34 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you broke. ² Be ready in the morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. ³ No one shall come up with you, and do not let anyone be seen throughout all the mountain, and do not let flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.” ⁴ So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tablets of stone. ⁵ The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name, “The Lord.” ⁶ The Lord passed before him and proclaimed,

“The Lord, the Lord,
a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
⁷ keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
yet by no means clearing the guilty,
but visiting the iniquity of the parents
upon the children
and the children’s children
to the third and the fourth generation.”

⁸ And Moses quickly bowed down to the ground and worshiped. ⁹ He said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, my Lord, I pray, let my Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.” (Ex. 34:1-8)

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¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵ (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ ”) ¹⁶ From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷ The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who^[f] is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known. (John 1:14-18)

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I read two passages for you. You are probably wondering: “Two passages? Does this mean this sermon is twice as biblical?” And the answer is obviously yes.

The first passage is in the book of Exodus. In this ancient story, God ransoms the people out of slavery in Egypt with the wonders of the ten plagues, humiliating the tyrant, Pharaoh. God brings the people out to the wilderness, crossing the Red Sea. He brings Moses up the mountain of Sinai to reveal his law to Moses, writing it on stone tablets.  While Moses is up the mountain, however, the people get Aaron to fashion them an idol, the very thing God was liberating them from. Moses hears the people worshipping this idol and carrying on, and he goes down, and he is so angry that he throws the stone tablets with the commandments on them at the idol. God’s anger burns against the people, and many die that day. In the aftermath of all this, despite the people betraying God, God relents from his anger, shows mercy, and Moses has to go back up the mountain to fashion new tablets.

There, God comes before Moses in the presence of a cloud. God passes before Moses and God reveals the full meaning of God’s name: merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. These qualities, if you do a search through the whole Old Testament, keep coming up. God is praised in the Psalms for having these qualities. One writer suggested that these qualities almost function like the creed of the Old Testament. They form really an essential summary for who God is.

But what about those other qualities at the end? God visits the iniquity of the parents upon their children and on their children’s children to the third and fourth generation? People wonder about that. That does not sound particularly loving and gracious.

If a person announced to you that they were a very gracious person, and also casually mentioned they make a point of punishing a person’s kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids for something wrong they did, you probably, let’s say, have the opposite view in mind: this person seems quite vengeful. So, what is going on here? Hold that thought.

The second passage is, of course, in the New Testament. It is the end of the first section of the first chapter of the Gospel of John. As many of you know, John begins with, “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.” John is beginning us off here with an explanation of Jesus as the very revelation of God, God himself, in human flesh. Jesus is the fulfillment of the word, the commandments, the prophecies, the revelations—all of it—in himself.

These two passages, put right next to each other, should raise questions: For instance, what do you mean that the law was given through Moses but grace and truth in Jesus? I did a comparison, and it is interesting that some translations don’t include the word “but” there. They merely read, “the law was given through Moses, grace and truth in Jesus.” However, the word is in Greek. The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth through Jesus. Is John saying that things that occur in the first passage are not true or gracious? Is John contradicting the book of Exodus?

Second question: what does John mean by “no one has ever seen God”? What about Moses here, or Abraham, or Jacob, or Isaiah, or Ezekiel, and so on. Again, what is going on here with John? Is John contradicting these other stories? What is John trying to say? Again, hold that thought.

Last week, I pointed out that when we look at the story of Jesus and his disciples picking grain on the Sabbath in Mark 2, what we take to be something rather obvious and commonplace in our culture actually has a revolutionary point: Jesus allows the disciples to transgress the letter of this deeply important law—it was one of the ten commandments, remember—and the reason why is simply that the “sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the sabbath,” Jesus says. The reason he gives is intended to transform how we see the laws of the Bible, which we so often take to be austere and exacting. Yet, here Jesus takes one of the most important commands of the Old Testament, one of the most essential commands about showing devotion to God, and says, actually, the point of it is not to satisfy God; it is to help people. That’s the point.

