JUSTICE VS. MERCY
I’m not sure of the source but I just noticed this illustration in some of my old notes. There’s a story about a lady who went to a photographer to have her picture made. When she saw it, she didn’t like it. She took it back and said, “You’ll have to take this over.” He asked, “What’s wrong with it?” She said, “It doesn’t do me justice.” He looked at it and looked at her and said, “Lady, you don’t need justice; you need mercy.”
That’s what all of us need. If I got justice, if God gave me what I deserved, I’d go to hell. On the other hand, if God simply justified me—a sinner—with no penalty for my sin, He wouldn’t be just anymore. He would have overlooked my sin. The cross is God’s way to be both just and the justifier for our sin. The cross is God’s way where Jesus took my place and paid the penalty for all my sin, shame, and unworthiness. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).
Jesus, God’s Lamb, took my sin to the cross. There He bowed His head and said, “It is finished!”. That means “Paid in Full.” God’s righteous demands have been satisfied. Jesus delivers us from God’s divine judgment. His sacrifice on the cross is the satisfaction for my sin. God is just, but we need mercy. If you’ve never seen yourself as a sinner lost before Almighty God and cried out to Him for mercy, you’ve never been saved. You may have joined a church, but have you thrown yourself on the mercy of the court? Have you said, “Lord God be merciful to me, a sinner?” Do it now.
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346
