Bad Cop - Good Cop? Or NO Cop!

You are no doubt familiar with the terms “bad cop – good cop”. If you’ve seen any detective or police shows like Law and Order, you know the “bad cop – good cop” routine. That’s how many people see God.

We’re suspects. God has arrested us – cuffed us, booked us, we’re in deep trouble. We’re dead meat. He’s got us in the interrogation room and here he comes. On the one hand, he’s God the Father, the bad cop. On the other hand, he’s Jesus, the good cop. The two divine detectives take us, the suspect – of course, we know we’re not simply a suspect; we know we’re guilty - there in the interrogation room. We know we’re in the wrong but maybe we can trick God we think. According to what we know from religion and its authorities, God the Father plays the role of the bad cop. He’s an old grizzled veteran of the force. He’s seen it all – he’s a tough guy, mean, ruthless, uncaring, and sometimes in order to get suspects to talk, he’s been known to rough them up a little bit. Then there’s Jesus, well we’ve been told that he’s the good cop – he’s soft and sweet and nice.

But we’re shrewd and street-wise and we know how this whole thing is going to play out: Jesus will intervene just when God the Father is about ready to beat us up and play the heavy, and he’ll say to the Father, “Hold on. You’ve been working too hard. Let’s give this guy a break. Why don’t you cool off, go down the hall and get yourself a cup of coffee, and let me talk to the suspect.”

And then Jesus says to us something like this, “You’ve got to understand my Father – he’s got a lot of things on his mind, the whole universe to worry about, he gets stressed out – in fact, sometimes he goes over the top here in the interrogation room. But you know, that doesn’t have to happen to you. You can talk to me. Why don’t we talk before my Father gets back.”

And that’s kind of the idea some have of God – God the Father, God the Son, and for that matter God the Holy Spirit. God’s not a policeman. He’s not in the business of tracking us down, and we’re not in the business of deceiving him. He can’t be deceived. We fall for the idea that God is both good cop and bad cop because that’s what a lot of religion tells us. But there is no bad divine cop. There is only one God and, for that matter, there is no cop at all in heaven – no cop charged with hauling us in and wringing the truth out of us. God’s not a detective – he’s not a cop. He’s in the salvation business. He’s in the business of reclaiming and transforming people.

“What?” some people are going to say. “You’re saying that God is not a cop, a judge, not someone who demands justice? Are you saying that God is just interested in letting us off – in grace?” You know, people are scandalized by this notion. Of course, God is a judge. Of course, God demands justice. But God is not some hanging judge, some ruthless bad cop. God’s mission is to save us – to pardon us, to rescue us, to love us, to provide his grace to us. God is not who many think he is. God is altogether different from what many have assumed. He is what the Bible says he is – rich in mercy and grace. He is love and he is on our side and not out to get us. He’s not angry with us. He is waiting for us and he will always welcome us. Always.

God’s grace doesn’t make much sense to the human mind – that he might actually take somebody and give them blessings when they don’t actually, by our sense of justice, deserve them. God doesn’t reward sin but he loves sinners – He just plain loves the people who he has created.

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