Participants:
Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000076S
|
00:01 - You know, it doesn't take much living
00:02 to recognize there's something 00:03 really wrong with this place. 00:06 And it really leaves you wondering if there's any hope 00:08 that somebody's ever going to set the universe right. 00:11 [heartfelt music] 00:32 They say that life is short, 00:34 and the more I find myself inching toward the finish line, 00:37 the more I tend to agree with that sentiment. 00:40 In fact, from where I sit right now, 00:42 the finish line seems painfully close, 00:45 even though it feels like I was a little kid 00:47 just a few days ago. 00:49 In fact, I remember my kindergarten career, 00:51 like it was yesterday. 00:53 I was living in a tiny northern British Columbia town, 00:55 tucked away behind the Alaska panhandle, 00:58 a tiny community that had a considerable number 01:00 of Dutch immigrants. 01:02 And I went to kindergarten at Walnut Park Elementary. 01:05 I was the only boy in my carpool, and back in those days, 01:08 the boys and girls would line up 01:10 at different school entrances every morning, 01:13 waiting to be let inside. 01:15 Now, given that I was shy, 01:16 I didn't know any of the boys, 01:18 during that first week of kindergarten, 01:20 I lined up with the kids I actually knew, 01:22 the girls from my carpool, 01:24 until the teachers found me there 01:25 and sent me around to the other side of the building 01:27 to go and stand with the rest of the boys. 01:32 But you know, maybe the most vivid memory I have 01:34 is the day that my teacher confiscated my comic book. 01:38 It was a special Robin Hood Digest, 01:41 the Disney version of Robin Hood, 01:42 where the characters were all animals. 01:45 Robin Hood was a fox, and Little John was a bear. 01:48 And I guess one day my class assignment was so boring, 01:51 I pulled this comic book out, and I started to read, 01:54 and that's when the teacher confiscated it, 01:57 and I never got it back. 02:00 And I've gotta tell you, 02:01 that little incident bothered me for the next five decades. 02:05 I know it seems like a small thing, a 50 cent comic book, 02:08 but it felt like a grave miscarriage of justice. 02:12 Now, I realize I probably had it coming. 02:14 I mean, I was that kid who was always busy doing something 02:18 other than what you were told to do, 02:20 you know, not doing what the teacher asked, 02:22 talking to my neighbor, daydreaming, 02:24 doodling on the edges of my notebook, 02:26 or just plain being disgruntled 02:28 about spending the bulk of my day 02:30 the way someone else thought I should. 02:32 And the problem wasn't that I wasn't interested in education 02:35 because I was, and I still am to this day. 02:38 I think for me, 02:40 the problem was having somebody else set my agenda. 02:44 Now, of course, when we're five, 02:46 most of us need to be told what to learn 02:48 because we have no idea what the world is like, 02:51 or what we're going to need 02:52 in order to become successful adults. 02:55 In fact, I somehow doubt that most of us 02:58 really know what we need until well into adulthood 03:00 when we're actually faced with the reality of life. 03:04 But now back to the comic book, 03:07 having it taken from me really bothered me 03:09 for the next 50 years. 03:11 And that's when it occurred to me 03:13 that the world is a very big place, 03:15 which means that somebody 03:17 probably had a copy of that same comic for sale on eBay. 03:21 So I hunted for it, and sure enough, 03:25 for eight bucks I found it the other day, 03:27 and it came in the mail. 03:29 I was so excited that I posted a picture of this comic 03:32 in a private online forum that I have for my friends, 03:35 and that's when my cousin's wife suddenly says, 03:38 oh man, I understand your pain. 03:40 Back in the first grade, 03:41 I had my lunchbox stolen, 03:43 and I had to brown bag it from that point forward. 03:46 So I went back to eBay, and I hunted for her lunchbox, 03:50 and sure enough, it was there. 03:52 And you know, I should probably ask eBay 03:54 to sponsor this show because now I'm guessing some of you 03:57 are about to start hunting 03:58 for your missing childhood treasures. 04:00 So eBay, maybe you should cough up a little cash, 04:04 because I'm not gonna endorse you for nothing. 04:07 But again, back to my comic book, 04:10 because there's an important reason I'm bringing this up. 04:13 What exactly drives our sense of justice? 