What do we need most from God, justice or mercy? The answer is that we need both. We often hear people – and some Christians among them – complaining that life is not fair, and that God himself is not fair. “Where is the God of justice?” they cry. Some will even turn away from God because they perceive that he’s not being just, and so they no longer want anything to do with him.
We can rightly respond to the cry for justice by pointing out that, if justice is all that God does, we are all finished because of our sins, and that what we need from him is mercy. This takes seriously the reality that evil is done by us, and we need forgiveness for it, and not only done to us. It is true that we are not only victims of evil, but guilty of evil.
But do we need to throw out one in order to embrace the other? Jesus assures us, “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly” (Luke 18:8). Meanwhile, the writer to the Hebrews invites us to “approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Thankfully, we do not need to choose between the two. Sometimes we need to hear more of God’s justice, at other times more of his mercy. The wonderful truth is that God promises us both justice for the evil done to us and mercy for the evil done by us.