If the answer is Yes, don`t you find these characteristics to be contradictory?
Just - Receive an equal reward or punishment for an action. I.E. You don`t send guy to prison for life for stealing a pack of cigaretts.
Mercy - Rendering less a punishment for an action. The offense outweighs the punishment. I.E. Judge gives a defendant a slap on the wrist with the warning that if you do it again the punishment will be more strict.
How can God be all-merciful and all-just. This does not make any sense.
2007-10-30 18:16:49 · 19 answers · asked by Future 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
You misunderstand these terms from a biblical perspective.
For instance, you say, "...punishment for an action." A Christian would call an action that deserves a punishment a "sin." You would say that a tiny sin should receive a tiny punishment; perhaps even be overlooked every once in a while.
But God created us as eternal beings. In an eternal space, knowing the difference between "good" and "evil," i.e., between total obedience to God and the occasional violation of God's commandments (i.e., sins,) God knows that all men and women will eventually sin, and God had promised that if Adam disobeyed, he would die.
God cannot lie, so Adam died that day, spiritually speaking.
An other outcome would mean that God is NOT just, because justice means that a law ("...but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat...) once broken, must carry with it the prescribed penalty (...for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”) Like it or not, that is pure justice, and our God is pure and just.
Let me introduce another aspect of God: He is loving, and His love is also as perfect as His justice, as perfect as His mercy.
So God, who has this perfect love for you, yet needing to impose the sanction for sin (i.e., death,) yet desiring to show mercy (wanting to find a way to atone for your sins for you) found a way: He, in an act of perfect mercy, would die on your behalf. In this way, justice is perfectly served (the promised penalty for sin is meted out,) His love is perfectly revealed (He had no reason to die for you; that is, you did not deserve this act of His charity; and Jesus, being God, was sinless and thereore did not deserve a death of His own) and yet, He has shown mercy: the guilty is now able to be found innocent.
But how? How can the guilty be found innocent? Very simple: a confession is required. If, by faith, you can believe in your heart that all I wrote above is true: 1) that you are a sinner; 2) that your sins cause you to deserve the just and promised penalty of death; 3) that Jesus (i.e., God) died on your behalf for you; and that He died a sacrificial death (because He is God) on your behalf; the Jesus (to whom God the Father has given all judgment of sinners) bestows salvation and eternal life to you. That is, he restores your relationship to the Father; it is as if you have never sinned; the debt has been paid by God's great mercy and justice was still served.
Once final word is critical here: grace. Jesus makes this offer to you, not because you deserve it; not because you earned it by some "good" that you do; not because it's the best way (He is, in fact, the ONLY way to the Father) but because Jesus CHOOSES you and all the world BY GRACE to receive this free gift.
To go to hell is not because you are condemned as a sinner; it is because you reject Jesus' grace: His free gift of salvation. It is as if you toss it back in His face and say, "No! I don't believe in you, or your salvation." And Jesus honors that rejection: your free will to accept or reject His gift of salvation.
The choice is up to you... tonight!
2007-10-30 19:24:08 · answer #1 · answered by he_returns_soon 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
The judge gives a slap on the wrist...smile...well God has given us billions of slaps on the wrists since the beginning of time and many messengers to keep reminding us and giving us warnings. How many warnings do you want? Every book, the Bible, Koran, Torah etc. lay out the rules of life...and if you read them ...the warnings scream at you. And mercy, like the man made laws, forgiveness is always available for those who choose to follow the law. Take care.
zainab
2007-10-31 01:47:47 · answer #2 · answered by Zainab T 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Man is responsible for what he chooses to do.
God never forces anyone to do anything.
God cannot be tempted with evil.
He does not deceive. He has no favouritisms.
He is no respecter of persons.
For people to run their lives around their own selfish selves, and to serve their own gratifications without so much as a thankyou to the very One who gave them life in the first place, and then to cry wolf when the taps get twisted and turned a little too tightly, and winge and whine as to why did God allow this to happen, would have to be the greatest error and blasphemous attitude, any of us could ever have.
They don;'t want to give God the credit for all the good and prosperity that may come into their lives, but they sure do sing out for God, when their in deep trouble. Isn't that "using a person?" Using someone for what they can get out of that person? A bit cheeky, I think, don't you? And very bad manners. Yes.....there are definately occassions, when a person may not have given God the time of day, in the past, and then they are faced with imminent danger!! And cry out to God to save them! The Bible tells us, God does hear, and will answer those, who cry out in faith, and there have been occassions when that person has been saved in an amazing way.....and it has changed their life!!! Set them on a new path of searching for the truth about God and His Son, and what they can do, to become better people. God KNOWS each persons heart and its up to each individual, to take responsibility for their own salvation, and to pray, seeking for Gods guidance in their lives.
2007-10-31 01:52:42 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Religions teach many varied things but the Bible does not teach about a hell of torment.
To be tormented in hell, you would have to be conscious or know you are being tormented! (Ecclesiastes9:5) For the living know that they will die,
but the dead know nothing;
they have no further reward,
and even the memory of them is forgotten. Some of the things taught in religion are true some are not, but, to go the right way you would need to take in knowledge from the Bible because in the Bible all the truth is found.But no teaching of Hell is in there!
But yes God is all merciful and All just. In fact there is no justice like God's perfect justice. Maybe it's just that you don't understand him, because you don't know him..
2007-10-31 03:00:43 · answer #4 · answered by I speak Truth 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
God can be both merciful and just because Jesus bore the full wrath of God for every sin that anyone has ever committed or ever will commit. So when God offers mercy to those who trust in Him, the just punishment for the sin has already been paid in full.
2007-10-31 01:35:48 · answer #5 · answered by Northstar 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God gives us time and time again to repent and to accept His forgiveness. I am human and I do things wrong daily so I Repent daily and ask for forgiveness. If I lie I repent, He forgives, that is the same as a person stealing a pack of cigarettes and saying I am sorry and I being forgiven, is it not? I believe it is. He is all merciful and all just. I believe He more merciful and just than anyone we can think of, He is our Father, we can only steal so many times before we get sent to jail, however, he will forgive us as many times as we ask. So, my question is....Who is more merciful and who is more just?
2007-10-31 01:44:32 · answer #6 · answered by Fraggle Rocks 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
God is merciful but I don't recall a scripture that says He is all merciful. God is merciful to those who believe on His Son (Jesus) and unmerciful to those who despise His Son. God is all just in that He made a way for all men to be saved by trusting in Jesus. God does not tolerate sin. Sin must be punished by death, "The soul that sinneth shall die." There are degrees of punishment in Hell. But the worse sin of all is rejection of God's Son who died for all our sins and made it possible to go to heaven when we die. Christ died in our place and took our death and punishment for our sins.
To be just he would have to suffer eternally with our sins. But Christ is not mere man, He is the God- man. Equally God and Equally man. Before taking our sins upon himself, he was without sin. He would still have our sins if it weren't for the blood of Christ. His pure blood made cleansing for him and for us. The Word of God says that without the shedding of blood there is no remission for sins. God is all just in that all sin is punished by death. You can die for your own sin or have another (Jesus) die in your place. My last point is that all sin is bad in that you are living as though God does not exist.
2007-10-31 01:49:04 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Nope it doesn't make sense. But the world isn't ruled by God but by man.
2007-10-31 02:15:01 · answer #8 · answered by Mimza 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Can not a human judge today be merciful when executing his justice?
2007-10-31 01:38:58 · answer #9 · answered by AEH101 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Well my answer would be no, since I don't believe in the Christian God. Good point though!
Liesel.
2007-10-31 01:45:33 · answer #10 · answered by Liesel 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