“The Unfairness of God”
Psalm 103:8-10
June 20, 2004
When was the last time you felt like you were treated unfairly? When did you last think, “That’s not fair”? It doesn’t matter what it was about, it could have been anything. You just simply felt that whatever it was that happened, it wasn’t fair to you.
Like most people we’re very concerned about fairness. If we’re going to be on the receiving end, we want it–whatever it is–to be fair.
How many of you have ever heard a child say, “It’s not fair”? Think back for a moment to when you were a kid. About what kinds of things did you holler, “NO FAIR!”? It was probably stuff like who had more ice cream in their bowl. Who got to pick which T.V. show to watch. Who had to do more (or fewer) chores. When you had to take a bath. Whether you got play or had to do your homework. Who got to stay up later on a school night. You know, stuff like that.
The reality is, as children, when we’re talking about fairness, we’re talking about things being equitable. Like we said earlier, we don’t want the other person to have more than we do. We want an equal share: the same amount of ice cream, the same number of cookies, the same size piece of cake, the same bed time, the same number of chores, and so on.
I heard a story about two siblings: brother and sister, who squabbled over how many slices of pizza each one got to eat. The older child was bigger and had a big appetite. Not surprisingly, this child was able to eat several slices of pizza at dinner, while the younger child was unable to eat as much.
Apparently at one particular meal, several comments were made about how much pizza the older child was able to eat. “Wow, you sure can eat some pizza.” “Where do you put all of it? You must have a hollow leg.” Well, that raised the ire of the younger sibling and she cried, “It’s not fair he can eat more pizza than me.” So not to be out done–and of course, in the interest of fairness–the younger child did her best to eat as much pizza and her big brother had eaten.
Later that night the little sister went to her mother and said, “Mom, my tummy hurts.” The mother questioned, “Why does your stomach hurt, sweetie?” “Because he ate more pizza than me.” “Because he ate more pizza than you? How does that make your tummy hurt?” The child responded, “Well . . . because I wanted to eat as much as he did. It wasn’t fair that he could eat more than me.” “So it’s his fault my stomach hurts. And that’s not fair.”
Interestingly, things don’t seem to change that much when we become adults. Even as adults many of us are still caught up in the struggle for what’s fair. It’s not fair that she got that promotion at work. It’s not fair that he drives a nicer car, or that they live in a nicer house, or have a better job. It’s not fair that she’s prettier than me, or he’s thinner than I am, and so forth.
Our desire for fairness expresses its self in other ways too. Take for example when you’re stopped by a policeman. Not that that’s ever happened to me . . . Why are you looking at me like that? Don’t you believe me? . . . . .
So anyway, when YOU get stopped by the police . . . for speeding or rolling through a stop sign or not wearing your seatbelt, or whatever . . . after the initial anxiety of being pulled over, one of our first thoughts is, “This isn’t fair.” “Why am I being pulled over?”
Then, of course, we try to justify why it isn’t fair that we got stopped. We tend to talk to ourselves, pointing out the infractions of others: “Oh sure. Look at that guy. What about him, he’s speeding.” Or, “Look at her weaving in out of traffic.” “Hey, he didn’t use his turn signal.” For the next few days, we’re hyper-vigilant watching every other driver and wondering where the cops are when all those people are breaking the law. Right? Uh huh.
On the other hand, when we see someone else pulled over we may think, “Yeah, it’s about time. Serves ‘em right. They’re getting what they deserve.”
Why is that when something like that happens to us, it’s not fair? BUT, when the same thing happens to someone else, we call it justice?
You see, the reality is, that’s the way we’re made up. We’re taught from a very early age what’s fair and what’s not fair. We like fair, we don’t like what’s not fair. So, in the interest of fairness, we’re bound and determined to make sure that we get what’s coming to us. We’re reluctant to settle for anything less than what’s fair.
It’s not surprising then that we also expect fairness in our relationship with the Lord. If you ask someone whether or not they want God to be fair, what do think they’ll say? “Yes, of course I want God to be fair. I certainly don’t want him to be anything less than fair.”
And that’s to be expected. We want God to be fair with us. We want our walk with God to be smooth and problem-free. We want God to answer every prayer, and to make sure that we’re happy. We want God to remove all the obstructions and obstacles in our lives–before we get to them. Yeah, we not only want God to be fair, we expect him to be fair.
