Last week’s post: Genesis 17
Genesis 18 contains one of the first theological discussions between God and man. Abraham starts out with a feeling of injustice...which is interesting in and of itself. I mean, theologically speaking, the Bible has thus far established that there is one eternal, all powerful God, creator of the universe and everything in it. Ergo, God makes the rules. If he'd decided that people with brown eyes had to be the servants of people with blue eyes or be smote from the earth altogether, I mean that would really stink, but you can't argue an eternal God. I mean, you could, but what would be the point?
In the words of Vernon McGee: "This is God's universe, and God does things his way. You may have a better way, but you don't have a universe."
Let’s jump to God and Abraham’s conversation. I’ll pick it up in verse 20.
20 Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.” 22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Genesis 18:20-25, NIV)
Abraham's sort of saying, "Hey God, I know you're God, but something just isn't sitting right with me. I don’t get it. It doesn't really feel right that you would kill innocent people because of the badness of other people. Would you really do that?" You can sense the wheels turning in Abraham’s head. “How does all this work, theologically speaking? Does God punish people for the sins of others…and does God save people due to the righteousness of others? For the sake of my family, I’ve got to know.”
Let’s take a quick sidebar on verse 23 and 24. Here, Abraham asks God, “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?” (Genesis 18:23-24, NIV)
Suppose God had answered Abraham as follows: "Yep. I'm angry. There may be some good people there, but their entire society is all kinds of messed up. Actually, Abraham, you go kill them all. I'm busy right now."
Abraham would somehow have to come to grips with the fact that not only was his sense of justice wrong, but so was his understanding of who God is. That would be just about the worst realization you could have as a human…a “sinners in the hands of an angry God”-type scenario.
Thankfully, “Yep,” isn’t God’s answer. He lets Abraham in on a very interesting insight into his character as well as to theology as a whole. God answers in verse 26, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” (Genesis 18:26, NIV)
Abraham just discovered that the doctrine of substitutionary atonement is a thing. Hmmm…so, the righteousness of some can atone for the unrighteousness of others. Interesting. Again, you can sense the wheels turning in Abraham’s mind. “Interesting. So, God will spare bad people for the sake of good people. Hmmm… I wonder what God’s number is. How many good save how many bad?” Abraham presses on. "Ok God, so how much goodness (or how many good people) does it take to prevent the smiting of an entire town? Is this a simple majority-type situation? 51%? If so, does a certain degree of righteousness matter? In other words, what if some of the righteous people are really great people and others are pretty good folks who attend church on Sundays and donate a little bit of money to charity?"
From there on out, Abraham tries to settle in on the level of righteousness needed to save the town. It's really not so different than the inner feeling we all have today about the town we care about most: the town of me. How much goodness in me will save me? 50 good deeds? What if I'm sort of an arrogant jerk a lot of the time, but I attend church on Sundays and give money to the poor? Is that enough to save me?
Abraham continues his theological discussion with God. 50 righteous people? What about 45? Yes, ok, how about 40? 30? 20? Then, in verse 32, he stops at 10…which is sort of weird because we can all see where this is going. I think he stops because ol’ Abraham can see where this is going, too. Would God save the town for the sake of 1? Just one. I've heard lots of theories on why he stopped his haggling/questioning at 10 righteous people. Obviously, we don't know for sure, but here's the theory I tend to agree with: Abraham stopped because he realized that the fate of the town was going to rest on the number 1. In God’s economics, it only takes one righteous to save all the unrighteous. In other words, Abraham realized that God’s number was “one” and that the fate of Sodom might very well rest on one: his nephew, Lot. If Lot was righteous, the town would be saved. If not, it would be destroyed. Abraham didn't want to go there. He may have been thinking...what if I was in the city? Would I be considered righteous enough that God would save the city because of me? Again, this is all total supposition. But, perhaps these were a few thoughts that were running through Abraham's head.
Back to the logical conclusion. And it's ultimately a question of utmost importance for the whole of human existence. What if it wasn't just a sinful town but a sinful state and sinful country and sinful world? Would God spare a world of unrighteous people if there was only one righteous person in it? Would God save the world for just one? From this point on, the Bible answers that question unequivocally and beautifully. Yes, for the sake of one he will save it. Because of one he will save it. But, it has to be the right one. Truly righteous. Truly blameless. Truly perfect. And, just as he foreshadows four chapters later in Genesis 22, God will himself provide the perfect one…the perfect sacrifice.
So, the ultimate answer to that inner question we all have, “How much goodness in me will save me? How many good deeds must I do to outweigh the bad?” is “None.” With all the rhetoric about “doing enough good to convince St. Peter at the Pearly Gates to let us in”…that just isn’t how things work, theologically. In fact, that’s one of the core beliefs that sets Christians apart from other religions. In Islam, your good deeds must outweigh your bad deeds. In Buddhism, you must essentially figure out some complex mental puzzle to discover “reality” and escape the confines of this world. In Christianity, the work of salvation doesn’t depend on our physical, mental, or emotional ability…only our acceptance of a gift. We do not have the capacity to save ourselves by our own goodness. And, that’s the best news ever; because it means the weight of our salvation is removed from us and placed somewhere else…on someone else. When judgement day comes—and the Bible promises us that it will come for all of us—we will not be rewarded with an eternity with our creator based on our own merit. God’s number is, in fact, one. One righteous. One perfect sacrifice to redeem all of humanity. I’m not it. Neither are you. Jesus is. And, his work is done.
Here’s this week’s completely unnecessary hip hop rap summary:
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™