Justice and Mercy

Justice and mercy. It was never more evident than in the courtroom yesterday. A former cop shot a killed a man that she thought was inside her apartment. The problem was that it wasn’t her apartment, she was on the wrong floor. She went to trial and was found guilty of murder and was sentenced to ten years in prison yesterday. Justice was served.

But an amazing thing happened after the sentencing was over: mercy showed up. The brother of the victim offered forgiveness to the lady that shot and killed his brother. He spoke from the witness stand saying that he didn’t want bad things for her life, he wanted her to find grace in the person of Jesus Christ. He got up from the witness stand and went down to the young lady and hugged her as an outward sign of his mercy and grace towards her.

It wasn’t only the brother of the victim that came down to show mercy to the recently sentenced ex-cop. The judge rose from her bench and came down to hug the accused, as well as, the mother of the victim. The judge gave the young lady a copy of her personal Bible that she kept at her bench and instructed her to take the time she was sentenced to, to read it.

I can’t count the number of times that I have heard God spoken of in one of two ways: as a ruthless judge looking to condemn people to hell, or a God of love that would never send anyone to hell. Both descriptions are not fully accurate of who God is. God is a Holy and Righteous God who cannot be in the presence of sin, because of that He must judge sin and those that commit sin. God is love. He loves His creation so much He sent His only Son to die on the Cross in our place. Just like a coin has two sides, so does God.

There is no better example of justice and mercy than the Cross of Calvary. Justice needed to be carried out for the sin of man because God demands justice. But mercy showed up in the form of Jesus Christ who went to the Cross to pay for our sins; that’s love. “For our sake he made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” - 2 Corinthians 5:21. Justice was carried out that day on Jesus Christ so that we who put our faith in Him may receive the mercy of God, just like what happened in that courtroom yesterday.

Have you received God’s mercy? Or are you planning to taking the judgement of your own sins upon yourself in a place called hell?  God doesn’t send people to hell, people choose to go there because they are too proud to accept the free gift of salvation.

Have a great day and God bless.