Justice!
Pastor Jim Kilby • May 30, 2025
"I demand justice!"
Even the worst sort of human will demand justice if wronged sufficiently by others. Steal a nicotine addicted ax murderer's cigarettes for example and you'll see what I mean. I find it almost laughable that those who commit even the most heinous crimes demand they be given justice. Even if it's found in the form of a legal loophole, they'll scream for justice! But doesn't justice demand just that--justice! As human beings we are quite warped in our understanding of, and our demands for justice. It's as if we think that God owes us something. God owes us nothing, and God needs nothing from us. In J. I. Packer's book, "Knowing God," he puts it this way. "We can only claim from him [God] justice--and justice, for us, means certain condemnation. God does not owe it to anyone to stop justice taking its course. He is not obliged to pity and pardon; if he does so it is an act done, as we say, 'of his own free will,' and nobody forces his hand." In this simple truth we find the incredible nature of God's gift to us in the form of "grace." Grace is what we were given when we deserved condemnation. What was due US was placed on Jesus, and what Jesus deserved is given us through His blood. It is free from anything we could ever do to earn it and available to all who ask. Merry CHRIST-mas to all who will receive Him!
"Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification." Romans 5:16
Pastor Jim Kilby
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