“God will forgive me. It’s his job.” Final words of German poet and writer Heinrich Heine.
I don’t know enough about Heine to know if he professed faith. But, I do know that this is a misunderstanding of God and forgiveness. We should tremble even thinking of it. And, I shudder to some degree interacting with the notion of God “having a job.” But, it can be reverently said that God is true to Himself and his attributes. In that sense, God’s job is to be holy.
Far better to say with Luther, “Let God be God.”
I read the Heine quote tonight while reading Wenham’s commentary on Leviticus. Wenham said that Heine’s sentiment has become “the unexpressed axiom of much modern theology.” Hence, Wenham wrote that God striking Nadab and Abihu dead (Leviticus 10), “Is an affront to liberal thinkers.”
When I came home from my study at church, I googled the quote, and naturally it came up on a poster. . .
