Photo by: Karl-Ludwig Poggermann

Marcion of Sinope’ was a Bishop of the early Church (2^nd century) who had a hard time reconciling the Gods of the Old and New Testaments. Without completely rejecting the Jewish Scriptures, he apparently found a way of seeing the God of the Jews as different than the God revealed in Christ.

Like so many other readers of the Old Testament, Marcion believed that the God he found there was a jealous tribal deity marked by a legalistic kind of justice. He saw the God who punished offenders with suffering and justice as being different from the loving God revealed in Christ. In time his views caused him to be declared a heretic and was excommunicated by Church Fathers. (see Wikipedia summary).

In this light, I found it interesting that The Word Biblical Commentary links the Apostle John’s description of Jesus as “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14, 16-18) to a common way of describing the covenant keeping God of the Old Testament.

This commentary, along with others, points to the way God described himself as he gave Moses the Ten Commandments. Of that occasion Moses writes, “Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.  And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, “keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exod 34:5-7).

Referring to God’s self-revelation as “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,” the commentary goes on to say that “grace” is the New Testament equivalent to the covenant mercy and “gracious constancy” (also  translated by the OT as the “lovingkindness”) of God.

The WBC goes on to point out that when John, in turn, speaks of “truth” he is doing so in a way that brings together the Hebrew and Greek meanings of “truth”. For instance, the Hebrew Scriptures use truth in a way that carries the idea of firmness and stability. When it is used of persons it represents steadfastness, trustworthiness, faithfulness, and reliability. By comparison and contrast, the Greeks saw truth as representing that which “really is”.

So what does all of this mean for us when we find Jesus revealing a God who is full of grace and truth?  Instead of coming to the conclusions of Marcion who saw “different Gods”, I believe we need to see the justice of God in the Old Testament, not as something contrary to his love, but rather as a way of expressing his love.

I’m convinced that if we could see the big picture we would see that God’s holy justice is born out of his concern for those who are being ruined and tormented by evil.

For example, prior to the judgments of the flood, and Sodom and Gomorrah, God sees the evil, injustice, and suffering of those who are being tormented by self-absorbed, out-of-control communities (Gen 6:5); (Gen 18:20-21); (Gen 19:4-7); (Ezekiel 16:49-50).

Yet, in time, this same God shows his gracious lovingkindness not only for the people of Israel (which the prophet Jonah would have preferred), but also for the people and animals of Nineveh (the violent Assyrian enemies of Israel) (Jonah 4:10-11).

It is this lovingkindness of God that spills over and over in every verse of the 136^th Psalm…for his mercy endures forever (Psalm 136:1-26).

At this point, I need to stop and admit, that yes, it is still difficult for me to understand the judgments of the God of the Old Testament. But it’s not as though I can ignore either that the New Testament ends with even greater, apocalyptic waves of judgment in its concluding Revelation.

But here’s where I want to land. Whatever we don’t understand in either what precedes or follows John 1:14, 16, and 17, all must be understood in light of John’s words, “So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness” (John 1:14 NLT).

Admittedly, I actually appreciate “Marcion the Heretic’s” struggle with the judgment and anger of the God of the Old Testament. I do too (and especially as I see it come to fulfillment in the visions of the Apostle John’s last words and Revelation.) But all of that must be in some mysterious way consistent with what God revealed in his Son.

In some way that God has not yet revealed, when he describes himself as a Consuming Fire (Heb 12:29), he must be signalling to us, not just a burning holiness, but a holiness that is destined to blast away all and anything that is not full of– and protected by– his unfailing love and faithfulness.

If Jesus was full of unfailing love and faithfulness, it is because his Father (and Spirit) is too. And if the Father, Son, and Spirit are full of unfailing love and faithfulness (truth and grace), then let’s pray together that God would enable the same to be said…increasingly…of us…

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