Where mercy and justice meet

Posted on October 22, 2015 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

In thinking about the idea of reconciliation between God and man, there are those who see a need for God to reconcile his justice with his mercy. The idea is that God’s justice is in conflict with his mercy and some middle ground must be agreed upon for reconciliation to take place.

But this comes from a faulty understanding of who God has revealed himself to be.

When Adam took that fateful bite, God did not look on with shock and begin wondering how he was going to fix this mess.

God had decided long before he created that the mess would be fixed by God. The solution to man’s failure was in place before man failed.

God does not have to reconcile his justice with his mercy because there was a plan in place from eternity to provide a means of reconciliation that is both perfectly merciful and perfectly just. It is the Cross of Christ that makes this possible. It is at the Cross of Jesus Christ that justice and mercy meet and neither is compromised.

Justice and mercy do not need to meet half way because God loved us enough to provide a means of fixing the mess we create. How cool is that?

About Mark McIntyre

A follower of Jesus Christ who shares observations about how Scripture should impact the church and the world. Mark is the original author and editor of Attempts at Honesty.

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It is right to want more people sitting under the preaching of the gospel. There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to learn from others. But the danger is that we can lose focus on what real spiritual growth looks like and we lose sight of who causes that growth.

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The curious thing about this familiar Sunday School story is that when the man was let down from the roof so that Jesus could heal him, Jesus does not directly address his paralysis. Jesus spoke to the man about his sin.

Where mercy and justice meet

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