The Unfair Gospel of Jesus

Infamous serial killer, cannibal, and necrophiliac Jeffrey Dahmer accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior just two years or so before he himself was murdered in prison in 1994. For a life lived in disbelief, for well over a decade of murder and gruesome, vile acts upon other human beings, Jeffrey Dahmer served just over three years in custody before, according to the facets of the Christian Gospel, he was sent to the eternal bliss of Paradise. A saint simply being one who is in Christ, Jeffrey Dahmer holds the same title as Billy Graham.

This is unfair. The families of Dahmer's victims, who hoped to see him locked behind bars - and worse - received less than an ounce of justice when you consider Dahmer's short prison term on Earth, and the Gospel's promise that he, having accepted Christ, has been given eternal life with God.

The Gospel is a beautiful Gospel, but it's also a difficult one, a gritty one, a gory one, and by the standards of us fleshly creatures, a very unfair Gospel.

Jeffrey Dahmer's crimes may be unique in their exceptionally bizarre and heinous nature, but his circumstances as a whole are not. Multitudes and multitudes of sinners like Dahmer, like me, like you, have accepted the salvation offered by Jesus Christ through His sacrifice on the cross, and our crimes have been washed away, expunged from our records. We were not punished, we were not stoned to death by the congregation, not swallowed up by the earth, not plundered and torn apart by Babylonian invaders.

I, as the 57th worst sinner who ever lived, am not sorry for this. I feel no guilt or shame that I've been rescued from my sins while having paid no price for it to be so. I regret the price I made others pay in my sinful behavior, but the One who removed those crimes from my record doesn't desire that I wallow in shame and misery over it. He is faithful to give me tasks and duties to glorify Him, to live a life in light rather than the one I lived in darkness. But He's not required me to roll in ashes and beat my breast, declaring what miserable, rotten things I've done; He's not required me to pay a monetary tax as penance to keep me in His embrace.

This is grossly unfair. But if it's any consolation to the outside observer, God played by His own unfair rules when He came to Earth in the flesh and suffered just like you and I do.

He endured temptation, but was without sin. He faced scorn, ridicule and plots against His life, though He had done no wrong, though He had brought an abundance of good in His ministry. He endured every day frustrations and agonies like you and me. And, He was tried and condemned, though without sin, and executed in the most agonizing way possible. A true criminal, an insurrectionist named Barabbas, was meanwhile set free.

While He was fastened by nails to that ominous cross, slowly dying, a criminal crucified next to Him groaned in his own agony that this Man from Galilee had done nothing wrong, and asked the He remember him when He came into His kingdom - if the criminal even knew just what that meant.

The condemned sinless One declared to the condemned rotten one, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise."

For all his years of habitual offenses and recklessness, a few hours of faith in the One who shows grace and mercy brought the unknown criminal to eternal life where there is no more pain, decay, sorrow or death.

There is no way around it - the Gospel of grace is an unfair Gospel.

drawing by Albert Servaes

"'Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you'...So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen."
-Jesus Christ, Matthew 20:14, 16

My Brother Jeffrey Dahmer

A belief, or lack thereof, can't be bolstered by big names. Atheism isn't given merit simply because Ricky Gervais and Seth MacFarlane are atheists; but likewise, I can't make a bigger case for Christianity simply by pointing out that Norm MacDonald and Alice Cooper are Christians. A belief must be judged by its own merits, not by the names - prestigious or otherwise - of those who subscribe to it.

I was thinking about this recently, and the names whose fame - or notoriety - makes no difference because those names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and not bolstered or burdened with worldly praise or hatred. "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:4). Two of the well-known names that came to mind were those of two convicted serial killers, David Berkowitz (the only participant in the "Son of Sam" killings to be caught), and a name reviled even more, Jeffrey Dahmer, who raped and murdered at least seventeen men, and indulged in such things as cannibalism and necrophilia with their remains. Before he was killed in prison in 1994, he accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and repented of evil.
Some may argue that convicts often "find religion" to warrant a release or new trial; David Berkowitz, however, refuses to attend any of his parole hearings, and it's quite illogical to argue that Dahmer professed Jesus in order to look better - no amount of religion or good deeds would have ever seen him released from prison, or gained him one ounce of good favor in the eyes of the public. And Dahmer knew that.

I don't pretend for an instant that Dahmer's salvation lessens the pain of his victims' families on Earth, nor do I pretend that it exonerates him for his gruesome crimes. God will forgive you of any terrible thing done on this earth, but the state will still rightfully sentence you to prison.

But as I said, Dahmer's name came up when I was thinking of "famous Christians," and how I can't sway anyone to believe in the divinity of Christ by dropping names. I even began to think some names would further drive some away from the Gospel - some might ask how God could forgive a deviant, a cannibal, a rapist, a murderer.
Jeffrey Dahmer, as long as he was on this earth, and as long as the record of his awful deeds remains, will always be a monster. I was a monster once too. I don't pretend that my deeds were anything like Dahmer's, but he and I were once both in danger of eternal separation from God's love, had we died unrepentant of our respective evils. Jeffrey Dahmer was a monster indeed, but he became my brother in Christ.

This might draw the ire of the more ravenously skeptical; a serial killer repents and asks forgiveness of an Authority higher than any Wisconsin court, and finds peace in the final years of his life, spent in a cold gray prison. I was asked once, "Are you tellin' me there's a God who will send a cold-blooded murderer to heaven if he repents but He'll send a gay man to hell?!"
No, I don't tell you that for a second. God offers grace and forgiveness to all who accept it through faith in His Son Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead. He sent Jeffrey Dahmer to heaven not by Dahmer's own works, but because of God's grace. He'll send me to heaven not because of my own works, but in spite of my own works, for most of them on this earth have been bitter and bigoted. I don't recall the Bible describing homosexuality as an unpardonable sin. But any gay man or woman who believes in Jesus as the Son of God and abides in Him will not be cast to hell, despite the ignorance of the signs at Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas.

The unpardonable sin, for which Jesus condemned the Pharisees, cannot be committed today, for those Pharisees are long dead. Indeed some remain in the Pharisaical mindset, but that's another matter. Now, the only unpardonable sin is more of an unpardonable state - dying in the state of unbelief, of denying Jesus as Lord. But if you believe in Him, the atoning power of His blood shed on the cross is by no means nullified or rendered void by the sins forgiven you.

I'm grieved that Jeffrey Dahmer chose to spend his time on Earth doing the atrocious things he did. But I'm glad that when he and I and all other saved persons stand in God's kingdom unashamed, I'll know him not as a deviant and a murderer, and he'll know me not as a racist and a liar. Maybe this famous name does help to bolster Christianity's claims...

"I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." -our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as recorded in Luke 15:10