Compassionate God

When we think about justice, it somehow always has to do with us getting the better end of the bargain. Justice is never us getting what we deserve, or us taking all the heat. Even if we do, it’s about us being the “bigger man/woman” and showing that we are “honest”, prideful things like that.

I’ve always struggled with God’s justice and His judgement on other nations. Why did He choose Israel? Is He showing favoritism? How can He judge other nations when He only revealed Himself to one?

Going through Romans 9 this semester, I’ve come to see that we cannot view God’s justice through our eyes. We are blinded by our own shallow perceptions of what perfection, holiness, and goodness is. If we view justice through the eyes of God (however limited we are in doing that), we’ll see that God is just. God is holy and He cannot contradict Himself. He cannot allow sin and evil to exist and so He must destroy it. God would be unjust if He did not destroy those nations that did not honor Him. But out of all those nations, God actually chose one nation to reveal Himself to. He didn’t even have to do that because nature and all created things prove God’s existence. Our God is not a god that is aloof and out there doing His own thing. He is a compassionate God. He puts up with the everyday sins that we commit. He gives us grace by allowing us to live, another breath of air in our lungs.

Our God is a compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in love. And not only that, He has given us a new path to reach Him; one that doesn’t require works but faith. One that isn’t a set of rules that we must follow, but a person that we can follow.

All that we deserve is judgement. But the compassion of our God overflows.