How can God be both just and merciful???

Question

If justice is punishing those who deserve punishment, and mercy is NOT punishing those who deserve it, how can God be both just and merciful? How can anyone?

Okay okay okay---God sent Jesus to die for your sins. No matter what the means, you are still NOT being punished when you deserve it. How is that justice???

Answer 1

By payng the penalty of death for man he remains righteous bringing his creation to his righteousness through Jesus.

Consider the two trees in the midst of the garden.
The tree of knowledge of good and evil
The tree of life.
God's righteousness (the law)
God's mecy. (salvation through Jesus Christ)

Those who ate of the law inherited death, In the day you eat of it you shall surely die.
Those who eat of the tree of life will have eternal life, which is to take of our lord Jesus Christ and the atonement he provided.

Edit: you are still NOT being punished when you deserve it. How is that justice???

If the penalty is paid how is it that I deserve it?
If man accepts the atonement of Christ his penalty is paid and he is by faith made new and is not guilty of any sin.
Is it righteous for God to pay the penalty for man?
Yes more than righteous it is merciful.
You are deciding that it is somehow unjust for God to pay the penalty for us but this is not unjust. God is absolutely righteous and chose to pay the penalty with his righteous flesh. The penalty of sin is paid and this is absolutley righteous and absolutely merciful.
Those who accept the atonement God provides are by faith made new and become new creatures . The wages of sin is death and once that price is paid then a man is made righteous and in agreement with God.
Christ said you must be born again.
A man must die and be born again and then he is made new.
This is true what we have now we have by faith.

Let's examine what the peanlty of sin is.
God told Adam in the day he ate of the tree he would surely die.
Sin equals death.
All men sin and all men die.
Sin and death entered the world by one man Adam.
Did Adam pass the sin nature to man?
Yes all men sin and all men die it is passed down by one man. (that is not to say that we do not have our individual sin)
So if sin and death entered the world by one man So did salvation and eteranal life comes to us who accept it by one man Jesus. One man brought sin and the wages of sin and one man brought salvation and righteousness to eternal life.
The abibliy to follow God comes through Jesus (God)
The nature to sin came from one man (Adam).
It is sin that brings the judgement of death.
Jesus said that we must be born again and made new.
The resurrection is through Christ who overcame sin and death for us.
Sinful flesh must die. This is still the righteousness of God.
It is through this resurrection we are made new.

Answer 2

That is what Christ dieing on the cross is all about, being just and merciful of the same time. God showed us mercy when he died of the cross, while at the same time his death satisfied the justice of God.

To answer you're added details, because mercy reigns over judgment. Think about it, that is the whole idea of mercy, not receiving what your deeds merit. And, while God is perfect and completely just, he still does not go against his own laws. God, being love made a way to show mercy over his perfect justice. He knew the only way, to fulfill his law was to fulfill it himself, be becoming a man and living the only sinless life a man has ever lived.

Answer 3

"God’s passionate love for his people — for humanity — is at the same time a forgiving love. It is so great that it turns God against himself, his love against his justice.”

-- Beneict VXI from his book "God is Love".


He goes on to explain that humanity was in such a terrible debt before the coming of Jesus that no ammount of sacrifice or "burnt offering" would be enough to conteract God´s justice. No sacrifice large enough - except God himself.

He became the¨"perfect sacrifice" offering his very self for the sins of humanity to compensate his justice. For this reason, the death of Jesus Christ is seen as the centerpoint of all history - "when Mercy defeated justice".

The Catholic Church honours the Mercy of God with a specal devotion for the new millenium called "Divine Mercy", spread by John Paul II. Through this devotion Jesus reveals his Mercy as God´s greatest attribute, to the point of defining God as "Mercy itself".

...thanks for asking.

**OK OK - We don´t receive justice but God is still just, meaning he must be a suffering God. This compassionate, sufferig love is called Mercy.

Answer 4

Because He is God. Justice is something we do. Justice is part of who God is. Mercy is something we do. Mercy is part of who God is. God is gracious, merciful, just and holy all the time because those things describes who He is, not what He does. I John 1:9 says, "If we confess to God our sins, He is gracious and just to forgive us from all unrighteousness." Because He is just, He has to honor His word and provide mercy and grace to any who asks for it. Justice is more than punishing, it also concerns doing what is right. If God thinks his justice is best served by showing mercy, who am I to argue with Him? God allowed Jesus to die on a cross because of His justice and because it was the only way to bring grace and mercy to humanity.

