What is the primary concept of resolving conflict in our society? Usually people turn to lawyers, and the end result is some monetary payment—or in the case of serious crimes, you pay with time in prison.

I remember being in Singapore, and a friend describing it as a “fine” city.

“Yes, it’s pretty nice,” I replied.

“No,” he said with a grin. “It’s a fine city because it has a fine for everything!” A fine for the possession of chewing gum, a fine for jaywalking, a fine for not flushing a public toilet.

If you offend in some way, you have to pay—either with money, or with a stay in jail. It’s not hard to see why people understand enforcing rules and requiring restitution as being the mechanism that God uses. After all, with our highly-developed legal system, isn’t this some kind of universal law that if you break it demands payment?

Yet even in our law-dominated society, we recognize that running to lawyers doesn’t fix things. How often do we see on the news people weeping over some loss that no amount of money can ever compensate for? When lawyers are called in to settle marital disputes, what hope for the marriage? When relationships break down, an appeal to law doesn’t restore them…

Which is why there are two main ways of seeing our fractured relationship with God—one is that we are in legal trouble, and so the way to mend this is through some legal process: making amends. The other is that we are estranged, separated, alienated from God, and that what we need is a restoration of the loving, trusting bond between us and God through healing and reconciliation. The first comes from a perspective of a servant, intent on making sure the master and his (legal) requirements are satisfied. The second is the attitude of an estranged friend who longs for a true relationship based not on the demands of law but freely offered love and trust.

Do our bad actions cause us to end up in trouble? Yes. But not because the law imposes some arbitrary limit and penalty—like $100 dollars for driving at 31mph in a 30mph zone. But because we damage ourselves and others by our selfish behavior—causing injury through our careless, fast driving. The “sin” has its own inherent consequence, and the eventual result is damage, loss, and death.

God doesn’t have to do anything except let the natural results of sin develop. The problem is that one of the major aspects of sin is that the innocent suffer with the guilty. That’s a big lesson—that we affect people other than ourselves in what we do, and with sin, for the worse.

And eventually, when God does end it all, it’s the glory of a loving God as he truly is that destroys the wicked. It’s not God imposing a penalty—he just ends this probationary time when he veils his glory, and returns to his full brilliance—and all that is evil dies. So—his choice or ours?

For in the End, we either have a good relationship with God, or not. Either we want to be with him, or we don’t. And we all experience the results of that decision. Eternity with a God you love, or nothing—it’s your choice!

© Jonathan Gallagher