God of Motives, God of Covenants

I was driving in my car a couple of days ago thinking about a disagreement I have with a handful of Christian friends with regard to our interpretation of the Gospel message. Specifically, a few of my friends (and I am pretty sure a large portion of Christian's generally) believe that a person can be "saved" out of a place of fear. Thus, if you scare people into believing in hell and that they are going there, you can convince them to say the sinner's prayer (out of fear) and then they will be "saved". Hallelujah. Amen.

I've always had trouble with this kind of reasoning. Mostly because it is typically accompanied by a contract version of Christianity. Specifically, God is really all about contracts and whether or not you've signed the right one before death. In my mind, this takes God from a merciful and loving Creator and makes Him into a fine print reader, basing decisions off of meaningless and arbitrary lines in the sand.

So I was thinking about this argument - as I often do. In my head I was making this very articulate point about the fact the most repeated command in the Bible is 'Do not be afraid." And of course God was eavesdropping (as He always is) and decides to chime in.

First, He quietly whispers: You are right, Paula, I am a God of motives. This initially increases my steam. "Yes! Yes!" I think to myself, "How many times does Jesus confront the Pharisees about their cup being clean on the outside but dark and dirty on the inside! Of course! God of motives!"

Then He says (a little louder): But I am also a God of covenants. This stops me. "A God of covenants? What does that even mean, 'God of covenants'?" Then God - knowing what I am thinking - reminds me of the story of Jacob and Esau. He points out how Jacob stole the paternal blessing from Esau (bad, bad motive) but that He honored it anyway (keeping His covenant). He then shows me the Israelites bowing down to that gold-cow (bad, bad motives) but that He stayed with them and showed them the promise land (honoring His covenant.)

I've been processing this exchange for a couple of days. Frequently thinking about it and what God was trying to tell me. I'm not sure I've got it all nailed down, but essentially I think he was pointing out a dynamic tension that exists between two aspects of His character: (1) That he cares more for motives and the condition of the heart, than for behavior and (2) He keeps promises even to people with bad motives.

It occurred to me that different Christians emphasize different aspects of this character. For example, I have historically landed squarely on the side of God of Motives (duh) but some (many) of my brothers and sisters land squarely land on the side of God of Covenants. I've also been thinking that our tendency to choose sides, rather than acknowledging the True tension that exists, acknowledging that God is bigger than we can understand fully at any side, dramatically limits our understanding of God (and causes us to in-fight rather than learn from one another). Anyway... just something I am thinking about

BTW.... just for good measure. I found out that my Bible Study (the one I'm supposed to help lead in the Fall) is Kay Arthur's "Covenant". Don't you love God - such a good sense of humor.