N
How do I explain that God being merciful doesn't mean that He is unjust?
- Status
A
Andre1000
Guest
A bureaucratic law can be unjust, God has mercy to prevent bureaucratic injustice.
T
tonyrey
Guest
“Forgive us** as** we forgive those who trespass against us.” Neither more nor less…
S
sweetpetunia
Guest
It’s explained in the parable of the vineyard workers who think their master is unfair ( Matthew 20:1-16)
See specifically: 20:15 “Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?” Grace is gratuitous. It’s an undeserved, free gift. God’s forgiveness is also gratuitous, and it’s available to all.
According to Catholic teaching, God’s justice is “satisfied” by repentance. Confession remits eternal punishment, but usually only part of temporal punishment. Temporal punishment is remitted in various ways on earth (prayers, good works, etc.), or in purgatory. See also: Luke 7:36-50 for another very relevant parable about mercy for greater sinners and satisfaction for sin.
S
Spirithound
Guest
Mercy and justice are not opposites. Mercy goes “beyond” justice and forgives. Mercy does not ignore the demands of justice, it absorbs it. Remember our original sin? Jesus absorbed that. No wishy-washy “mercy” there. Pure justice, pure mercy.
B
buffalo
Guest
God is perfect, perfectly merciful and perfectly just. He can be no other way.
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened. ” C.S. Lewis
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened. ” C.S. Lewis
S
Sam_777
Guest
Read the OT part of the Bible…
J
J_Peterson
Guest
If you tell a child not to touch a hot stove and they do anyway, does the stove punish them? God’s justice is closer to this. He tells us through revelation not to touch the stove but since He’s merciful he’ll heal our wound when we touch it anyway.
I think it may be a Buddhist idea but, two contradicting truths point to a unity that trandscends both.
I think it may be a Buddhist idea but, two contradicting truths point to a unity that trandscends both.
D
Drinkgasoline
Guest
I think you could interpret God’s mercy as a form of justice… it would take a lot of argument and I would probably have to read around some more, but I do remember in my studies something that Aquinas said to do with this topic…
S
sw85
Guest
Well, Christ’s death satisfied both the demands of God’s mercy and God’s justice in a single stroke.
To forgive (to have mercy) is to obviate the debt which justice demands be paid. If there is no more debt, there is nothing for justice to prescribe.
To forgive (to have mercy) is to obviate the debt which justice demands be paid. If there is no more debt, there is nothing for justice to prescribe.
B
BobCatholic
Guest
Understand that God is love. First and foremost. Scripture makes that abundantly clear.
However, God is never declared to be Mercy - but He is Merciful. God is never declared to be Justice, but God is just.
If Love ever comes in conflict with justice, justice loses, when it comes to God.
“While we were still sinners, God still loved us and Christ died for us.” Christ carried the greatest injustice in the history of the universe so that we could benefit from it.
If a sinner repents and asks God for mercy, he will get it, because God’s love overrules His justice and He forgives the sin.
However, God is never declared to be Mercy - but He is Merciful. God is never declared to be Justice, but God is just.
If Love ever comes in conflict with justice, justice loses, when it comes to God.
“While we were still sinners, God still loved us and Christ died for us.” Christ carried the greatest injustice in the history of the universe so that we could benefit from it.
If a sinner repents and asks God for mercy, he will get it, because God’s love overrules His justice and He forgives the sin.
I
Ismael
Guest
I think most people misunderstands what mercy exacly means.
Most people thnik mercy means ‘to give less punishment than deserved’ … and this would come in conflict with justice ‘to give one exactly what he deserves’
Of course we could say that Mercy also means ‘to give to someone more than that person deserves’ and Justice ‘give at least what someone deserves’ which would not be contraddictory…
However that is NOT what mercy in biblical terms means:
Mercy is what the Vulgate calls ‘misericordia’ which is the translation of the Hebrew word ‘hesed’.
The meaning of such word is ‘loving kindness’ (which does not mean being nice all the times as many think in the contemporary sense).
Mercy also means ‘to feel one other’s misery in your own heart’ (miseria= misery and cor(de)= (of the) heart). In a sense it means ‘to take pity of someones’ suffering’.
Hence Mercy in God means that he is loving and kind and that he ‘feels for our misery’, taking pity on us.
Of course these are to be understood NOT as human emotions, since God is not human, but they are ‘analogies’ of the expression of His Love towards us.
So God can be both Just and Merciful without conflict.
Most people thnik mercy means ‘to give less punishment than deserved’ … and this would come in conflict with justice ‘to give one exactly what he deserves’
Of course we could say that Mercy also means ‘to give to someone more than that person deserves’ and Justice ‘give at least what someone deserves’ which would not be contraddictory…
However that is NOT what mercy in biblical terms means:
Mercy is what the Vulgate calls ‘misericordia’ which is the translation of the Hebrew word ‘hesed’.
The meaning of such word is ‘loving kindness’ (which does not mean being nice all the times as many think in the contemporary sense).
Mercy also means ‘to feel one other’s misery in your own heart’ (miseria= misery and cor(de)= (of the) heart). In a sense it means ‘to take pity of someones’ suffering’.
Hence Mercy in God means that he is loving and kind and that he ‘feels for our misery’, taking pity on us.
Of course these are to be understood NOT as human emotions, since God is not human, but they are ‘analogies’ of the expression of His Love towards us.
So God can be both Just and Merciful without conflict.
- Status