There is a George MacDonald quote making its way around social media these days, from his novel Donal Grant, and it goes like this: “Cast away from you that doctrine of devils, that Jesus died to save us from our Father.” The implication is that it would be monstrous for a father to be so brutal and murderous that his own son would need to sacrifice his life to stop him, the father, from massacring human beings. And that it would be cruel nonsense for Scripture to inculcate any such view of our heavenly Father.
I am an ardent admirer of MacDonald, and I believe he was a man of exceptional spiritual wisdom. I have enjoyed many of his books, both fiction as well as his Unspoken Sermons. But it’s no secret that MacDonald was a universalist, and that he believed that those who rejected Christ would be punished for as long as it took for them to change their minds on the subject. He viewed God as a loving father who would chastise only for the purpose of converting the unconverted. Hence MacDonald’s opinion that seeing God as someone who requires the death of His Son (so that unbelievers could be saved from eternal torment) is fiendishly wrongheaded.
This is the problem with universalism. Without a scripture-rooted and Bible-grounded vision of humanity’s preexistent alienation from God – and the continuation of that alienation forever, absent Christ’s atoning death – without such a view so many of one’s other opinions are apt to wander off the path of orthodoxy. Universalism is the initial infection that can lead to a wholesale collapse of one’s entire theological system. Certain wise and infinitely well-meaning persons, who are tenderhearted and wounded into an italicized compassionateness, are susceptible to the infection – their spiritual immune systems are weakened by a disproportionate sympathy that cannot abide the rigors of raw Justice.
But Justice must and will be served, warmed and softened as it is by mercy and equity in the Person of Jesus. Holy Writ makes it abundantly clear that human beings who ignore or reject the evidence of both Creation and Gospel, will get their wish, and “enjoy” an eternity without the annoying, bothersome presence of God. If you don’t recognize the Shepherd’s voice, and would rather not be pestered and burdened with His and His Father’s claims, then you will be allowed to follow your own lead, and continue that alienation from Him forever and forever. In a terrifying sense (and it’s only one facet of the immeasurable diamond), the Lord always gives us what we want, whether it’s ultimately desirable or not.
And just so we’re clear on the scriptural basis for the anti-universalist position, allow me to append the following verses: Matt 25:31-46, Is 66:24, Dan 12:1-2, Jude 1:7, Rev 21:8, Rom 6:23, 2 Thess 1:9, Matt 10:28, Mark 9:43-48, John 3:36, Rev 20:11-15, Jude 1:13, John 5:29, Mark 16:16, Malachi 4:1, Ps 37:20, Gal 6:8, Hebrews 6:2.
What MacDonald failed to understand thoroughly, I think, is that Jesus’s mercy was His justice, and His justice was His mercy, and the Father’s mercy was His justice, and His justice was His mercy. There can be justice without mercy, of course, and we are forever blessed that such is not the case in the realms of heavenly counsel. There, justice is always tempered with equity, and there is never a question of an innocent son being cruelly victimized by a bloodthirsty sire. Jesus did not throw Himself on a grenade tossed by a lunatic or sadistic father. The Two of Them, acting in perfect unanimity of purpose and design, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, engaged in a dance of redemption that embodied ideal Justice, while enrobed in the breathtaking garments of Mercy. And all to save us – not from an irate Father – but from ourselves.
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