Several weeks ago, I was afforded the opportunity to lead
the Bible study and prayer group for the Christian Legal Society at my law
school. As part of the study we’re going through, I made the point that I had
only recently thought through: justice and mercy are incompatible.
I suppose the beginning of my meditation on the concept was
born from the discussions in my criminal law class. We looked at competing theories
of punishment. One is utilitarian—punish only if the good to society will
outweigh the harm caused by the punishment. As with the utilitarian ethical
worldview, this can lead to very undesirable conclusions. If there is no
societal benefit from punishing a murderer, he can walk free.
The other theory, the camp which I am much more inclined
toward, is retributivism. This theory is simple: we should punish people
because their actions are worthy of punishment. Deterrence is a nice benefit,
but it is not the driving force. Retributivism is the theory of pure justice. I
support the death penalty because I believe murder and rape are crimes
worthy of death. Executions can deter, but whether or not they do is a
secondary topic. Murderers and rapists deserve death; it is the just reward of
their heinous act(s).
I use that as an example of retributivism, but that’s not my
purpose in writing. The shortcoming (depending on one’s perspective) of this
theory is that there is no place for mercy. Utilitarianism can offer mercy, but
only at the expense of justice.
You may not see the mutual exclusivity of mercy and justice.
Let’s define them:
Just: based on or
behaving according to what is morally right and fair; deserved or appropriate
in the circumstances
Merciful:
compassion or forgiveness toward someone whom it is within one's power to
punish or harm
Mercy forgives someone whom it would be just to punish, and
if justice is administered it is without mercy.
The Bible tells us that God is actively just:
I know that the Lord
will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor. –Psalm 140:12
Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the
flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing
God: And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing
that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve
the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he
hath done: and there is no respect of persons. –Colossians 3:22-25

And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the
men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither
shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. –Isaiah
66:24
…[F]or it is written, Vengeance is mine; I
will repay, saith the Lord. –Romans 12:19
This might seem harsh, especially to those who aren’t
Christians (and thanks for reading). However, keep in mind that justice
requires punishment for sin, and God as a just judge not only will, but must punish sin.
Yet in this same Bible, we also read of God’s mercy:
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith
he loved us… –Ephesians 2:4
And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall
now into the hand of the Lord; for
his mercies are great:
and let me not fall into the hand of man. –II Samuel 24:14
Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. –Luke
6:36
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and
renewing of the Holy Ghost… –Titus 3:5
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that
we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. –Hebrews 4:16
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead… –I Peter 1:3

If I were an atheist, I would say that this proves
Christianity is irrational and not explore things further. However, I’m not an
atheist. The Bible has many paradoxes, and one of the greatest is this: How can
a merciful God punish people, and how can a just God forgive sin?
Thankfully, there is an answer. The key that unlocks our
understanding of this paradox is Jesus.
See, since God is just, He must punish sin. We don’t like
it, but without punishment of sin there is no justice, and God is not God. But
God also desires to show us mercy. There had to be a way to have both.
God’s just wrath had to be channeled somewhere in order for
us to avoid it and obtain mercy. This was Jesus’s purpose:
Surely he hath borne
our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way;
and the Lord
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was
afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his
mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his
generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he
stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his
death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet
it pleased the Lord to bruise him;
he hath put him to grief: when thou
shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall
be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore
will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with
the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered
with the transgressors; and he bare the
sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. –Isaiah 53:4-12
This prophecy from Isaiah came to pass centuries later on
Calvary:
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying,
Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? –Mark 15:34
What happened on the cross is that Jesus faced only the
terrifying aspects of God. Jesus received no mercy, instead bearing the full
weight of God’s justice and, consequently, God’s wrath. This was the role of
the “scapegoat” on the Day of Atonement:
And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the
congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat: And Aaron shall
lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the
iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their
sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit
man into the wilderness: And the goat shall bear upon him all their
iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the
wilderness. –Leviticus 16:20-22
The scapegoat took upon it the sin of Israel, and then it
had to be expelled from the community, probably facing death in the wild since
it was domesticated. And so Jesus became the scapegoat to face God’s just wrath
so that we could experience His mercy. Salvation is not the absence of God’s
justice. It is the removal of God’s justice from our shoulders and the
placement of His justice on Christ’s:
…[I]f any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours
only, but also for the sins of the whole world. –I John 2:1b-2

I think Romans 3 does the best job of summing this up:
But now the righteousness of God without the law is
manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness
of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the
glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith
in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness:
that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. –Romans
3:21-26
The paradox is answered. Neither God’s justice nor mercy is
compromised. Through Jesus, God is both “just, and the justifier of him which
believeth in Jesus.”
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