A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
“It isn’t fair,” the young wife wailed. “He oughtn’t to get by with it.” If you knew the circumstances, you’d agree with her that the thief deserves punishment. An employee of her husband admitted he’d stolen $10,000 from him. Her husband had a legal and moral right to have him arrested. But the money was irretrievably gone. His going to jail wouldn’t bring back the money, and it would throw his wife and children into deplorable straits. For the sake of the thief’s family, the employer decided not to pursue his arrest. “But he deserves to be punished!” was his wife’s heartfelt cry.
The human heart demands justice. America’s Bill of Rights promises us “Liberty and justice for all.” The young rebel scoffs at the law, but when his car is stolen he still wants a policeman to guarantee that the thief is punished. Good parents desperately want their children to learn that sin has inevitable consequences, and that just being sorry doesn’t erase tbem. Justice means everyone, regardless of their social standing, wealth, race, or importance, will be judged equally by the law. That brings me to an odd circumstance, and my reason for this conversation. Why is that all of us want justice and punishment for everybody else, but too often we ourselves want to be excused for our own bad behavior? We classify the sins of others as unforgivable and punishable, but we tend to call our own sins “just human nature.”
On a plane flying into Reagan Airport, I talked to a woman about God’s offer of forgiveness for my sins through Jesus. She said, “My goodness, what has a nice lady like you done that’s so bad?” I answered, “Jesus said hating someone is as bad as murdering them” (1 John 3:15) She said through tears, “Then I’m a sinner. I bitterly hate Fidel Castro. He usurped all of my family’s estates in Cuba. So that means I’m a sinner, too, doesn’t it?”
We think of over-eating as just being unhealthy, but the Bible calls it a form of idolatry (Philippians 3:19). We might call bullying “asserting my rights,” but it still dishonors the Lord. A politician says he “mis-spoke himself,” but really, he lied. Our not wanting to admit our own sins has a strange consequence: it tends to make people deny God’s existence. A woman tried to explain to me why she didn’t believe in God. “All of those stories in the Bible about God sending fire from heaven and bears eating up children! How could he be a good God?”
A bishop (not a good one, I fear, since he didn’t believe the Bible was true) called God “a dirty bully!” Why? Because, he said, God sent war and plague and famine on people. But remember those people were doing terrible, wrong things: burning their precious babies as a sacrifice, murdering people, committing adultery, stealing, beating up poor people. Why call God “a dirty bully,” when He simply renders justice, punishing those who deserve it? No matter how you want to define sin, Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned; all fall short of the glory of God.” So it is absolutely fair and just for God to punish sin.
The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad. . . .
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. Psalm 97:1,2 (NIV)
But the wonderful thing about our God is that not only is He just, He is full of mercy. His justice requires that sin be punished, but His mercy lets Jesus pay our penalty for sin, taking our blame on Himself.
Lamentations 3:33 says, “God does not afflict willingly, Nor grieve the children of men.”
Your holy God doesn’t want you to be punished for your sin. He yearns for you to accept His gift of mercy! Justice and mercy. What more could we ask?