Just deserts

from By God’s Word, Matthias Media, Sydney, 2007, pp. 125-127.

“Justice!” is the righteous cry of the victim. Whenever we have been unfairly treated—whenever we have been used or abused—whenever we have been attacked or denied our basic rights, we call out for justice. In the lands of tyrannical governments, people want justice. Outside the courts where business cheats or violent criminals are being tried, the victims and their families demand justice.

It is only right and proper that people want justice. But not everybody wants it. The victims do, but the guilty do not. Indeed, it’s the last thing the guilty want. Just as it is completely normal to call for justice when we are the victims, so also is it completely normal to want to avoid justice when we are guilty.

“Mercy!” or “Pardon!” should be the cry of the guilty. Yet, strangely, this is not their plea. Instead, they deny their guilt, claiming to be innocent or crying for understanding. All circumstances, they say, need to be considered. It wasn’t their fault; it was an accident that could have happened to anybody. In addition, everybody does it so it’s not really wrong. They’ve had to endure a life of economic hardship and educational disadvantage. They were raised in a dysfunctional family. They have a sickness, or a genetic predisposition to this sort of thing. They fell into bad company and were led astray.

But making excuses (which usually starts in early childhood) is as universal as sin itself. We want to avoid the pain of punishment, and it is easier to add lying to our list of faults than to accept suffering, even when it is deserved. And after a while, we believe our own deceptive rhetoric, for there is no easier audience to convince than ourselves. Yet our guilt remains an uncomfortable subject that we wish would go away.

However, the pain of punishment is an essential part of justice. Justice is not the social engineering of harm minimization; justice involves paying for mistakes, the guilty receiving their due for their crimes.

But at Easter, we are reminded of Jesus’ victory over death. His victory was achieved through death, for by his death he conquered death and its cause—i.e. sin (Heb 2:14). So he rose to die no more. In addition, in rising from the dead, he brought many sinners to share in the glory of God’s eternal life, for in his sacrificial death, he paid the punishment for our sins as our substitute and turned aside God’s righteous anger towards us.

One of the outcomes of Jesus’ death and resurrection is that the guilty can now face both their own guilt and their judge with honesty. We know the serious consequences of punishment, and we know forgiveness and pardon, for in the victory of Jesus, we experience both justice and mercy. Thank God for Jesus our Lord.

For reflection

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 1:8-2:2)