#124 - Restoration Over Retribution {Reflections}

What if judgment isn’t the final hammer but the last step before healing? We open up a fresh way to see God’s judgment—not as payback, but as a restorative act meant to bring us home. Starting with a simple parenting moment and a painful lesson about a swinging door, we explore how consequences are often baked into our choices and how a wise, loving response seeks repair instead of revenge.

From Genesis 4’s vivid warning—sin crouching at the door—to the recurring biblical rhythm of warning, patience, consequence, and invitation, we trace a theme that runs through the whole story: God corrects for the sake of life. We talk about how self-love run amok bends our hearts inward and unravels relationships, and why staying on the path of love for God and neighbor leads to wholeness. Along the way, we challenge the image of a God eager to punish and Instead reveal a consistent picture of covenant love calling us back, again and again.

We also dig into the refining fire metaphor. Fire doesn’t erase gold; it removes what corrupts it. In the same way, judgment burns away what cannot live in communion—pride, contempt, idolatry—so that what is true and good can endure. That shift reframes confession and accountability: we run toward God, not away, trusting that correction is surgical, not spiteful. You’ll leave with a grounded, practical lens for discerning consequences, embracing discipline as love, and choosing the road that leads to life.

If this conversation reframed your view of judgment and restoration, share it with a friend, subscribe for more reflections like this, and leave a review to help others find the show.

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Chapters

• 0:16 Framing God As Judge
• 0:32 The Door Story And Natural Consequences
• 2:08 Sin’s Built-In Pain And Genesis 4
• 3:44 Rethinking Punitive Judgment
• 6:24 Judgment As Restoration, Not Payback
• 8:18 Fire, Purification, And Hope

