JUSTICE, MERCY, AND GRACE -- Devotional for July 24, from "Good Seeds"

For the WAGES of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But when the kindness of God and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, according to His MERCY, that being justified by His GRACE, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Romans 6:23; Titus 3:4-7)

We often say that all we want is our fair share, what is rightfully ours. “I’m not asking for the moon,” we say, “I just want what’s coming to me; you know, what I deserve.” If we’re thinking only of good things when we say this, we’re forgetting that if justice means getting our just deserts, then that would mean punishment as well as reward. But we usually reserve this negative side for others. “If you do the crime, you’ll do the time!” we say. “Three strikes and you’re out,” is the law in some states, condemning third time offenders to serious prison terms, with no possibility of early release. After all, we’ve got to protect our neighborhoods from predators and bad guys, right? But when it comes to our own petty offenses, we expect clemency and understanding and mercy. Someone once said, “You need kindness in another’s troubles, and courage in your own.” But we’re so quick to turn it around, demanding justice for others, while begging mercy for ourselves. Justice, mercy, and grace are all in the Bible, and they all touch our lives in significant ways. JUSTICE means getting what we deserve. The next time we demand justice for ourselves, we’d better examine what the Bible says about that, for if we’ve ever sinned, even just once, we’re in big trouble: Ezekiel wrote, “The soul that sins, it shall die” (18:20). That’s justice. Is that what we want? It doesn’t say he who sins big. Even a little bit of sin – even just one – is a death sentence, according to God. Paul spoke of justice in terms of our paycheck. He said if our work is sin, our wages will be death, eternal death! We say, “In that case, forget justice; give me mercy.” Mercy is the converse of justice. Mercy admits that the punishment is deserved, but let’s me off the hook. MERCY means not getting what we deserve. Mercy is our “get out of hell card.” But where does that leave us? Nowhere. But we want to be somewhere. We want to be in heaven. That’s where grace comes into the picture. What’s grace? GRACE is getting what we don’t deserve. Justice is getting that bad thing we deserve; Mercy is not getting it, but Grace is getting that good thing we don’t deserve, but desperately want and need! Grace is our “Go directly to heaven” card. A benevolent court could look the other way and give us mercy, but only God can give us grace: when He looks through the blood of the cross, He doesn’t see His sinful child, He sees His sinless Son. Do you want grace? Turn to Jesus.