Jesus is teaching us how to read the Bible in a new way. And this is in keeping with how the whole New Testament shows that the law is to be read through the law of love, discerning the fruit of the Spirit, as the Apostle Paul says. God wants us to follow him and obey him, yes, but God wants us to follow him in the way Jesus shows us, and this Jesus-way of living out the commands of God is radical, so much so, in fact, it got Jesus in a lot of trouble: The great tragic irony of the Gospels is the one who is the logos of God, word made flesh, was executed as a lawbreaker.

Well, I thought about what to preach on this week. I want to follow this up with a similar, perhaps even more radical thought: What if we not only have a Jesus-centred way of following God, but also a Jesus-centred way of understanding God?

Does God Change?

Again, much like our story about picking grain on the Sabbath, much of this might sound somewhat obvious….until it isn’t.

I remember sitting down with someone for a pastoral chat a few years ago. They had recently been diagnosed with a serious illness. I asked what this meant for their walk with God.

Now, often when I ask this, folks respond with saying they have seen God in the love of their family and friends coming around them or they have been reminded in prayer or their daily reminiscing that God loves them. That sort of thing.

The person responded: “God caused this illness. God is punishing me.”

“Oh. Okay,” I said, “Well, why do you think that?”

The person proceeded to rhyme off a number of scriptures. There are stories of God punishing folks with plagues. There are passages in Deuteronomy that those that follow God’s ways will be struck with illness, and that those that do follow God’s ways will be granted health and a full life. The person had done their homework.

The person confessed to me the sins they committed, which they felt must be the cause of this punishment.

Of course, I tried to protest this. But, I remember walking away from that conversation a little bit concerned how quickly this person could chapter and verse a view of God where God causes all tragedies, punishing people every chance he gets.

 What I tried to say back then, before I left, was simply: everything you said is technically true. There are those Bible passages and stories, yes, but when I look at Jesus, I have a hard time believing your illness is because God is up in heaven and he has run out of patience for you. I just don’t see it.

After all: nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus ever inflict anyone with an illness. Jesus, the embodiment and bearer of God’s restored rule only heals. That does not mean God stops being angry at wrongdoing or that wrong actions no longer have consequences or that God stops working in mysterious ways, but when we look at Jesus, certain explanations for events in our lives just don’t seem as plausible.

The person turned back to me, skeptically, and he merely asked, “Are you trying to tell me God has changed?”

That question names the tension in the juxtaposition of these two scriptures I read for you.

Does God change?

Aslan Appears Bigger

When we were travelling this summer, while I was driving, I listened to some audiobooks. I got to finish a couple of novels by C.S. Lewis, namely his last book in the Space Trilogy, called A Hideous Strength. With that, I have actually read every novel that C. S. Lewis has written. So, I am kind of a fan.

Well, in the Chronicles of Narnia, books I have read to my boys, there is an interesting moment in the book, Prince Caspian.

 If you know the book, or claim to have read the book but actually just watched the movie, the children from the second book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, are magically recalled back to Narnia; what has been only a few years for them in our world has been many centuries in Narnia. Narnia lies in ruins, conquered, and Aslan, the magic Lion who is the Christ figure of the novels, has not been seen in many centuries. Many have given up believing in him.

However, Lucy, the youngest, keeps insisting that Aslan is near. Her childlike faith lets her feel him near when no one else does. She has glimpses of him, and no one believes her. Finally, Aslan appears in full. Lucy looks at him and says,

“Aslan…you’re bigger”. (Imagine me saying that in a British accent, which makes it sound so much more pleasant).

Aslan responds (this time imagine Liam Neeson voice) “That is because you are older, little one”
“It’s not because you are?” Lucy puzzles.
“I am not.” Says Aslan,  “But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”

Aslan is still the same, but as we grow, he appears to grow as well.

God does not change (or let me suggest that God is beyond what we understand “change” to be), but our understanding changes.

Saint Gregory of Nazianzus once asked why didn’t God just reveal that God was a Trinity right off the bat, right from the get-go? Like right at the Burning Bush: God could have said, “I am who I am, and by the way, let me save you a lot of ink and also say I am Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one nature, three persons.” Why did he not do that?

