I’ve heard it said, “Justice is getting what you deserve. Mercy is NOT getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve.” So how do we square the circle of God being perfect in justice, mercy, and grace?
Let’s pretend you’re standing before a judge. You’ve killed someone. The exact circumstances don’t matter for this example. To give perfect justice would put you behind bars for the rest of your life. Some states still have the death penalty.
I’ve also heard it said, “Justice is wonderful when given to someone else.” We, of course, don’t want justice when we’re the ones in the wrong. So we don’t want justice in the above example.
Let’s change that example. You’re in a courtroom, watching the judge pass sentence on the person who killed someone you love. Perfect mercy would demand they be released without punishment. Do you want perfect mercy?
Perfect justice demands punishment for crimes. Perfect mercy demands absolution. In God we get both.
Back in the Old Testament, when Adam and Eve were given animal skins to cover themselves, God implemented a system of substitutional sacrifice. The animals paid the price to cover sin.
The sin was pride, in that Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit so they could be like God. They even tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. It didn’t work. God provided the covering, even back then.
Generations passed, and the sacrifices were codified into law. “These sacrifices for those things on such days.” I won’t go into that. It’s very complex. But each and every sacrifice was simply to cover the sin, not to eliminate it.
Perfect justice demands payment. God said that Adam and Eve would surely die if they ate the forbidden fruit. After sin entered the world, we couldn’t help but to put ourselves in God’s place, determining what’s good and what’s evil. And the wages of that sin is death.
Perfect justice demands we all die.
Along comes Jesus.
Using the substitutional model put in place by God, someone else could pay the price for our sins. In order to pay that full price, not just cover up, that sacrifice had to be perfect. Jesus lived the perfect life, exactly as God wants US to live.
He died the way we deserve (perfect justice) so we can live the life He deserved (perfect mercy).
And that’s all possible by His perfect grace.
