Forgiveness, the Justice of God

Forgiveness and justice are central concepts of the gospel.  They are concepts shrouded in goodness and God.  They are concepts burgeoning with life.

The justice of God is a troubling matter for all God-fearing persons, except for persons who have truly accepted—by faith—the all-merciful gospel that promised, and does indeed, save us and save every good thing.  That is, every good thing submitted to and not in opposition against God.

Still, we are forgiven for occasions of doubting in our humanity.  To doubt is to be human.

Doubting can be an inherent part of faith.
Important sojourns of curiosity deepen faith.

What can seem as if it might damn us
is precisely the material that redeems us.

To go on a lifelong quest for the meaning of life,
to struggle all our lives to find what that is;
THIS is a worthy pursuit of truth
all our hearts are called to engage in.

It is blessed to doubt and yet to keep searching.
This is what we are invited to know as “good faith”.

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FORGIVENESS AND JUSTICE

Forgiveness and justice are central concepts of the gospel.

Indeed these concepts are highly connected in the genre and narrative of God’s new world brought into actuality about 1,994 years ago when the cross and resurrection of Jesus divided history and God traversed the time-space continuum with a previously inconceivable grace.

Whenever we discuss concepts 
of forgiveness and justice, 
we notice that MERCY 
is at their intersection.

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Forgiveness and justice in the realm of God 
interminably invite curious reflection about mercy.

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PRACTICALLY SPEAKING, WHAT IS THIS ABOUT?

When we are honest, and that means honest before God, we notice there is a gap between our best and our worst.  There always is.  If it were not for this, there would be no need of words like “potential” and “performance”.

But our human frailties do not matter when they are viewed through the lens of the gospel.

For our best, we please God, 
and for our worst, we have repentance 
—both are the justice of God.

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Forgiveness is the justice of God.
It is God sending His Son Jesus to earth,
to redeem a humanity that cannot help itself—
God doing what God does so we could be redeemed.

Forgiveness is the justice of God. 
It is our bearing our cross, forgiving those
“who do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34)
and reconciling God’s justice back to Him.

Even for those who DO know what they are doing,
our forgiveness of them further acquits US—
it is little to do with them,
which is also the justice of God.

We must leave injustice to God Himself.
But we ARE the justice of God 
embodying the character of God 
WHEN we forgive.

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WHAT IS THE JUSTICE OF GOD IN TERMS OF FORGIVENESS?

The justice of God is a second (2nd) and sixty-second (62nd—i.e., to infinity) chance for every human being.  We all need these chances because we are all so fallible.  When we deny this, when we pretend we do no wrong, we make God out to be a liar (1 John 1:10).

When we forgive, we store up blessings for ourselves, and those blessings overflow into others’ lives.  This is the justice of God.

Goodness begets goodness.  Grace begets grace.  Kindness and compassion beget kindness and compassion.  The ripple effect emanates from the little ripples our gracious actions create.

When we forgive, we receive what God’s heart craves to give to us; even as a parent wants to lavish gifts of praise over their compliant child.  When God sees that our hearts understand His, there is a human-divine connection of “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

The more we live the justice of God in kindness, in compassion, in forgiveness, the more that justice of God will bring others into the flowering and fruiting of kindness, compassion, and forgiveness.

The justice of God is an entirely good thing.  It is both benevolence and righteousness.  Completely good, true, right, appropriate, consistent, and predictable.  The justice of God leaves no good thing judged and condemned.

God did not send the Son into this world 
to judge and condemn it (John 3:17).

Humanity has made the justice of God into a horrid thing, a heinous thing, an horrendous thing.  But the justice of God only reveals to us what is plain to see.  We need God!  This justice of God helps us to separate the truth from the lies.  This justice of God saves us, and it helps us live the way of salvation that others might also see, feel, experience, and live that way also—even as the fuller evidence is available on all our hearts as to the cavernous gap between us and God.

JUSTICE FOR THOSE WHO GO AGAINST GOOD/GOD

Connected to the righteousness of God is the aspect of justice for those who wilfully go against the purposes of good and of God—those who purposely do not do the right thing.

Those who insist on going their own way 
only stymie themselves ultimately.

A great biblical metaphor for forgiveness and unforgiveness—as well as for goodness and evil—is contained within Ezekiel 47:1-12.  The metaphor is a river with a prevalent flow.  But there are swamps and marshes that are stagnant.  Forgiveness is going with the flow of the river, and staying healthy, whereas the bitterness and resentment of a hard heart resemble the “swamps and marshes [that] will not become fresh” (verse 11).

The flow of the river is freedom and LIFE, 
but the swamps and marshes are death.

There is a vast folly in anyone insisting 
they can control the uncontrollable in life.

The justice of God for those who go against 
good/God’s purposes is irrefutable and certain.
Theirs is their own stumbling block.

HOW THEN ARE WE TO LIVE?

Given the justice of God is incontrovertible in how obvious it is, how then are we to live?

We must live in the light of the truth, 
refusing our hearts lapses into darkness.

Knowing the example of God is LIFE
we commit to living this LIFE
every single day.

This is the justice of God for those who go God’s way:

Those who forgive experience God’s freedom.  They accept the flow of the river, the flow of life.  Forgiveness is a wise choice.  It is a choice to reconcile what is, whether we can reconcile with the perpetrator or not.

Those who forgive live habitually empowered lives because the flow of the river brings differing and always lifegiving scenery.  When we get stuck in the swamps and marshes, our view is truncated, and we don’t see right.  Those who don’t see right are often not interested in seeing right.

Forgiveness brings perspective, and certainly Christians 
enjoy the knowledge of just how good God has been 
in Jesus—they FOLLOW God’s direct example.

Christians forgive as they are commended to forgive,
and they reap the benefits of peace and a godly life.

Those who struggle to forgive tend to become offended when people reinforce boundaries.  They struggle with letting go and get stuck when they can’t control certain people, situations, and outcomes.  We have all tasted this.  There is no life in such a mindset.

No matter what a person has done to us, 
when we say they are not worthy of our forgiveness, 
we say we are better than the other person is, 
forgetting WE have been forgiven 
the very things we continue to do.

“It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.  We must “leave room for God’s wrath.”  (Both these quotations are from Romans 12:19.)

The justice of God in terms of forgiveness is obvious either way.  Let those have ears hear this message and apply it to their OWN lives.  And may they always accept it is only them and them alone they can impact.

The justice of God is understood 
in accepting the wisdom 
of getting the log out of our own eye.

~

It is better to doubt our own journey 
and become resilient as a result,
than doubt another’s journey
and hence pretend we are judge.