Justice, Grace and Mercy
Let’s read three
scriptures as we begin this study
11Then I saw a great white
throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled
away. And there was found no place for them. 12And
I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened.
And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged
according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and
Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one
according to his works. 14Then Death and Hades were
cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15And
anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
9For if ye turn again unto the
LORD, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so
that they shall come again into this land: for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will
not turn away his face
from you, if ye return unto him.
2 Chron 30:9
1And you hath he quickened, who were dead in
trespasses and sins; 2Wherein in time
past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience: 3Among whom also we
all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of
wrath, even as others. 4But God, who is
rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us
together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Ephesians 2:1-5
Many times we hear of the
justice of God
How he will one
day judge sinners – and he will
How he will one
day destroy this world and create a new heaven and a new earth – and he will
How one day, he
will say, depart from me you that work iniquity – and he will
There is no
doubt that one day the justice of God will be executed upon this world in which
we live. And living under the shadow of the idea of a just God can put fear in
your life unless you understand the relationship between Justice, Grace and
Mercy
We have battles
we fight, but the worst and most discouraging battle is with the flesh
Paul said it
like this in
18For I know that in me (that
is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me;
but how to perform that
which is good I find not. 19For
the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I
do. 20Now if I do that
I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Romans 7:18-20
Because of that
sin comes condemnation.
I’m no good, I failed God again, I might
as well give up and live for the devil because I wont be saved anyhow
The hardest
person to deal with and to receive forgiveness from is yourself, because you
remember your failings and your sins and may even wonder at times if there is
any hope for you when you fail again.
Now many times
we think about God in terms of his Justice and that’s why I brought this
baseball bat, because we think of God in the terms of what he’s going to do to
us, if we mess up just one more time.
Justice – receiving what one deserves
And when we
think of God in terms of his justice, remember the scripture declares we reap
what we sow, sometimes we can become despondent in serving God because we have
done things perhaps, that if we received justice for them, would require and
action from God and we would receive what we deserve.
Yet we see
apparent contradictions in God’s justice in this present time, for instance have
you ever wondered why perhaps someone in Christ, who has wronged you terribly
has not received justice at the hand of the Lord and sometimes even seems
blessed?
Lets look at all
three definitions together:
Justice
– receiving what one deserves
Grace
– receiving what one does not deserve
Mercy
– not receiving what one deserves
We can receive
what we deserve – because of Justice
We can receive
what we do not deserve – because of Grace
We do not
receive what we deserve – because of mercy
Mercy is the
opposite of Justice
Remember the
opening scripture in Chronicles
for the Lord your God is
gracious and merciful, and will not turn His face from you if you return to Him.”
Many times we
like to talk about the wrath of God and his justice and the world is going to
be destroyed and so on and so forth not understanding we are not vessels of
wrath!
22What if
God, willing to show his wrath,
and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of
wrath fitted to destruction:23And
that he might make known the riches of
his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto
glory,
Romans 9:22-23
Notice what Paul wrote to the
Romans
that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of
mercy
We are not vessels of
wrath, we are vessels of mercy
The wrath of
God is reserved for the children of Disobedience according to
Let me turn
your attention to the blackboard, and look at the greek definition for the
children of disobedience
G543
ἀπείθεια
apeitheia
ap-i'-thi-ah
From G545; disbelief (obstinate and
rebellious):—disobedience, unbelief.
You see the
wrath of God is not for the repentant, its for the obstinate and rebellious
According to
According to
Romans 1:18 the wrath of God is reserved for those who suppress the truth and
don’t preach what there supposed to
So to be a
recipient of the wrath of God
You’ve got to
reject the Lord
–or-
Walk in false
doctrine
–or-
Be a child of
disobedience which is full of unbelief, obstinate and rebellious
If you fit in
one of those categories, you are
heading towards judgment
And sometimes
people feel like they are on a collision course with the judgment of God, your
kind of like a ship in stormy weather without and of the modern things that are
available, radar, gps, loran. And your tossing on the seas of life thrown about
waiting to hit a rocky shoal and watch you ship slip quietly away from God and
become shipwreck in your salvation.
When all of a
sudden you see a lighthouse and though the seas still toss and life is still
tough you avoid the rocky shoal and your ship doesn’t sink and the son does
shine again another day
And yes that
lighthouse on the seas of life is Jesus Christ
Letting you
know you don’t have to be a vessel of wrath, but you can be a vessel of mercy
In the biblical
act of redemption the greek conveys the notion of one entering a slave market
and spending his money to buy a slave with the sole purpose of setting that
slave free, he didn’t buy your salvation to send you back to the slave market.
I want you to
understand the vastness of the mercy of God today
Jesus gave us
these words in Luke 6:36-37
36Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. 37“Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you
shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
There are 3
points we can take from Jesus description of mercy
1)
Mercy
is not judgmental
2)
Mercy
is non-condemning
3)
Mercy
grants release or pardon
We find in
Matthew 18:26-27 more components of mercy
26The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have
patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ 27Then
the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave
him the debt.
4)
Mercy
exercises patience
5)
Mercy
manifests compassion, or love in action
6)
Mercy
forgives
So we can see
that the characteristics of mercy are:
1)
Mercy
is not judgmental – because judgment is justice
2)
Mercy
is non-condemning
3)
Mercy
grants release or pardon
4)
Mercy
exercises patience
5)
Mercy
manifests compassion, or love in action
6)
Mercy
forgives
You may say
your being merciful to someone but if your mercy does not contain these 6
ingredients, then your talking about grace and not mercy
Mercy looks
judgment straight in the eye and bypasses it.
With judgment or justice, you receive
what you deserve
With Mercy you don’t receive what you
deserve
You may say
Pastor, I don’t deserve to pray another prayer, I don’t deserve deliverance, I
don’t deserve anything from God, I’m a low down, No Good…..
There’s a story
told about Napolean, how he had a young man condemned to hang to the death for
a certain wrongdoing. The mother of the young man came to Napolean begging for
mercy, Napolean told that woman, your son does not deserve mercy, he will die.
To this the mothers response is said to have been, mercy is not mercy if you
deserve it! And Napolean set the young man free
Are you hearing
me today, Gods mercy is not mercy if you deserve it
Because of his
mercy you can receive grace to receive what you don’t deserve
Remember the
definitions:
We can receive what we deserve – because of Justice
We can not receive what we deserve – because of mercy
We can receive what we do
not deserve – because of Grace
Mercy is not
mercy unless you don’t deserve it
Grace is not
grace if you deserve it
Grace is only
grace if your undeserving of it.