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:16

What is up everybody? Hey, this is Ryan. Welcome to a Reflections podcast. And you know, the Bible talks a lot about God being a judge and the judgment of God, and fair enough, but like, what does it mean that God is a judge? And what does it mean for God to judge us or to bring judgment? And and um, you know, I remember a couple of years ago, actually it was probably maybe 10, 15 years ago, but my my son Gavin, and he doesn't mind if I tell this story, but he was like, uh, I caught him hanging on the top of a door. So imagine a door in our house opened, and he would jump up and grab the top of it and then swing on the door. And I caught him doing like, hey, dude, get down. I'm like, hey, you can't do that because it'll it'll bend the hinges. It's not good for the door, and you might get hurt, you know what I mean? And he's like, all right, all right, you know, and then about two weeks later, I forgot all about it. But about about two weeks later, I laugh now, but he came running and he's dead, and he's just sobbing. I'm like, dude, what's wrong? And he had his hands like like kind of curled up into like almost two little fists, like, but holding them close to his chest, like something, like something terrible happened to his fingers. And he's like holding them like close to his chest. I'm like, dude, what's wrong? What happened? And he looks up at me like he like I caught, like he's in pain, but also like he was in trouble or was gonna be in trouble. And I'm like, dude, what happened? And mid-sentence, I knew what happened. Like, oh well, he had jumped up again and disobeyed me and like jumped on the door, and this time the door swung closed on him and pinched all of his fingers. And um, he felt he jumped down and came to me and was screaming, of course. And so I appreciated that he came to me and wanted help, you know, rather than running away from me because he was scared. But I I was like, hey, in this moment, I don't think I need to like punish him any more than he's already been punished. Like I could add insult to injury and be like, okay, now you're grounded for three more days because you disobeyed me. But I thought, you know what? The punishment was baked into the action. You know what I'm saying? And I wonder if I wonder, actually, I think I'm convinced of this, but I I guess I'll just wonder for the sake of the conversation on the podcast. But I wonder if God's judgment isn't more like that. Like I think sin has baked within do it, most often, if not in if not every time, like the its own consequences. Like when you wander off the path and do things that you want to do on your own, and and like uh, you know, like Luther called sin, like self-love, run amok, you know, like when the arrows that are supposed to point towards God, like love God and love others, if you have these two arrows pointing out towards God and towards others, when those arrows turn in on the self, or when we worship ourselves or other gods that are not God, you know, it tends to eat us alive. It just doesn't go well for us, you know. I think it's crazy in Genesis 4, it's the first time sin is ever mentioned. Um, God warns Cain, like, be careful. Sin is crouching at your door and it's waiting to devour you. And there's this image in the Hebrew, like this malevolent, like kind of like sort of seductive, like feline cat that's gonna just like just mow you down and eat you alive. It's wild, this image of the of sin. And he's like, hey, be careful. And so I wonder if like sort of if it's not always God punishing us, as much as a God, like, hey, you want to have it your way, go ahead. But baked within the whole thing, when you go off the path, they're like, there's bushes down there with thorns on them. And there's wild animals that will try to take a bite out of your flesh, and there's like, it's just it's way harder to walk down there in the in the in the ruts on the side of the road. Stay on the path, and you'll be there'll be life there, you know what I'm saying? So in this case, then you know, it isn't like God is waiting to kind of pour out more punishment on us and to kind of add insult to injury. God, I think, a lot of times, like, hey, you want it your way, go ahead, and and allows the thing to play out. And there's just like these consequences baked into the sin itself, or they're wandering off the path. And and that makes me think a lot about too, like whenever I read about God's judgment, you know, I think we often think about God's judgment as punitive, as punishment that God sort of doles out for behaving badly or thinking wrongly, or these kinds of things. And that's the final say. Like, you're wrong, you thought wrong theologically, you you went to the wrong church, or you thought wrongly about me, or you behaved badly, I'm gonna punish you. And there's all kinds of images that Christians use for punishment and judgment. And and so you have this image of like a God who's like just gonna dole out punishments, but but man, that is not how I see God in the in the Hebrew Bible and the scriptures, uh, Old Testament and New Testament, or as my myself as a father, like when I whenever I do bring judgment to my own kids, it's never just punishment for punishment's sake or retribution for like their bad behavior. The end goal for me is not as as a father, it's not just to punish them or to make them remember they never do it again. You know, I mean, that's part of it, probably, but like it's not just like I'm gonna give them retribution. They did A and they deserve B and get their just dues, which is an odd saying when you think about it. Like the whole point of a father or a mother, you know, bringing correction or judgment, you might say. Again, sometimes I don't have to, it just has it, it it's it's sort of baked into the cake already. But sometimes I do, but it's not for the sake of retribution or to punish them because they behave poorly. The whole idea is for restoration. Like I want them to be whole human beings who know how to live well in the world, who don't cause themselves harm, who promote good, who don't cause others harm, but like build and construct and regenerative good human beings that are strong and courageous and that whole thing. So whenever I do bring correct, because uh look, a parent's job is to bring judgment, it's it's the end, the end is not judgment itself, or it's not punishment. The end is always restoration. And when I see judgment in the Bible, like look at the story of Israel, God always promises to bring judgment. You know, they call it the day of the Lord, and there's judgment all throughout the Hebrew Bible. But it's never just because God's doling out retribution, or like you're gonna, I'll teach you guys. He's not just giving out punishment for punishment's sake. You did A, you deserve B. In fact, God is overly lenient. Like, read it. He's he like lets them go again and again and again before finally like the thing breaks and he has to sort of intervene. But he always, always beckons Israel back. But come home. Come home, come be my children again and be, and I'll be your I'll be your God again. And so, even with God, the final goal is not punishment or retribution. The final goal is always restoration. Judgment then is like the penultimate or like the second to last action of God. It's like the thing that will like finally clean up all the mess. And it's it's interesting that the fire is often used as an analogy for judgment or punishment. And it's actually not a bad idea because fire purifies, fire removes all the junk in us, or gold anyway. Think about gold. Gold is purified in fire. It burns all the junk, the impurities that can't be in there. It burns it out of them. And that's judgment, you know. Like there's this one guy, I think it was Thomas Merton, who said, I don't know much about heaven, but I know that not much of me will be there. I love that. There are things in us that are incompatible with eternity with God. And God has to deal with those, get them out of us, burn them out, pluck them out, pry them out, whatever the case might be. Or we have to like surrender, let them go. But that's what judgment is. It's that, not God being like you just you chose the wrong theological idea. Sorry, you were raised in the wrong church, sorry, you were a bad behaving person. Now you're gonna, you know, whatever the punishment is, but but whatever punishment is, whatever judgment is, it's always for the sake of restoration. Now, I'm not saying that every person will then, you know, want to be in, like I want to be restored. So I'm in, you know, I don't know. At the end of the day, I'm not God, and there might be some folks who resist God all the way till for forever. I don't know. But again, I just want to say like I think that punishment and judgment of God is always for restoration, that we can come home once again and be his children and he'll be our father once again. So today, uh, you know, may you may you stay on the path and and avoid all the calamity that goes with it when you go off the path and all the natural, in sort of uh baked-in, you know, kind of consequences. And may you see the judgment of God when it comes into your life and and the corrections of God as restorative to kind of bring you back home and and help you see properly again and live properly once again. And in that way, may you embrace it as God sort of purifying us and like loving us as a father does with his kids. So all right, love you guys. Peace. Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share it with some friends. And don't forget you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 8 30, which is our liturgical gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering. Or you can check us out online at clcelkriver.org. Peace.