Chapter Four - A Review of Divine Justice (Mercy vs. Grace)
In verses three and four, Jude identified the reason why he wrote this epistle. He wanted to urge believers to defend the faith that God had entrusted to all believers. He warned that there were people that have crept into our churches that have misinterpreted and corrupted the Word of God by saying it was okay for believers to live immorally. Jude will continue to talk about these people, but first pulls three examples from the Old Testament (regarding the dark angels that fell away from God to follow Lucifer, those people that indulged in sexual immorality in Sodom and Gomorrah and about the non-believers that traveled with Moses after the Egyptian captivity) to remind his readers about the subject of divine judgment and justice.
Someone once told me there are two types of people in the world, those that divide things into two groups and those that don’t. We often see the world divided into two groups such as good and evil, conservative and liberal, truth and relativism or even “Old World” and Westerner. Perhaps one of the greatest examples of dichotomy can be found in the Word of God. We hear about Law and Gospel, the will of God versus the will of man, the two-edged sword, freedom versus slavery, and of course sin versus perfection. Interestingly, all of these essentially boil down to the subject of mercy and justice.
Many Christians have difficulty with these two, seemingly opposite, attributes of God since mercy can be summarized as having compassion while judgment could be thought of as the dispensing of punishment. However, we run the risk of missing an important characteristic of God if we think along those lines. While it may be true that God will have mercy on who He wants to grant mercy (read Exodus 33:19 and Romans 9:14-16), there is something far greater to learn from this apparent contradiction.
As we discussed earlier, mercy is about not receiving something we deserve (such as punishment, death sentence, imprisonment, etc.) The Bible provides many references to God’s mercy (over 300 verses). One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story about the prophet Jonah. God has Jonah go to Nineveh, the capital city of an ungodly nation and pronounce a change-or-die decree (see the Book of Jonah). While most prophets would be happy to see people heed their warning, Jonah, being the good patriot, is upset that the nation ends up repenting (read Jonah 3:10-4:3) and God grants them mercy. Perhaps some of the best summary of God’s mercy were written by King David, in Psalms 86:14-15 he wrote, “O God, insolent men have risen up against me; a band of ruthless men seeks my life, and they do not set you before them. But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” (ESV) and in Psalms 145:8-9, David wrote, “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.” (ESV) Did you notice how God’s love is demonstrated through His mercy, providing tangible evidence of His love for all to see.
Justice, on the other hand, the Bible also speaks loudly on the topic of God’s justice and wrath. The Bible teaches that God is a God of perfection and does not tolerate sin (read Deuteronomy 32:4; Isaiah 45:21 and Colossians 3:5-9). To say that, “my Jesus wouldn’t do that” or that “my Jesus is only a compassionate God,” regarding the subject of judgment and punishment, we are not fully embracing what Scripture is teaching. If we say God is only compassionate and will not judge, we are essentially downplaying the Word of God as well as run the risk of creating an incorrect image of Jesus.
So which is it? Is God merciful? Yes! Does He demand justice? Yes! How can they both be true? We could say that since God made the rules, He could simply change His mind in order to be merciful to, as He put it, “…on whom I will show mercy.” (Exodus 33:19, ESV) While we think that is a real possibility this may be one of those things that God will not do.
In most religions we find in the world, especially those that recognize an all-powerful entity (doesn’t have to be a monotheistic religion), we always see the concept of justice by that deity being forfeited for sake of mercy or the desire to be merciful. In those cases, the penalties of disobedience (sin) are simply dismissed. Just like a judge might do in a court of law today, the judge can set aside the requirements of the law in order to be merciful. Mercy in this situation is seen as being at odds with justice. Could that mean there is a possibility then that crime or sin be beneficial and pay off?
This is not the case with Jesus since Christianity is unique in that God’s mercy is shown through His justice. God did not set aside justice or the requirements of the law, His Son literally paid the price, in this case Jesus died on the cross so that we do not have to (penal substitution or in this case penal substitution atonement). While it is true that Jesus died for us sinners, He also died as a demonstration of God’s righteousness. The law that identified us as being disobedient sinners was never set aside, changed or ignored. Jesus’ death highlights the immutable (unchangeable) nature of God and His Word. The not-so-holy prophet named Balaam explained to the evil King Balak that, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Numbers 23:19, ESV, see also Isaiah 42:1-9; 46:8-10; 48:12; Hebrews 13:8)
Using the courtroom analogy again, the judge, instead of offering mercy by setting the requirements of the law aside would instead offer to pay the penalty himself on behalf of the accused. Perhaps more accurately we should consider Jesus as our attorney who offers His life so that we would not be condemned to an eternity in hell by the judge (the Father of Jesus).
We need to remember that God’s justice is indeed important and not something that can be set aside or ignored (read Romans 3:21-26) and that God’s perfect mercy was and continues to be exercised through His perfect justice allowing us to be forgiven. “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” (Romans 5:9, ESV) “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” (Romans 10:4, ESV) How can we ever understand a love like that? Perhaps more importantly, how can we respond to a love like that? “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2, ESV)
Jude uses those three Old Testament stories as examples of God’s absolute justice.