And he answers, perhaps God reveals himself little by little because God really is loving, patiently teaching us enough about himself each step of the way then a little bit more when we are ready: first the Father, then God reveals the Son, then God reveals the Spirit. It is only after these do we really understand how God is perfect love.

This movement in Scripture then is not a scandal or contradiction; it showcases who God is in the way God was pleased to reveal Godself: gently, patiently.

Not Marcionism, Not Biblicism

Notice what I am not saying: God does not become someone completely different. Aslan did not all of a sudden become a hippo or something.

There was a heresy in the early church called Marcionism (here is your theology lecture for the morning). Marcion was a teacher that looked at this movement and concluded that clearly the difference between depictions of God in the Old Testament and depictions of God in the New Testament is a matter of two essentially different Gods: Old Testament God, evil, New Testament God, good.

And folks in the early church said that this is an error (that’s what heresy means by the way). Sadly, we often do something similar when we write off the Old Testament. I knew one person who only read the New Testament because they believed there was no grace in the Old Testament. That is absolutely not the case, and if you think that you are missing out.

God does not change, but our understanding of him does change.

It is not that all passages of the Bible are all on the same footing, nor is it the idea that God is the Old Testament is bad and in the New Testament he got better.

So, what is it?

The Bible’s Fulfillment in Jesus

Well, maybe the most helpful way to put it is in the New Testament’s own words.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews says, “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being”

Ten chapters later in Hebrews, the author puts it this way: “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves.”

1 John 1 puts it this way, “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.”

Paul in the letter to the Colossians says, “Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God.”

All of this might help us understand why John say something as striking as this in the Gospel of John: ^“No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.”

There are revelations of God in the Old Testament that are fulfilled in Jesus, and what this means is that compared to the fact that the disciples could sit and eat and converse with and touch Jesus, God in the flesh, it’s like no one had ever seen God up to now, certainly not with that level of vivid clarity. It’s like that the whole Old Testament is a shadow of the person, and now we have the reality before us.

The difference between the Old Testament and New Testament is not Old Testament God bad and New Testament good; it is more like, as Saint Augustine put it, Old Testament hidden and veiled, New Testament revealed.

When I was growing up we ate a lot of cereal for breakfast. My personal favourite was Golden Grahams. Lucky Charms was a close second. Anyways, they always had some kind of toy inside or activity on the back. One of these was you had to rip the box open and find a lens inside and you would take that lens and look at the picture on the box to find a coded message. The lens filtered the colours on the box so that the message would become clear. Do you remember these?  I am running a few minutes late; my previous meeting is running over.

Jesus is the lens that makes the whole Bible clear. (I will also accept that Jesus is the toy in the cereal box of life).

The Bible is a movement, from Genesis to Jesus, of God teaching us about himself, moving step by step from less clear to more clear, and Jesus finally provides that definitive moment where it all comes into focus.

Sometimes this movement looks very straightforward and consistent. In other matters, we see a movement or development. If you look at teachings on war, slavery, treatment of women, and so on, you will see a progressive movement from the law to the wisdom books and the prophets of God teaching his people to treat people more justly (that’s a sermon for another day). And then you see how these land in Jesus: the one who loves his enemies, liberates and lifts the lowly up. God is always just, but this notion of justice gets more and more focused, clearer and clearer.

Or think about this movement like the change from seed to blossom.

Back to Thinking about Punishment

Well, the same goes for how the Bible understands punishment, the question that we began with. Have you been holding that thought?

Exodus 34, the passage we read at the beginning has a notion that remains fairly consistent throughout the whole Old Testament: God’s character is the same; God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

Yet is says God punishes to the third and fourth generation.

Is this a different God than Jesus? Does God change? No, but this revelation is not as clear.

If you keep reading in the Bible, you eventually come to a later Prophet named Ezekiel. Ezekiel prophesies that judgment is coming. The sins of the people, generation after generation, have added up. So, the people ask, “What can we do then? Is punishment inevitable because of what our forefathers have done?” That’s how they took that.

