It’s a common phrase heard by all parents alike, “It’s just not fair.” There’s a part of us that longs for things to be fair, for everyone to get a shot, and for justice to win out. It’s something we look for when we say, “what goes around comes around” or it can be something we seek out to do in revenge when we think “I’ll make him pay for this.” We all want justice. It’s built into our laws, our societies, our families. We all crave justice.
At ignite this year I had the pleasure of sitting down with a young man who was struggling with these questions. How could a loving God send people to Hell? Why is Jesus the only way? These are tough questions and I’ll admit I didn’t do the best job answering them during our short ten-minute conversation. Luckily, we were able to set a meeting a few weeks ago and go over these things more in depth, but it got me thinking how we struggle with this idea of love and justice.
It seems like we always want one or the other. We often believe God’s love must be inclusive, forgiving everyone and everything, and yet at the same moment we declare justice must be done to criminals and bad people. So how do we navigate this?
In starting off this conversation we must acknowledge where we are at as human beings. It’s easy to think that we exist at a neutral position and that our deeds, often based on our own judgements, will take us either to Heaven or Hell but that’s inaccurate. In reality, the Bible defines all of us as sinners (Romans 3:23) and that all of us are therefore going to Hell (Romans 6:23). God’s holiness demands perfection and when we inevitably sin, the just cause, the very justice we demand, deems us worthy of Hell. It is not like God has to save us. We are in no way worthy of it, but praise God that in his mercy He gives us a way out and that way is Jesus.
But this seems pretty exclusive right? Correct, and the reason is simple. Jesus is the only way because it’s all about Jesus. Heaven isn’t heaven without Jesus. Therefore, Heaven is a relationship where Jesus comes after us, and here’s the kicker, where we come after Him in faith. As in any relationship it’s two sided.
So how do we manage love and justice together? The answer is the cross. The broken get healed and find justice with the payment placed on Jesus and the criminals receive mercy and forgiveness with the sentence being placed on Jesus. Often in life we find ourselves in both of these categories: the broken and the breakers, but praise be to God that we find justice and love at the foot of the cross!