"Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raise Him from the dead), and all the brethren who are with me. Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."
grace and peace
The grace
and peace that we can enjoy among and between us are the results of God’s
justice and mercy toward each of us. Jesus, is God’s express image of Himself in
human form. When a wrong is committed,
someone bears the resulting damage to peace and goodwill (among other things). Were we each to bear that full expense on our
own, separated from any forgiveness, we would be tormented by destructive evil,
totally out of relationship with other people and God.
In the face of wrong, there is always a choice; either make
the perpetrators suffer or suffer yourself.
To make the perpetrators suffer will rarely produce real repentance,
especially if the “justice” is meted out with anger, resentment and vengeance. If it is toward ourselves, it may take the
form of regret and self-condemnation. This kind of justice, will in fact
propagate more evil, and things don’t become ‘right’ just because someone says,
“I’m really sorry”. Forgiveness results
when one is willing to bear the cost of the wrong rather than making the
wrongdoer bear the cost. When
forgiveness is granted, some suffering is taken on by the one who is forgiving,
but the wrongdoer is set free from the bondage of ‘payback’, and the evil of
that wrong is halted. On a grand scale,
God has done this for each and every person who will accept it:
“God did not inflict
pain on someone else, but rather on the Cross absorbed the pain, violence, and
evil of the world into himself.
Therefore the God of the Bible is not like the primitive deities who demanded
our blood for their wrath to be appeased.
Rather, this is a God who became human and offers his own lifeblood in
order to honor moral justice and merciful love so that someday he can destroy
all evil without destroying us.” [1]
His justice and
mercy deliver us from the evil of revenge, and self-seeking apathy toward
others, as well as the evil of torturing ourselves. He invites us into the
grace and peace of Jesus Christ. The
result, is that God’s values—which are the reverse of the world’s values—become
a norm for those who walk in that grace and peace of God. Power is for service, not control; money is
for giving, not hoarding; forgiveness is available, rather than
condemnation. In God’s expression of
Himself in Jesus, neither justice nor mercy is sacrificed. If we grasp and accept the work of the cross,
we truly are delivered from the evil propagated by sin in our own heart and in
the world around us. We are set free to live in the grace and peace that comes
from God, and is God’s will.
Read and Pray: Psalm 85:10, Acts 2:22-28, Psalm 16:11, John 3:13-21
[1] Keller,
Timothy, The Reason for God, (New
York, NY, Riverhead Books, 2008),p.200 By the way, this is a great book for
skeptics and doubters as well as for believers!
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