wasn’t between Esther and King Ahasuerus, but between God and His People. It was because of that great love that He redeemed them and delivered them from the hands of their enemies, and then delivered those enemies into His judgment. When we think about what the King of Kings, Jesus Christ does, let us remember both His Love and His Wrath, His Mercy and His Judgment. In doing so, perhaps it would be helpful to close by recalling what the Westminster Larger Catechism taught us about the way in which Christ’s Kingship is exercised:
Q45: How doth Christ execute the office of a king?
A45: Christ executeth the office of a king, in calling out of the world a people to himself, and giving them officers, laws, and censures, by which he visibly governs them; in bestowing saving grace upon his elect, rewarding their obedience, and correcting them for their sins, preserving and supporting them under all their temptations and sufferings, restraining and overcoming all their enemies, and powerfully ordering all things for his own glory, and their good; and also in taking vengeance on the rest, who know not God, and obey not the gospel.
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