We’ve all heard it said before: “when we are weak, He is strong.” Let’s flip that around and say the other is also true: “when He is weak, we are strong.” But we’ll get to that later.
We’ve been told over and over again that God is holy, and that this is primarily his nature. But let’s just stop and define the word “holy” for a minute. Holy means set apart, different. Is it enough to say that God is different? Don’t we have to define how he is different? How do we do that? Normally when we hear holy, we think “good” and “righteous” and even “distant.” But we still have to define “good” and “righteous.” We normally think that for God to be righteous, He must be against the wicked and set to slay them unless a miracle happens, unless blood is shed and He feels better. Normally, I don’t think a person is “good” or “righteous” when this is their nature; I would assume they were pretty evil, actually – that is, if they have to shed an innocent person’s blood to feel better about evil people.
But maybe there’s another story here. Sure, the image of God begins with a relatively violent being that is more powerful in war than any other, but throughout the OT He is always seen directing his violence against the oppressor and vindicating the weak. The other gods were not oriented towards vindicating the weak; they were in support of the oppressor. In this way, YHWH was different. He punished the oppressor (with warning) out of LOVE for the oppressed, the weak.
But the story does not end there. In the NT, this God reveals the fullness of his righteousness and justice in Christ. He sends his Son to proclaim forgiveness and love, and the gift is butchered. But God does not give up on humanity. He raises this gift from the dead, sealing his commitment to forgiveness and love. Here God is scandalously different on another level: He does not conquer through weapons of war, but through the power of powerlessness, through weakness. In this way, the weakness of God is greater than the strength of men (1 Cor 1:25). Out of love, Jesus asks God to forgive his slayers, which would mean nothing if he planned on paying them back later. He walks the road of love, even to the point of death. He is the God who sacrifices himself, the God who serves. “Through the Son, God also reconciled all things to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, thereby making peace through the blood of his cross” (
Caesar and the Romans, those who oppressed the Jews in Jesus’ day, made peace through the sword, through shedding other people’s blood. But Jesus made peace by shedding his own blood. Because peace only comes through peace and you can’t fight fire with fire. This is how God is holy, good, just, and righteous: He is eternal, self-sacrificial love. This is why I can say that when He is weak, we are strong.
