It’s Either Mercy or Justice
"Whoever takes the life of any human being shall be put to death. A life for a life! Anyone who inflicts an injury on his neighbor shall receive the same in return. Limb for limb, eye for eye, tooth for tooth! The same injury that a man gives another shall be inflicted on him in return." Lev 24:17f
Justice was the law of God in the Old Testament. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. We’re all very familiar with that. If I hurt or wronged somebody, the person had a right to a judgment and payback from me. It was all very fair.
The greatest atrocity that ever occurred was not Hitler or Stalin or Pol Pot murdering millions of people. The greatest atrocity was our ancestors murdering the Son of God some 2,000 years ago. Jesus came and taught and blessed and healed and delivered and gave of Himself totally to us. What did it get Him - death! He was butchered and spit upon and nailed to a tree like a dog. What an atrocity!
The innocent, sinless one was executed. The innocent one paid the debt of the guilty. It was your debt and mine that He paid. It was our sin, yours and mine that required his execution. We are responsible for the death of God’s Son.
We are responsible for the death of God’s Son!
Our sins required our death. So we come to Jesus saying, Lord I don’t want to die. I don’t want justice; I don’t want an eye for an eye. I want to live. And Jesus in His great mercy says, my son come up into my mercy and grace, I took your place, your debt is paid. We received mercy instead of justice. We deserved justice (death for death) but received instead mercy. Unmerited, free forgiveness. Mercy is a higher and better place where it triumphs over justice. (Ja 2:13)
However, here’s the rub. We can’t be in two places at once. We are either living in the place of mercy or we are living in the place of justice. Mercy and justice do not co-exist! We all know the Our Father where we say, forgive us our debts AS we forgive our debtors. That tells me I can’t have it both ways. If I want justice because someone hurt me, I cannot ask for mercy for myself. What goes around comes around. I reap what I sow. If I sow mercy, I’ll get mercy. If I sow justice, I’ll get justice. Which means I’ll get everything I deserve. I’ll pay for every sin and wrongdoing I commit. It’s either mercy without justice or it’s justice without mercy. Mercy and justice do not co-exist!
Mercy and justice do not co-exist!
Satan is the accuser of the brothers (Rev 12:10). He hangs out in the justice realm. He is the master prosecutor, the master legalist. His place of business is the justice realm. He has the legal right to demand an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth for you. He’ll make sure you receive your justice, your punishment for sin and wrongdoing. Satan can’t operate in the mercy realm. There’s nothing to accuse. There is only grace, peace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ! There are no accusations, no judgments, just mercy.
When we hold anger, bitterness, judgments and unforgiveness towards others, we are demanding justice for them. This means that I step down from the mercy realm into the justice realm and say to the devil, here’s the keys to my house. Come on in and have at me and my family. St. Paul warns us that unresolved anger can give the devil a "stronghold" (Eph 4: 26-27). We give Satan power in our lives when we choose justice for others instead of giving them mercy. Then we wonder why so many things go wrong for ourselves and our families.
Our recurring problems can be the result of our demanding justice. Scripture says the sins of the father are passed down to the 3rd and 4th generation. An alcoholic father has an alcoholic son who in turn has an alcoholic son. A child is abused who in turn becomes an abuser. It happens all the time. Unforgiveness and demanding justice allows the devil to exercise his legal rights and make inroads into our families for generations.
Choosing mercy and forgiveness for everybody for everything, opens the floodgates of heaven and allows an avalanche of blessings to descend upon us and our families. When we lay down all our claims for justice and spread mercy everywhere, we slam the door in the devil’s face and life gets immensely better. We become more like Jesus, who is the author of mercy.
However, sometimes the pain we experience from others is so severe that we feel entitled to hang onto our hurt and anger. Forgiveness is the last thing in our mind. Keep in mind that Christianity is not will power, but Holy Spirit power. The grace of God is available to help us forgive. It may be a process that we have to work through, but God will help us. But we have to choose to start. We have to cry out to Jesus saying, Lord help me to be willing to be willing, to start down the road of mercy. God will never override our free will. I have to choose to be made willing to be willing. God will honor that and walk with me and uphold me all the way through the process, for as long as it takes. But we need to choose to start the process.
Mercy set us free! Free to forgive others and free to forgive ourselves. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is forgive ourselves. Jesus is in the business of setting the captives free. He is totally and completely dedicated to seeing you free. He will never give up on you until you are completely free. Free to experience the breadth and length and height and depth of His love for you, which surpasses all knowledge. Where you know, that you know that you are loved. Loved into freedom, loved into a life of glorious abundance and peace.
Give mercy and live!
***** JESUS IS LORD *****
