God's Duty of Care

As a Christian, often times I have struggled to understand seemingly contradictory concepts in regard to our faith, but because “to whom would I go? I believe and am sure that Jesus has the words of eternal life…”[1] I have held those questions in my heart and continued to pray about them until God gave me some answer that would make sense to me. One such struggle centered on the justice of God and the vicarious or substitutionary death of Jesus for mankind.

As a person who evangelizes fairly often, I came across a tract that illustrates the reason for my struggle. In this tract, a bully grows up to eventually become a murderer. Because there are witnesses, he is arrested, found guilty of murder, and sentenced to death. All his life his mother loves him and pleads for him to live right, yet her son continually spews out hatred toward her. Even while in jail, his mother comes with cookies and declares her unconditional love for her son, yet still he rejects her love. Eventually he is told the day of his execution will be the following day and he proclaims, “I’m too young to die!” The next day the guards come to lead him away, but to his surprise he is set free and informed that his mother bore his sentence and died on his behalf. From this tract an analogy is drawn of how Jesus died on our behalf.

I don’t know if you ever thought about it, or if you have just accepted this kind of analogy, but I am asking you to think about it now. Would this truly satisfy the justice of God who is holy? Think about it. If a righteous person approached the bench of a judge in the sentencing portion of a convicted murderer and said, “Judge, you and I know that this man is worthy of death. Since the law demands death as the penalty for his crime and I can prove I am a person of impeccable character, I request that you allow me to die in his place. The death sentence that the law requires will be satisfied so you may set him free.”

What do you really think the judge will say? “Hmmm…kill a righteous man so that a criminal can go free to commit the same, or worse, crime again!” You and I both know that a good and just judge would never allow the criminal to go free and a good person take their punishment. How could that ever be considered justice?

So do you now see the dilemma and the contradiction in regard to Jesus’ death being the righteous dying for the ungodly. How could a completely holy, just, and good God accept as payment for our wickedness the death of one righteous? In fact, contrary to popular belief, the more righteous Jesus was the more unjust His substitutionary death would become.

So I prayed, “God I do not understand. It doesn’t make any logical or right sense that just because Jesus was the only one without sin that he could ever legally be accepted as a payment for our sin. Help me to understand.” I prayed over and over till finally the answer came when I was watching a PBS program about tort law.

The word “tort” refers to injury and the dominant action in tort is negligence. The tort of negligence provides a cause of action leading to damages, or to injunctive relief, in each case designed to protect legal rights, including those of personal safety, property, and, in some cases, intangible economic interests. Negligence actions include claims arising primarily from automobile accidents and personal injury accidents of many kinds, including clinical negligence.[2] In tort law, the standard of care is the degree of prudence and caution required of an individual who is under a duty of care. A breach of the standard is necessary for a successful action in negligence.[3] What does this all have to do with Jesus and justice you ask?


Well, I think it could be argued to a Trier of fact that God had a breach of the standard and a duty of care in regard to Adam and Eve, who were His sole creation. By reason of God’s ability to foresee the consequences of giving them a free will to choose or reject obedience, by virtue of Him being in all places present and failing to prevent them from eating of the deadly fruit, and allowing another member of His creation to so deceive Eve that it led to her actions that resulted in the spiritual death and subsequent physical death of all mankind, God failed to act with prudence and caution with those individuals who were under His duty of care.


It could be thus argued although God is not held in direct liability for the actions of His creation, but indirectly by virtue of creating Adam and Eve with a manufacturing defect called, “Choice.” Because God allowed Adam and Eve to exercise their choice and did not prevent them from doing so, which resulted in tort to not only themselves but all mankind. Much like the manufacturer of an automobile who is held liable for damages resulting from foreseeable defects that result in injury, so it could be said that God is liable for our injuries resulting from our defects (called our weaknesses or the weakness of our flesh in the Bible). Consider also the fact that God hid from mankind His wisdom - which it was He who came in the flesh, for if they had known they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.[4]


This is why the Bible in John chapter one and Colossians chapter one tells us that the one that took responsibility for our sins and redeemed us by paying our sin penalty was the same One who created us.[5] The fact is the only one that could have purchased us back was the Creator because He is the only one who could be held liable for our sin. This is why the Bible teaches that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.[6] God through Christ willingly accepted responsibility for His creation, although it could also be argued that God should not be held liable.

So it could be said that there is a class action lawsuit against God for damages resulting from His tort liability for those under His duty of care. All those who wish to receive compensation must have their names added to the suit and be listed in the Lamb’s book of Life. As a result, all those who do cannot have their sins held against them.

God is both the judge and the defendant. Jesus is both the payment and our attorney. We are the plaintiffs and we truly have an opportunity to benefit for all eternity. Won't you come to God, not only to receive compensation but the fix to our resulting injuries caused by the exercise of our freewill - a new heart and a new Spirit.

“God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”[7]

[1] John 6:68-69
[2] Wikipedia etymology of tort
[3] Wikipedia standard of care
[4] 1 Cor. 2:7-8; Acts 3:17
[5] John 1:1-4, 10-14; Col 1:12-20
[6] 2 Cor. 5:19
[7] Rom 3:25-26