I have a friend who pursues justice; she wants everything to be fair. The bad thing about absolute justice is that it leaves no room for mercy. In many ways, justice and mercy are opposites:
- Mercy is getting off with a warning, while justice says you deserve a ticket.
- Mercy is having a test question thrown out, while justice says you got it wrong.
- Mercy is receiving probation, while justice says you deserve jail.
- Mercy is getting a second chance, while justice says there are no “do-overs.”
- Mercy is being permitted to retract your chess move, while justice says “sorry, you took your hands off it.”
In a paradox of Godly proportions, God is both fully just yet full of mercy.
Justice says that an imperfect person cannot be in the presence of a perfect God, while mercy through Jesus allows us to do so anyway.
Thank God for his justice and his mercy—and for paradoxes!
A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.