Answer 5

Many confuse the two stages which are distinct from each other. Justice is the first step in which determination is made whether you have done wrong. After your guilt is established through the scales of Divine Justice, then the next step of Mercy comes up, whether to give me mercy and how much or let the scales of justice stand for the final outcome. If one does not ask for Mercy, one may end up having only Justice, which can surely cause such folks to be sent to hell!!

That is why belief in the Holy One AND asking for Mercy is so very Important to attain salvation.

If there is no justice FIRST, mercy can not be applied in the first place. If you said I stole your watch, and I denied it, but you said... well, but I am not filing any charges against you and I am forgiving you the cost of the watch and I am letting you keep the watch and I am going to show you mercy and forgiveness.

I am totally apalled by your unjust accusation and pretension of mercy, when you have not done Justice to me, but injustice in the name of mercy.

I hope this should make it abundantly clear why and how the two are present in the Almighty.

If we are faced only with DIVINE JUSTICE, not one soul among us common joes will make it to heaven. The only exceptions would perhaps be the grand prophets, prophets, saints and the lofty ones who spent their entire lives in giving and serving the weak and being hard on themselves in the name of the Almighty.

Just the air we breathe can not be justly compensated by ANY OF OUR DEED!! So, we have great shortfalls if Justice alone is applied on us.

Mercy is our life blood and hope. The ONLY HOPE OF SALVATION.

I hope this makes sense.

Answer 6

Mercy has nothing to do with punishment. Just is the punishment handed out for a crime or sin. Mercy is eventho we are worthy of punishment, we believe on Jesus Christ and God, and ask for forgiveness, God gives us his Mercy.

Answer 7

the simplest way to understand this concept is to look at our natural parents. If we had "good"
parents.......when we committed an act of disobedience we were punished, if we were truly sorry our punishment was often mitigated by our sorrow.
He is just because He created all of us with His law in our hearts, unless our conscience is dead {no guilt} we know we have sinned against our Creator.
He is merciful because He sent His own Son to pay the price and atone for all the evil we have committed in word, thought, the things we have done and in all the things we have failed to do.
We only need to repent and accept
HIS MERCY

Answer 8

Galations :3:21 Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. 22: But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promises by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23: But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24: therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that might be justifud by faith.25: But after faith has come we are no longer under a tutor. 26: for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.27:For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28; There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave or free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus, 29: And if you are Christ's then you are Abrahams's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

this explains how we were under the law (the 10 commandments) before Christ...because you cannot at anytime follow the 10 commandments. if you dont get a l00 if there was a grading system...you fail on 99.9..no one can do this but Christ, this is why we need Christ, and how God is merciful to us with the acceptance of our lord and saviour Jesus Christ.

Answer 9

the comparable way reliable mothers and dads are. Merciful yet not in straightforward terms: young little ones get away with something, bully one yet another, tear up the homestead, combat, and mom and pop say "it incredibly is okay!" it incredibly is chaos. in simple terms yet not merciful: you in many circumstances get the right punishment you deserve for what you probably did. They ever make it easier to off the hook, or say you're forgiven this time. They never communicate over with you, and attempt to make it easier to be attentive to you're enjoyed by capacity of extending grace. it incredibly is controlling, and expects a perfection that isn't possible. a reliable God might could be the two.

Answer 10

I'm a muslim,sorry I have little knowledge on this just and merciful thing but I will give it a shot. God will wait until you die at the age 60yrs or more?then God asks you on Judgement day,Ok to be just and merciful,I will not accused you of so many sins and blasphemous deed but I will allow you to explain to me ,one thing at the time,why you did those things on Earth and given all ample time to repent but you did not?

Answer 11

The Bible says: "the wages of sin is death." One day soon, I imagine, there will be a physical resurrection on the earth (read The Book of Revelation, Ch. 18) when Satan and his Demons/Angels are bound for 1,000 years. During this 1,000 years everyone is brought back, led and taught back to perfection as the Bible TEACHES and by the time Satan is let loose at the end of the 1,000 years everyone is perfect as Adam and Eve were.

Then the FINAL test (as Revelation, 18 says: for a short time, Satan will be let loose with his horde) and they will do the most serious damage they can destroying and killing all who do not surrender to them. Revelation says multitudes will fall to him in surrender, even though perfect and almost the rest will die, even though perfect. But, as it says, when the last of Gods people are surrounded, God destroys Satan FOREVER, and he will NEVER BE CALLED TO MIND AGAIN. That is, his hurt and misery he brought will be finished and he will be forever gone along with everything evil in this universe.

From then on, God will be able to destroy anything that tries to usurp him, as he allowed all this time and pain to be inflicted by Satan, proving that neither Satan NOR Man were able to rule correctly, as only God can do. And enough time will have passed that, that will have been proven.