But what we expect and what we get two different things. Now what I’m about to tell you may surprise you. Are you ready? I’m here to tell you this morning that God isn’t fair. God’s not fair in the way he deals with us. He doesn’t treat us fairly in our relationship with him. Nope, he sure doesn’t. He’s not fair with us at all. Now, I know you’re probably saying to yourself, “Wait a minute, what do you mean God isn’t fair? You’re really pushing the envelope. You’re a half step from crossing over the line here.”
Well, if that insight gets you riled up, you’re really going to like this next one . . . or, maybe you won’t like it. Here it is: Not only God not fair with us, we don’t want him to be. You heard me right, we don’t want God to be fair with us. I can hear you now, “Pastor, you’re wrong. Trust me, I do want God to be fair with me. I really do.” To which I reply, “Oh no you don’t. You may think you do but you really don’t.”
Most people I know don’t like being told what to think, especially when what they’re being told is counter to what they already think. We know what we want and we think we know that we want God to be fair. But let me reiterate: YOU DO NOT WANT GOD TO BE FAIR.
Now, before you leave the sanctuary, muttering to yourself, “Who does he think he is telling me that God isn’t fair and that I don’t want him to be? That no good so-n-so.” Please give me the opportunity to explain myself, and God (if I can be that presumptuous).
When I was in college, I took a lot of philosophy courses, in fact philosophy was one of my majors. (I can hear you now, “Well, there ya go. That explains a lot.”) But don’t write me off just yet. One of things you have to do when you study philosophy is understand the words and the way in which the philosopher is using the word in the context of his or her writing. That’s accomplished by knowing the definition of the words the author is using. So, let’s define the key words we’re working with here.
The first word we need to define is, of course, the word “fair.”
What we typically mean by the word fair is, equitable. Equal distribution of a thing among all people involved. In other words, everyone gets the same thing and the same amount, usually of something good, we hope. Another way in which we use the word fair is when it means without bias or partiality.
For example, in sports we want the umpire to be fair in that the umpire makes each call without bias or partiality toward a particular team or player. We want the ump to make calls based on what he actually sees take place and not how s/he “feels” toward the team or a certain individual.
However, when we use the word “fair” in the God-perspective, we have to be careful. Okay, why? Because if we maintain that we want God to be fair, we’re in for surprise, and not a good one at that. Because fair in the God-context means: getting exactly what we deserve. And trust me, we don’t want to get what we deserve.
Now, you might be asking, “Why don’t we want God to be fair if it means getting what we deserve? I mean God only wants the best for me right?” Well, yes and no. God wants what’s best for us but his best for us is not what’s fair, it’s (pause) . . . well, let’s no go there just yet. Let’s stay focused on why we don’t want God to be fair.
If in the God-context “fair” means getting what we deserve, then if God is going to treat us fairly, what we deserve is punishment and death. You see, every one of us–apart from God–is a sinner. And from the time of Adam an Eve, the penalty for sin has always been death.
That means God’s fair response to sin is wrath, punishment and ultimately death. Why? Well first of all, because God is holy. And because God is holy he cannot, nor does he tolerate sin.
God cannot just casually look the other way or sweep sin under the rug and pretend like sin doesn’t exist. Sin must be dealt with and because of God’s holiness, sin must be punished. And the punishment for sin is death. In Romans 6:23 the Apostle Paul writes: “ . . . the wages of sin is death.” That, my friends, is the consequence for sin.
Now, let’s go back to our question from earlier. “Do we really want God to treat us fairly?” Well, the obvious answer to that question is “No!” If fair means equitable and if fair means without bias or partiality, then for God to be fair means that he must exact the penalty for our sin and that penalty is death. That is the reason we don’t want God to be fair with us. If he was perfectly fair with us, we’d all experience the full force of his punishment.
So even though we may have started out thinking we wanted God to be fair, it’s really good news for us that God is not fair; he does not give us exactly what we deserve. Praise the Lord!
Now, take your bibles and turn with me to the 103rd Psalm. Psalm 103 and today we’re going to be looking specifically at verses 8 - 10. Psalm 103 verses 8-10.
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in stead fast love.
He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
When the Psalmist writes, “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities,” essentially he’s saying that God is not fair. This is an important point and I invite you to let these words penetrate your heart and mind this morning. These words from the Psalmist are critical to our understanding of how God does respond to us.
