Good Cop, Bad Cop, No Cop Trinity

By Martijn van Tilborgh

Could it be that we, the church, have gotten this wrong?

Is it possible that some of the things we have always believed and preached are actually preventing us from seeing the truth that has been in front of us all along?

Should we at least consider that we may have misrepresented God so badly that it makes complete sense why so many people want nothing to do with "that god"?

We told the world that God is love.

Then we added a disclaimer.

That love, we said, only applies to some people, sometimes.

Thank you, John Calvin!

And then we had the audacity to call that "good news".

We explained that humanity consists of "sinners in the hands of an angry god."

Nice touch, Jonathan Edwards.

We even labeled it "The Great Awakening."

Over the years, we have communicated a lot of ideas that sound more insane than sacred.

And in the process, we have alienated and excluded most of humanity from ever wanting to know the Creator and Sustainer of all things.

We preached that God demands a sacrifice "or else".

We portrayed the Father as a critical observer who merely tolerates us simply "because Jesus seems to like us".

As if the Trinity suffers from divine schizophrenia.

Jesus plays the good cop.

The Father is the bad cop.

And the Holy Spirit … well … She opts out altogether, unwilling to pick a side.

George MacDonald, the Scottish theologian from the 1800s, saw through this long ago. He put it this way:

"They say first, God must punish the sinner, for justice requires it; then they say he does not punish the sinner, but punishes a perfectly righteous man instead, attributes his righteousness to the sinner, and so continues just. Was there ever such a confusion, such an inversion of right and wrong? To lay the pain upon the righteous in the name of justice is simply monstrous. No wonder unbelief is rampant. Believe in Moloch if you will, but call him Moloch, not Justice."

If you are unfamiliar with Moloch, I encourage you to look it up.

Is it any wonder unbelief is rampant?

Could it be that the good news is actually far better than we have made it?

Is it possible that there is literally nothing we can do to make ourselves acceptable to God?

Could Paul have been telling the truth when he wrote that not even death itself can separate us from the love of God?

I do not know about you, but I am hopeful.