Who Pays God?

Q. We can pay the shopkeeper for goods purchased because both we and the shopkeeper are humans. But how we can pay God for blessings and forgiveness as we are creatures while God is Creator?

A. “He has told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk modestly with your God.” – Micah 6:8

Q. Psalms143:2: “And do not come to judgment with Your servant, for no living being will be innocent before You.” So how we can pay God for blessings and forgiveness as we are sinful creatures while God is Creator?

A. There are any number of verses that describe God’s unlimited capacity to forgive sin, such as Exodus 34:7 (“He keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin...”), Numbers 14:18 (“Hashem is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression...”) and Psalms 65:4 (“...As for our sins, You forgive them”).

He knows we’re sinful; He made us fallible that way. That has nothing to do with “paying Him back.” I reiterate the verse from Micah 6:8: “Only do justice, love goodness and walk modestly with your God.” If people master that, then they can worry about what to do next, but I don’t think most people have achieved doing only justice, let alone walking modestly with God.

Q. Is forgiving without punishing the crime an act of justice? Are you saying God is unjust? Who pays for our blessings? Don’t you think truth needs to conform to reality?

A. God forbid! Of course, God is just! But a judge can rule according to strict justice or he can temper his ruling with mercy. When we pray and when we repent, we ask God to judge us mercifully. That doesn’t mean that there are no consequences to our actions, but if He judged the world according to strict justice, we’d all be destroyed in an instant!

God gives us many things but that doesn’t mean we have to “pay” for them – you don’t pay for gifts! But there are strings attached, namely that He has given us a rule book and He expects us to follow it.

Q. If as you say we don’t pay for gifts, do you mean to say that prayer and repentance is the payment for God to judge us mercifully?

A. No, that’s our request.

We don’t really have to “pay” God – He doesn’t lack anything, so there’s nothing we can give Him that He needs. What He wants from us is to follow the rules that He has outlined. (I Samuel 15:22 – God doesn’t want sacrifices and burnt offerings nearly as much as He wants us to listen to Him!)

Do what God says and He will be quite pleased. If you feel that’s not enough, remember the saying, “If you can’t pay it back, pay it forward.” Performing extra acts of charity and kindness would be a great expression of gratitude.

Q. No human has followed God’s rules. Violation of one rule is violation of the entire law. So all humans are sinners. So how are our sins forgiven? Who pays for our forgiveness? Are you deliberately evading this question?

A. I’m not evading the question, you just haven’t liked the answer.

We know that everyone sins; Scripture tells us as much. (“There is no person so righteous that he only does good and never sins” – Ecclesiastes 7:20.) The Bible repeatedly stresses God’s mercy and forgiveness – see, for example, Exodus 34:6-7, in which we are told that His forgiveness extends for thousands of generations. There are many such verses.

As far as violating one rule violating the entire law, consider the observation made in the Talmud (Makkos 24a): Leviticus 18:24 says, “Do not defile yourself with all these.” Of course, it doesn’t take all of the things listed to defile a person; anything on the list is defiling. However, consider Psalm 15. There, the Bible lists things that secure a person a place with God, such as walking uprightly, working righteousness, speaking truth, not slandering, etc., etc., etc. The Psalm ends “One who does these will not be moved.” The Talmud concludes that if “all these” regarding sin means “any of these,” then certainly a simple “these” must also mean “any of these” when it comes to virtue.

Our sins are forgiven by regretting them and resolving to do better. (If our sins affected other humans, then we must also make things right with them.)

Who pays for our forgiveness? We do. In Judaism, there are no intermediaries between a person and God – not our clergy, not angels and not the messiah (whom we believe is a regular mortal human being, and who has not yet arrived). It’s up to a person to make things right with God; no one else can do it for him.

Rabbi Jack's latest book, Ask Rabbi Jack, is now available from Kodesh Press and on Amazon.com.