The Daily Word

 

I’m sure we all believe that justice is a good principle. For people to be treated fairly and equally regardless of status, race, sex, beliefs and financial circumstances. Up until 1215AD in England, justice could be very arbitrary and depended upon what the local lord of the area decided, so the Magna Carta was written and became the basis of our legislation system. Our system of laws may not be absolutely perfect because people will always look for and find loopholes because that is our nature, but generally justice comes out of our legislative and judiciary system.

We may believe strongly in justice within our earthly society, but we could never want justice spiritually, to have to answer to a perfectly righteous and holy God, because our sinful nature would condemn us completely to eternal separation from God and eternal punishment. This is where God stepped in and provided His own plan to give us hope.

Back in the book of Jeremiah, God says, “I am merciful”. But it is impossible for God to compromise His righteousness by just letting us off, as it were, so even though He is merciful, He could never just ignore sin which is where Jesus bridged the apparent gulf between God’s righteousness and His mercy as God’s justice on our sin was borne by God’s own Son instead of us. We can never understand how Jesus could bear God’s punishment on the cross, but we should be eternally thankful that he did, so that we can obtain God’s mercy.

Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church