A young man, a first offender, was given a very stiff sentence by the judge. A newspaper writer commented on the harsh sentence: “One gets sick of the everlasting cant about justice. The best of us does not want justice. The best of us could not look in the face of justice and bid it judge us. What is wanted in this world is a little less justice and a little more mercy.... Justice is not Christianity. Christianity is mercy.”
Some of this is true. Certainly none of us could face full justice! We could not face justice if it were only a question of how we have treated our fellow-men. What then could we expect if we were faced with the far greater question of our duty towards our great Creator-God? The Bible says, “In Thy [God’s] sight shall no man living be justified” (Psa. 143:22And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. (Psalm 143:2)).
But should we forget the claims of justice? Definitely not! If it is announced tomorrow that for the next six months there will be no more “cant about justice” in the courts of the land-the very word “justice” will be banned-what would be your reaction? How would you feel? Pretty shaky!
You would expect unrestrained violence in the world, and that “mob law” would rule. You might be thinking of deadbolt locks and burglar bars, a good watchdog in the yard, and perhaps a revolver by the bedside!
But is it true that “justice is not Christianity”? Is Christianity only mercy? Is it a scheme by which God arranges to hand out benefits without regard to what is really right? A thousand times NO! If God the Judge of all does not adhere to strict justice in all His dealings, who of all His creatures could be trusted?
What, then, is Christianity? It is neither justice at the expense of mercy, nor mercy at the expense of justice, but both mercy and justice. In the very words of Scripture, it is “grace [reigning] through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:2121That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:21)). Is not this exactly what you need?
The death of our Lord Jesus Christ was God’s righteous settlement of the awful debt of sin. The glorious fact of the Savior’s own deity invests it with infinite value. Upon this all-sufficient basis God declares Himself to be ready to justify rather than to condemn-to justify in strict accord with every demand of justice. Thus it is that He can be “just, and the justifier.”
But He is “just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus,” and of no others. The atoning work is truly done, but not the careless, the indifferent or the rejecters of His great offer of salvation obtain this blessing. Only the believer is the receiver of this mercy. Oh, are you one of these?
To believe in Jesus is not merely to believe about Him, but to personally trust Him as your Savior in true repentance. Do you believe in Him in this way? If not, whether or not men call it “cant” you may depend on receiving that evenhanded justice which you cannot face. If you do believe, you will rejoice that “mercy and truth are met together” and that Christianity is mercy and justice.