Monday, August 1, 2016
507 - Mercy and Justice
Spirituality Column No. 507
August 2, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
“And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy.” – Micah 6:8
Seven hundred and fifty years before Christ, the minor prophet Micah announced the always consistent news of God: He both loves and delivers justice and mercy.
The larger lesson for mankind – faithful trust in a loving God’s justice and mercy – easily bridges the Bible’s Old Testament law and New Testament grace, though it’s a key point easily missed. Amid the wrath and chaos of the Old Testament I and many others have honestly wondered, “How could God be so mean?”
The Old Testament “problem” isn’t that God is mean or unfaithful; it is fallen man’s utter inability to follow God’s laws. Man further muddles grace by trying to rewrite God’s central truth: God is eternally faithful both to Himself and to His creation. We sing about God being “Faithful to me.” Fine; He is. But first we must understand that God is faithful to Himself. He acts justly and loves mercy. God wants each of us to get the hint: loving what God loves opens up the front door to His heavenly kingdom.
One needs mentally to hang in there through the Old Testament’s condemnation into the saving light of the New Testament where Jesus embodies and reveals God’s justice and mercy in relationship with His righteousness and love. It’s tempting but wrong to interpret the appearance of Jesus as some kind of divine do-over with God reconsidering Old Testament laws and pandemonium and saying, “Oh, never mind.”
If God was planning our salvation all along, we wonder, “Instead of Eden and the fall, why didn’t He just start with Jesus, save everybody, and spare us the trouble?”
I figure the answer to that one is “relationship”: the necessity of God and man building a loving bond that is built on trust, not on a meaningless “do-over” and certainly not on coercion. Love must have meaning and can’t be forced; otherwise fellowship and freedom dissolve into empty slavery. In the Old Testament we learn who God is and what He does, and who we are and what we do. The New Testament reveals God’s righteous plan of restored relationship: Jesus on the cross, man’s sins forgiven.
Surface appearances aside – the justice of the cross and mercy of forgiveness – justice and mercy are not opposite ideas; they are vital and complementary components in the heavenly equation of relationship with and among imperfect human beings.
I’m guessing justice and mercy aren’t much of an issue within the perfect, eternal relationship of the Father-Son-Spirit Trinity. Imperfect man’s narrative however is a less balanced, “I want mercy for me, and justice for everyone else.”
God simply wants us to want what He wants.
That doesn’t seem like too much to ask.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) neither deserves mercy nor fears justice. Instead, he trusts God’s love.
August 2, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Mercy and Justice
By Bob Walters“And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy.” – Micah 6:8
Seven hundred and fifty years before Christ, the minor prophet Micah announced the always consistent news of God: He both loves and delivers justice and mercy.
The larger lesson for mankind – faithful trust in a loving God’s justice and mercy – easily bridges the Bible’s Old Testament law and New Testament grace, though it’s a key point easily missed. Amid the wrath and chaos of the Old Testament I and many others have honestly wondered, “How could God be so mean?”
The Old Testament “problem” isn’t that God is mean or unfaithful; it is fallen man’s utter inability to follow God’s laws. Man further muddles grace by trying to rewrite God’s central truth: God is eternally faithful both to Himself and to His creation. We sing about God being “Faithful to me.” Fine; He is. But first we must understand that God is faithful to Himself. He acts justly and loves mercy. God wants each of us to get the hint: loving what God loves opens up the front door to His heavenly kingdom.
One needs mentally to hang in there through the Old Testament’s condemnation into the saving light of the New Testament where Jesus embodies and reveals God’s justice and mercy in relationship with His righteousness and love. It’s tempting but wrong to interpret the appearance of Jesus as some kind of divine do-over with God reconsidering Old Testament laws and pandemonium and saying, “Oh, never mind.”
If God was planning our salvation all along, we wonder, “Instead of Eden and the fall, why didn’t He just start with Jesus, save everybody, and spare us the trouble?”
I figure the answer to that one is “relationship”: the necessity of God and man building a loving bond that is built on trust, not on a meaningless “do-over” and certainly not on coercion. Love must have meaning and can’t be forced; otherwise fellowship and freedom dissolve into empty slavery. In the Old Testament we learn who God is and what He does, and who we are and what we do. The New Testament reveals God’s righteous plan of restored relationship: Jesus on the cross, man’s sins forgiven.
Surface appearances aside – the justice of the cross and mercy of forgiveness – justice and mercy are not opposite ideas; they are vital and complementary components in the heavenly equation of relationship with and among imperfect human beings.
I’m guessing justice and mercy aren’t much of an issue within the perfect, eternal relationship of the Father-Son-Spirit Trinity. Imperfect man’s narrative however is a less balanced, “I want mercy for me, and justice for everyone else.”
God simply wants us to want what He wants.
That doesn’t seem like too much to ask.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) neither deserves mercy nor fears justice. Instead, he trusts God’s love.
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