Is God Unfair? Thoughts on God's Justice and Grace Part 1

 When you're going through a major trauma life have you ever asked yourself, "why am I going to this others or not?" Do you ever feel like you're not really getting a fair shake in life compared to other people?  Do you ever feel deep inside or have ever verbalized it that God is unfair to you in how He treats you compaired to others?

Now some of us believe in a kind of justice that works like this. Justice demands that each person gets exactly what is deserved. If you do good, in strict justice, you are owed good. If you do evil, in strict justice you deserve punishment. Now most people think that they deserve a right to pain free, problem free, trouble free lives and that maybe other bad people deserve justice but not them. They deserve life,liberty,and the pursuit of happiness.

Biblically speaking, the bible tells us that all are sinners and in that view of justice we would all get what we deserve from God. What is that? All sinners deserve nothing but eternal punishment. Most of us believe as Christians that we don't want that kind of justice!

But then, there is another view that God should operate treat everyone the same, and that means we should escape a specific affliction if others do! Otherwise, it seems that God has been unfair. But, if God really did handle us that way, we would all either experience the same torture or be equally blessed. But those ideas don’t match the God described in Scripture.

I believe this is a sticking point for many people that makes it very difficult for them to live with God. Please do not misunderstand this. I don’t wish my pain on anyone, but it seems only fair that if others escape problems,suffering,loss,and pain, then I should too. Since God has kept others from this fate, why not us as well? Should we not get at least as good a shake as the next family? I have had these thoughts at times in my life and I imagine that you have as well, but I have come to see that they contain a huge error.

If you are suffering from some affliction, you may feel that God should extend the same grace to you as he has to those who never have to deal with an affliction that is anywhere near as horrible as yours. So it seems that God must be unjust for not extending as much grace to you as to the next person. This objection makes a lot of sense, and I believe it was at the heart of what often is bothering me. Nonetheless, it is still wrong. The complaint against God has now escalated from a demand that God treat us with what we deserve in justice to a demand that God grant us grace.

This is wrong in at least two respects. First, God is no more obligated to give the same grace to everyone than he is to give justice to all. He is only obligated to distribute what we deserve, and we already know what that is! Secondly, since we are talking about granting grace, the charge that God has been unjust because he gave someone else more grace (and this is really what the sufferer is complaining about) is totally misguided.

Grace is unmerited favor, and that means that you get something good that you don’t deserve and didn’t earn. If God owes no one any grace at all (if he owed it, it wouldn’t be grace, but justice), then it can’t be unjust for others to get more grace than I get. It can only be unjust if God is obligated to treat us all the same with grace, and he surely isn’t. In fact, he isn’t obligated to treat us with any kind of grace. Grace precludes obligation! That’s why it’s grace and not justice. Hence, it can’t be unjust if someone gets more grace than another. If God graciously chooses to give some people a better lot in life than others, he has done nothing wrong. We have no right to place requirements on how and when God distributes grace; if we did, that would turn it into justice.

 This distinction between grace and justice is crucial. Many people seem to think that grace is the opposite of injustice. Hence, when God doesn’t give them grace, they conclude that God has treated them unfairly. But the opposite of injustice is justice; grace is an entirely different thing from another world, the Kingdom of God! Put differently, grace is neither fair nor unfair, because fairness and unfairness invoke the concept of justice. Grace has nothing to do with justice; it’s a different
commodity altogether finding its source and meaning only in God!

So is God unjust or unfair to you? May we never accuse Him or ask the question again!
Because of Grace, I'm always doing better than I deserve! Because of Grace, nothing has to be what is in your life. I hope you will begin to gain a new understanding on grace and justice. Next week I will continue by looking at Jesus illustration of grace and justice in Matthew 20:1-16.

Basking in grace and repenting of thinking God was unfair,
Pastor Bill

TEARS. 101

"You have kept count of my tossings;put my tears in your bottle.Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call.This I know, that God is for me.In God, whose word I praise,in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.What can man do to me?" Psalm 56:8-11 ESV

I consider myself somewhat of an expert on tears. It has come through taking a course that I did not ever want to take. I did not take this course in seminary, at a seminar or conference, or read in a book! The course is called Tears 101! The reason being because over the past 6 years, my life has been filled with so many tears. Oh how I have wept countless tears of repentance, tears of regret, tears of inconsolable grief, tears of mourning, tears of loss, tears of anger towards myself, tears of brokenness, and tears of bitterness. But, there have also been tears of joy and tears of gratitude to God for the incredible mercy, kindness, grace, and provision I have experienced from Him during this season.

All of us are familiar with tears. There are many kinds of tears. Tears sum up everything gone wrong in this fallen world. Grief, frustration, pain, disappointment, loss, stress, tragedy, disaster, regret, mourning, depression, lament, brokenness, abandonment; all of it can be expressed through the universal language of tears. Is there not one of us who at least in our solitary moments have not shed tears?

What an incredible, absolutely mind-boggling concept it is that the God of heaven, Creator of eternity, cares enough about our tears that He knows and remembers each and every one, like Hezekiah's tears.

