Season 5 Podcast 80, A New Voice of Freedom, Argument for the Existence of God, “Justice and Mercy A.”

A New Voice of Freedom

Season 5 Podcast 80, A New Voice of Freedom, Argument for the Existence of God, “Justice and Mercy A.”

Justice is absolute. Mercy is conditional. Without justice there would be no God. Without mercy there would be no atonement. God is not some abstraction, merely an idea of an ideal. God is a real person, a divine being who created us in his image. In other words, he wants us to become like him. That, of course seems impossible. The Lord revealed to Isaiah as recorded in Chapter 55:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

If there is that much difference, how is it possible that we can become like him. First we have the authority of his own words as revealed to John the Revelator.

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” (1 John 3:1-3)

To God nothing is impossible. However, it is only possible because the law of mercy satisfied the law of justice. Without the atonement of Christ, we could not be cleansed from our sins, and without being first cleansed from our sins, we could never enter into the presence of God, and without entering into the presence of God, we could never become like him; that is to say, we could never become perfect even as our Father which is in heaven is perfect. Those who say we cannot become like God are limiting God’s power. With God all things are possible. We must have faith in God and in his power.

It is the law of justice that prevented us from returning to God’s presence. However, the law of justice is necessary. There must be absolutes. Absolute good and absolute evil, otherwise perfection has no meaning. Perfection is what makes God God. Any imperfection and he would cease to be God.

Think of God’s house as a house of perfect order. We can only understand perfection by analogy. Man, for example, creates laws to bring order to society. The laws of man glaringly reflect the imperfections of man, however, as we can see by the rise and fall of governments. The law of justice, which has no imperfections, must be fully satisfied. That is why Christ, a perfect being, died for our sins. He paid the full penalty of the law. When John said “God is love” he was talking about the pure love of Christ which scriptures refer to as charity. That is why charity is greater even than faith and hope and all other virtues combined. It has no equal.

All laws of God are absolute. God creates laws to bring order to his universe. God creates temporal laws to bring order to the temporal universe. Our earth, our solar system, and our galaxy are perfect examples. God also creates laws to bring order to the spiritual universe or spiritual dimension. In other words, the kingdom where he dwells. Temporal laws deal with death and mortality. Spiritual laws deal with eternal life and immortality. We have a physical body subject to temporal laws, and we have a spiritual body subject to spiritual laws. Those laws must be absolute else existence would not be possible. The laws of God can make us perfect.

Just as manmade laws can work only when people obey those laws, temporal laws work only when nature obeys temporal laws. The spiritual laws can only work when people obey those laws.