Justice- Mercy-Grace (Romans 6:23)
Dear Friends in Christ,
Three words that are thrown around a lot in Christian circles have seemed to have lost their Biblical meaning. The three words are Justice, Mercy and Grace. What do theses words and what significance do they have in my relationship with God through Jesus? Consider this illustration:
You are traveling down the interstate at 120 miles per hour. Flying by traffic with out a care in the world when a state patrolman pulls you over after a lengthy chase. And because of the severity of your traffic violations the state patrolman takes you immediately to traffic court.
You stand before the judge as the State Patrolman reads off your charges one by one. The judge looks at you and asks, “Are you guilty of all of these charges?” to which you answer, “Yes I am.” The Judges says, “Justice dictates that since you have broken all of these laws your driver’s license should be revoked, you should receive a stiff fine and spend a month in the county jail. Justice means getting what you deserve.”
“But,” the Judge continues, “I am going to show you mercy. I am not going to give you what you deserve. However Justice must be served so instead of punishing you for your violations I am going to punish the State Patrolman who brought you in. He will have his license revoked, He will have to pay your still fine and He will have to serve your sentence in jail for a month.” Wow you are thinking to yourself, this is great.
And then the Judges says something completely astonishing, “Not only am I going to show you mercy, by not giving you what you deserve, I am going to show you grace. I am going to give you something you don’t deserve, here are the keys to a brand new Mercedes Benz, free of charge. You are free to go.”
Now that’s kind of a crazy illustration that I am sure would never happened in real life. But in a way it has in our spiritual lives. Because we are conceived and born in sin, we daily sin against God in our thoughts, in our words and in our actions. And the Bible tells us that there is a sever penalty for violating God’s Holy Laws. Romans 6:23 tells us, “The wages of sin is death.” And who has earned these wages? Romans 3:23 also tells us, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” God’s Justice demands that all of us deserve punishment in Hell forever.
Thankfully that is not the end of our life story. God has shown us mercy, by not giving us what we deserve, death in Hell. But since His justice must be served instead of punishing us for our sins, he punished Jesus in our place. And then glories upon glories he shows us grace. Instead of getting what we deserve, death in Hell, God through Jesus’ perfect life, innocent death and victorious resurrection has shown us grace, giving us what we don’t deserve, forgiveness of all of our sins now and the assurance of eternal life in heaven. All because of Jesus, only Jesus. The Romans verse we looked at earlier is, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
