Justice is one of my core values. No matter what the punishment, everyone should get what they deserve. (I am well aware that this means we would all deserve death because we've all sinned, but I like to ignore that for the sake of someone who has done wrong to someone else getting punished.)
What I've never been able to reconcile is God's just nature with his heart of mercy. "How is that even possible?" I would ask myself.
It would seem my view of the heart behind mercy was thoroughly wrong. I thought mercy meant everyone not getting the punishment they deserve (note my pessimism). Mercy, on the flipside, is "unmerited favor." Very miniscule distinctions, but it changes one's world view nonetheless.
The latter view is more a proactive action. Whereas the former is a retroactive non-action. The view of "unmerited favor" is something doable. It's nearly tangible.
How does this relate to justice?
Fighting injustice (in a Godly manner) ends up looking like the active view of mercy. Fighting for the underdog; feeding the hungry; valiantly battling on behalf of the oppressed; all of these seemed like compassion to me. So while fighting for justice, it seems mercy creeps in somehow. Fighting for someone you've never met is not only justice, it's mercy as well.
Never had I noted how they went hand-in-hand. And how useless justice is without mercy as its guide. Justice for the sake of justice is not God's heart. But with justice inspiring mercy to act, God's will can be fulfilled.
(Inspird by the first chapter in N.T. Wright's book, Simply Christian.)
1 comment:
Excellent reminder and insight.
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