True Justice
Our culture needs a new understanding on what true justice means.
The world we live in seeks to place itself in the role of the “punisher.” But in the Kingdom of God, that doesn’t work. As beloved sons and daughters, our only alternative is forgiveness.
When someone wrongs us knowingly or unknowingly, we immediately place ourselves in the role of a judge and we want to execute punishment over them. When someone doesn’t doesn’t agree with us or has a different belief than we do, they want to control by way of punishment that is rooted nothing but fear.
In reality, the lack of forgiveness and grace that we have on others is a secondary consequence of not having known the mercy and kindness of our Abba.
People rage the streets with picket signs demanding change and agreement with their beliefs thinking that they will achieve what they call “justice.” People leave negative reviews on websites and hateful words and comments on social media to people they don’t even know because someone lives differently. These views on justice are inaccurate and are not from the Father.
Here is the truth on justice:
“He endured punishment that made us whole, and in his woundings we found our healing.” Isaiah 53:5 TPT
Perhaps justice is found through the finished work of Christ. Perhaps forgiveness is the key to us truly walking out wholeness, even with those who wrong us or those we disagree with.
It’s so normal to make friends with bitterness and hatred, but the longer that we walk with them, they will eat us from the inside out. It is vital that we understand how much we’ve been forgiven and how much mercy has been displayed to us and the only way to do that is by looking to Jesus. He’s the mirror image of the Father. He’s the one who came to reveal the Father.
Why doesn’t it work to become a punisher in the Kingdom of God?
It doesn’t work because it doesn’t reveal who Yahweh-God really is. It doesn’t allow any room for healing to take place.
In Matthew 18:21-35, Jesus explains the principle of unforgiveness and the lack of it. There was a king who wanted to reconcile his accounts with some of his servants. One owed more than what he could pay back. The king looked on him with compassion and removed all his debts. Afterwards, the same servant found one of his servants who owed him and demanded he pay him what he owed and cast the man into prison until he did. The king found out and said, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt, because you begged me to do so. Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you?”
When we lack an understanding of how much we have been forgiven, we respond to hurt to differently. We respond by punishing those who have wronged us.
Punishment isn’t our response to God’s mercy. It is our response to our lack of knowing just how much we have been forgiven. And how we respond to His mercy will reveal our understanding of His forgiveness.
True forgiveness can only come from a heart that truly understands and has encountered the compassion and kindness of God.
Our path to wholeness is only through the finished work of Christ. There is no other way. We were never meant to do it on our own. We needed the perfect transfer of his righteousness.
Through the view of the payment that Jesus made with his blood, unforgiveness becomes an injustice to the finished work of Christ. To withhold forgiveness, compassion and mercy is a display that someone isn’t worthy of his sacrifice. Friend, we are all worthy. Some of us just don’t see that yet.
But we could be the reason why people encounter the mercy of God.