Ezekiel gives a resounding, “No.” Ezekiel 18 says, “Suppose [a wicked man] has a son who sees all the sins his father commits, and though he sees them, he does not do such things… He will not die for his father’s sin; he will surely live.” Then Ezekiel goes further. “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?” The passage ends with God simply reminding the people that God does not punish people for the sins of others. God is not like that: “The Lord is just.”

That’s fascinating, because that kind of sounds like God no longer punishes to the third and fourth generation. Not anymore, or, in fact, he never did. Perhaps the people of God heard something that made sense at the time, but they learned and grew by God’s grace till they were ready for the next step.

But the movement of us learning about God’s justice is getting clearer in Ezekiel comes into perfect focus in Jesus.

Fast forward and what do we see in the Gospels?

In John chapter 9, Jesus encounters a man who is born blind. His disciples ask, who sinned that he should be blind, was it him or was it his parents? Jesus answers saying that no one sinned. His blindness is merely the occasion that God is going to do something good. And Jesus heals him.

Are sick people sick because they have sinned or because their parents sinned? Is God the kind of God that goes around inflicting tragedy on people? Does God cause evil? Or is seeing someone sick merely an opportunity to help them the way Jesus did?

Is suffering the occasion to blame or to have compassion?

Is God the source of the world’s suffering or is God the solution?

Does Jesus cause evil or does Jesus save us from evil?

Does God break his own rules like do not lie or do not murder or is God the Word, the law of God, made flesh, sinless and perfect?

Or to put it another way: is God fully revealed in Jesus? Is God like Jesus? Is Jesus God? Is God then Christlike?

When we look at Jesus and see that God is definitively revealed in Jesus, then it all becomes clear.

Jesus, who is God incarnate, God with us, God Immanuel.

Jesus, who died on a cross as an act of serving sinful humanity.

Jesus, who rose from the dead, victorious, overturning death and evil.

When we look at Jesus we see that God is not far off, away from us. God is beside us. God loves us so much God would endure being executed for our sake. God loves us so fully and wholly, loving us more than his own body and blood—his very life—that God gladly bears the curse of sin and death itself in order to give us life. And so, when we look at Jesus, we see that God is faithful to his promises. God empties the grave. God loves in such a way that evil will not have the final word in this world.

Here, in Jesus, God is made fully clear. If we don’t read our scriptures with Jesus at the centre, we will miss the point.

Sadly, it has taken us humans a few thousand years to learn these truths, and God has been patient with us. However, the truth is, many of us still are not ready.

Does God cause evil?

Does God cause tsunamis and forest fires and global pandemics?

Does God love some people more than others?

Does God take sides in war? Does God approve of slaughtering or oppressing our enemies?

Does God reject people because of where they are born or how they were born?

Does God approve of the domination of women?

Does God approve of slavery?

Does God approve of torture?

Each of these questions might seem to many of us to be an obvious no, but I have seen Christians defend each of these, and they did so with a trusty proof text, cited chapter and verse.

As I said last week, it is entirely possible people can use the Bible in ways that are fundamentally unChrist-like. The same goes for its portraits of God. Take a few passages, take them out of context, ignore the whole sweep of the Biblical narrative, ignore the wisdom of church tradition and discerning leaders and teachers today, and you can portray the God of the Bible in all minds of monstrous ways.

Does our notion of God need to change? You see, if Jesus shows the very heart of God, if love is the essence of God, we are forced to un-deify the things we but in the place of God: power, control, violence, retribution.

Letting go of those things can be hard. Some can’t let go because then they believe they will have nothing left. I have too often seen believers cling to a God they can comprehend, even when that means God is profoundly toxic, rather than embrace the vulnerability of the mystery of love.

It is little wonder that the religious leaders felt they had to execute Jesus in order to preserve their religion.

The question I want to leave you with, Billtown Baptist Church, is how often have we been guilty of doing the same?

God does not change. God has always been Jesus. God has always been the love that Jesus shows in the incarnation, cross, and resurrection. But we need God to change us. We need a “God-change” in our hearts and minds.