Now, as we have already established, because of the reality of sin in our lives, both inherited (that means the sin handed down to us from Adam) and our own personal sin (the sins we ourselves have committed), we deserve punishment. So God if treated us fairly, he would be justified if he chose to exact the death penalty. But there are reasons God doesn’t do that. This leads us to the second word we need to define: mercy.
Generally, when we think of mercy we think of how one person responds to another person by an act of kindness, or compassion or tenderness. Often, a merciful act is offered by one who is in a position of power or authority over another individual.
The story is told of a young man in Napoleon’s army who committed a deed so terrible that it was worthy of death. The day before he was scheduled to stand before the firing squad, the young man’s mother went to Napoleon and pleaded for mercy for her son. Napoleon replied, “Woman, your son does not deserve mercy.” “I know” she answered, “If he deserved it, then it would not be mercy.”
Mercy may also be understood as helping one who is incapable of helping him or herself. As an act of mercy we may attempt to liberate one who is oppressed; we may extend forgiveness to one who has wronged us, or we may act compassionately toward a person in need. Each of these is an act of mercy.
One author has summarized God’s mercy in the following way:
Mercy may be understood as steadfast love. This is demonstrated by the fact that God has entered into a covenant relationship with his children. The result of this relationship is a readiness on God’s part to pardon the guilty. Although guilty and deserving punishment, God extends mercy to his children, and when accepted, this results in pardon. God declares us not guilty and we are liberated from the consequences of our sin.
To simplify what I am saying then, from the God-side of things, mercy means: not getting what we deserve.
Remember the meaning of our first word “fair” means “getting exactly what we deserve.” “Mercy” however means: “not getting what we deserve.” Instead of doing the fair thing, giving us what we deserve, God responds to us with mercy.
Earlier I said that from the time of Adam and Eve the penalty for sin has always been death. And to be sure if we continue in our sin it will ultimately result in death; however, at that point it becomes our choice rather than God’s choice for us.
However, because God so loved his creation, i.e., humanity, he wanted to find a way to pardon people’s sin. He wanted to extend his mercy to us. He chose to forego fairness and he made a decision to be merciful. He found a way to not give us exactly what we deserve. Since death was the penalty for sin and God did not want death to be the final word in our lives, he–by his mercy–found a way to pardon our sin. This came by the shedding of blood through sacrifice.
Now, you may remember in the Old Testament it was necessary for the people of God to bring a sacrifice to the temple. This ritual sacrifice was not because God enjoyed the killing of animals. No, it was because the people needed to atone (or make amends) for their sin.
Actually, it was an act of God’s mercy to provide a way by which people could be pardoned for sin without having to pay the ultimate price themselves: death. By his mercy, God found a way to liberate individuals from the penalty of sin.
That was very good news to the people of the Old Testament. Because even that far back, God found a way to pardon sin and restore people to right relationship with himself. That’s mercy.
Let’s listen to the words of the prophet Micah 7: 18-19:
Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression [of his people],
You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.
You will have compassion on us; and will tread our sins underfoot and cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
That my friends is a good word, a merciful word. God does not give us what we deserve; that’s mercy.
Now, if under the old covenant God’s mercy was demonstrated, then most certainly under the new covenant God’s grace is revealed. Grace is a word we use a lot in the church and for the most part we seem to have a basic idea of what is meant when we use the word grace. But how is grace typically understood?
To state it theologically, grace is God’s unmerited, spontaneous, love for sinful people. Grace means the completely undeserved, loving commitment of God to us. For some reason unknown to us, but which is rooted in his nature, God gives himself to us and acts to rescue us from sin and death. Therefore, grace means: getting better than we deserve.
Okay, let’s unpack that a bit. Grace is God’s unconditional love for us; it is his unmerited favor. In other words God loves us in spite of who we are or what we’ve done. As one of my college professors used to say, “God loves us warts and all.” For everyone of us, that’s good news.
But here comes the part that’s hard to believe. The unmerited love of God is a gift that is freely given to us. We cannot earn it, we can’t work hard enough to warrant it. There is nothing we can do to purchase it. The unmerited love of God–i.e., grace–is a gift. It is offered without strings. It is made available without condition.