King Hezekiah was at the point of death with illness and Isaiah the prophet came to him and told him, "thus says the Lord: set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover." (Isaiah 38:1)

We read on, "Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, and said, please, oh Lord, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole heart, and done what is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly." (Isaiah 38:2-3)

But then the prophet Isaiah speaks this wonderful word of promise and comfort to the broken King,
"Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears." (Isaiah 38:5)

"Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you"(2 Kings 20:5)

God saw Hezekiah's tears and He responded to those tears and to his crying out in prayer. 

Perhaps you are searching for answers to your own tears. Maybe your hopes and dreams have been shattered by the loss of a dream, the death of someone dear, or some other tragedy in your life. Satan may even have whispered to your heart that nobody understands your pain and nobody really cares that your world has crashed into little pieces at your feet.

I am so encouraged by the image of God keeping all my tears in a bottle in Psalm 56:8, "You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle.Are they not in your book?"It is a known fact that in Bible lands and other middle eastern countries there was a tradition that when someone died, tears of those present were collected and placed in a bottle. This bottle was considered sacred for it represented all the sorrow of the family and was buried with the deceased. Many of these bottles have been found in ancient tombs. In ancient Rome, mourners filled small glass vials or cups with tears and placed them in burial tombs as symbols of love and respect. Sometimes people were even paid to cry into cups, as they walked along the mourning procession. Those crying the loudest and producing the most tears received the most compensation. The more anguish and tears produced, the more important and valued the deceased person was perceived to be. In some war stories, women were said to have cried into tear bottles and saved them until their husbands returned. Their collected tears would show the men how much they were loved and missed. So, the psalmist David was not a stranger to the 'Tears in a Bottle' phraseology

King David was someone who knew what it was to shed many tears. Yet even in his tears and in exile, he found comfort. He realized that God was taking note of everything he was going through. A record was being kept in God’s book of all that he suffered. Even his tears were not shed in vain. They were tears of grief and loneliness, but not of despair. There was a future to them. At present they were a token of suffering, but one day each tear would become the theme for a song of praise. "In God, whose word I praise..., in the Lord, whose word I praise,So David says to God, “Put my tears in Your bottle—store them up carefully for me.”

I can envision shelves filled with bottles in Heaven, each with a name on it, and an accompanying scroll documenting every tear and lament. Or maybe it is just one huge bottle with all of our tears mingled together. Each and every teardrop is precious to God. They are eternal keepsakes. Not a single tear is lost on God. He remembers each and every one. He collects each one.

I like the idea that God has mingled all our tears together. The Psalm does refer to God’s “bottle” in the singular. And if He has collected every tear in that bottle, then mingled with our own are the tears of Jesus. He Himself is well acquainted with tears. I have been very encouraged that there is one I can come to in my lonely, broken hearted, sad tears, Jesus, the savior who wept. The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35, “Jesus wept.” It is also the most poignant. Those words are like a window pointing to the nature and glory of Jesus. It cuts the heart out of any view of God that places Him in some distant universe looking down dispassionately on His creation. Jesus wept. Maybe that surprises us, or frightens us, or threatens us, or embarrasses us. It is all too easy for me to think of Jesus always as unemotional and always serene facing danger and crises without even flinching. But Jesus wept. Never has so much been said so succinctly.

Here is the love, mercy, passion, compassion, grief, and anger of Jesus chiseled down into two words: Jesus wept. On three separate occasions, scripture speaks of Jesus weeping. The first instance was at the grave of His friend Lazarus. "When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept"(John 11:33-35). I don’t think Jesus was weeping because Lazarus was dead – He knew He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. Rather, I think He wept because of the compassion He felt for humanity as we weep over our own tragedies and losses. It is us that He loved so much that it brought Him to tears.

The second occasion is found in Hebrews 5:7,”During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.”

The third occasion is in Luke 19:41-44, "And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”".

Luke tells us that as Jesus entered the city to the tumultuous welcome of the people, His own spirit was not festive. When He saw the Holy City, He wept over it. With all these people, all this excitement, all this joy, and all this acclaim, Jesus wept? We must never forget this. The Greek word for "wept" is much fuller. It comes from the Greek word, "klaio”, which means to sob, to wail aloud." This is much more than just a few tears; it was loud and deep sorrow. Imagine the Lord of the universe wailing over Jerusalem!

Jesus who keeps your tears in a bottle, weeps! He wept over a friend who died and he weeps over a nation who wanted its own way and died as well. He is God, who became a man, a real, vulnerable, touchable, man entering into all the grief and suffering you know including tears.

The day will come when He who wept and stores up all of your tears will as Isaiah says. "will wipe away tears from all faces" (Isaiah 25:8). Until then, God will move heaven and earth to honor every tear that has been shed by you.

"Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5). And when that morning comes, “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore” (Revelation 21:4).

So if you weep today, remember that God is collecting your tears in His bottle, and mixing them with the tears of our dear Savior.

Weeping with joy,

Pastor Bill