Philip Yancey in his book, What’s So Amazing about Grace? writes, “Grace means there’s nothing we can do to make God love us more and there’s nothing we can do to make God love us less.” That my friends will blow you’re mind once you really get your head and your heart around that truth!
Listen to the words of Ephesians 2: 8 & 9
It is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God–not the result of works, so that no one may boast (or said another way so that no one may take credit but God).
That’s tough for us because most of us feel like we’ve got to do something to earn God’s favor. We want to prove to him that we’re worthy of his grace. It’s equally difficult because we are so self-sufficient. We want to do something to show God how much we deserve his love and grace. But therein lies the problem: if it was possible to work hard enough to earn it, or if we could do something to prove we’re worthy of it, then it’s not really grace. It would be something else but it would not be grace.
Grace is something that starts with God and ends with God. You see God longs for relationship with human beings. But sin created a barrier between us and God. And we are completely powerless in our own strength or our own ability to knock down the barrier that sin created. So what we could not do, God did for us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Through his Son, God knocked down the barrier that kept us and God apart.
Earlier we talked about that since the time of Adam and Eve the penalty for sin is death. Well, to be honest, that never changed. The penalty for sin continued to be death. Remember that under the Old Covenant animals were sacrificed to atone for the sins of individuals. But God understood that the old sacrificial system only provided a temporary form of atonement.
So by an act of God’s extraordinary grace God instituted a new covenant. Death was still the penalty for sin, but now one death, the death of his own son Jesus Christ would be the last sacrifice ever needed to atone for our sin.
Now I know we’ve all heard this before but the really amazing thing is that God accomplished this by sending his son Jesus Christ die in our place. The penalty for our sin was death, but grace–which gives us better than we deserve–said “you don’t have to die, I will do it for you. And Jesus became the once-and-for-all sacrifice for our sins.
It is only by the life, death and resurrection of Christ that we are able to be reconciled to God. Jesus is the ultimate expression of God’s grace to humanity. And what’s even more astounding is that he acted on our behalf even before we were ready to be reconciled to God. In Romans 5:8 we read: “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”
Does that blow you mind like it does mine? I mean think about it, while we were still in the throes of our rebellion, while we were saying, “God I don’t want anything to do with you” God acted gracefully toward us and sent his son Jesus to die in our place and made possible the opportunity for us to enter into a personal relationship with him. That my friends, although incomprehensible, is grace! And that is definitely getting better than we deserve. Wow!
Now how do we appropriate or receive this grace? Well, first of all God’s grace is available to all who believe and receive. To take hold of God’s magnificent gift of grace, there is only one thing God asks of us: to receive his gift of grace by faith. To put it simply, God calls us to “embrace the grace.”
This morning we talked about what’s “fair,” what is “mercy” and what is “grace.” Hopefully, we now have a better understanding of why we don’t want God to be fair and how it’s a good thing for us he’s not fair. Hopefully, we also have a better understanding of how blessed we are to be on the receiving end of God’s mercy and how amazing it is to realize that God has given us his magnificent gift of his grace.
You see God loves you more than you can possibly imagine. He loves you so much that he gave his life for you. And to be honest, it’s not that difficult to get to the place where you can “embrace the grace” God has for you. Really it’s as easy as ABC.
A – Admit that you’ve sinned. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That means we are all in need of God’s forgiveness and grace.
B – Believe that Jesus Christ gave his life so that you can be saved. John 1:12 states, “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
C – Confess him as Lord of your life. Romans 10:9 reads, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
That’s it. God by his grace has made it possible for us, no matter where we’re at, to enjoy a close, personal relationship with him and experience the joy that can only come from knowing that the price has been paid, our sins are forgiven and God is at the center of our heart and life. We can “embrace the grace.”
Do you know we all have a choice to make? We have to choose between paying the penalty for sin ourselves, and that means death. Or we can choose to let Jesus’ death to atone for our sins. Honestly, that seems like a pretty easy choice to me. But there are many who struggle with which choice to make. Let me assure you, no choice is a choice . . . and we all have to choose.
To that you may be tempted to say, “Hey, that’s not fair.” And you’d be right. “It’s grace!” Praise the Lord!
Closing prayer.
Ask people, with heads bowed and eyes closed, Is there anyone here this morning who would like to let go of what’s fair and “embrace the grace” God has for you?
Benediction: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the [presence] Holy Spirit be with you all.”