04:17 I know this is gonna sound silly, 04:18 but the day this comic book arrived in the mail, 04:21 I felt like a deep injustice had been made right, 04:24 and that somehow the universe was back in balance again. 04:28 I know, it's just a 50 cent item, 04:31 and if I lost it myself, 04:32 it probably wouldn't have bothered me, 04:34 but it was taken from me at the tender age of five, 04:38 and this was easily one of my most prized possessions. 04:42 So why is it that losing this comic 04:45 bothered me for so many years? 04:46 Why is it after the age of 50 04:49 that I can still look back to that story, 04:52 and still feel this raw sense of indignation? 04:56 Where exactly do we get the idea 04:58 that wrongs need to be righted, 05:00 or that people owe us something 05:02 when they transgress our personal boundaries? 05:04 I mean, where exactly did I get this idea 05:07 that my teacher owed me something? 05:10 It's not like we all take a class when we're three-years-old 05:12 explaining the rules of social conduct, and social justice. 05:16 We just seem to be aware of it naturally. 05:21 Of course, our parents do a lot to help create that instinct 05:23 because the process of discipline 05:26 begins the moment we're born. 05:28 For example, there comes a point where a baby realizes 05:30 that if he cries in the night, he gets held by his mother. 05:34 And at some point the parents get tired of doing that. 05:38 So the next time they check on the baby, 05:40 if there's nothing wrong, no dirty diaper, 05:42 no need to be fed, they don't pick him up. 05:45 And eventually the baby learns 05:47 that you're not allowed to manipulate people. 05:50 So there's no doubt that we begin learning 05:52 the rules of social conduct at a really, really young age. 05:58 But still, 05:59 most people seem to have this ingrained sense of justice 06:02 that runs deeper than that. 06:04 Some of it probably stems from the fact 06:06 that we're wired for survival, 06:08 and the only perspective that most of us have in this world 06:11 is a selfish perspective. 06:13 We wanna accumulate enough resources 06:15 to guarantee our own personal wellbeing. 06:19 And when somebody takes some of our resources from us, 06:22 it rubs our fur the wrong way, we feel hard done by. 06:27 But again, I think there's something deeper than that 06:29 because it also bothers us when we see somebody else 06:33 being served a large helping of injustice. 06:36 We read stories about people who get cheated, 06:39 and it upsets us. 06:40 We hear stories about people who were murdered, 06:42 or robbed, or publicly embarrassed, 06:44 and well, it really gets our goat. 06:47 And of course, social scientists have expended 06:49 considerable effort trying to explain that. 06:52 And philosophers like Thomas Hobbs 06:55 have written massive tones 06:57 about the nature of social contracts, 06:59 explaining that we'd probably live 07:01 in a constant state of war with each other 07:03 if we didn't create binding rules 07:05 that help us live together peaceably. 07:08 And all of that makes sense, it really does, 07:11 but I still think there's something deeper at play 07:13 when it comes to our inborn sense of justice. 07:17 You know, lately I've been reading a lot of ancient history 07:20 about the Northern Germanic peoples, the so-called Vikings. 07:23 And one of the things that keeps coming up 07:25 over and over and over 07:27 is the fact that a lot of their social values 07:29 centered on the concept of revenge. 07:33 A thousand years ago or more, the family unit 07:35 was the most important element of their society, 07:38 and kinship was a really, really important concept. 07:42 If somebody cheated one of your family members, 07:44 or killed them, it was up to you to make that right. 07:48 It wasn't good enough to just let bygones be bygones, 07:51 you had to make it right. 07:53 And that's a concept you actually find in the Bible 07:55 where it was assumed that if you killed somebody, 07:58 you could expect their family members 08:00 to come and seek revenge. 08:02 But if it was an accident, 08:04 there were several cities of refuge where you could go, 08:07 and nobody could touch you, 08:09 at least not until there had been an inquiry 08:11 to determine whether or not your actions were premeditated. 08:15 So we have this widespread recognition 08:17 that there's a huge difference 08:19 between deliberately planning to kill someone, 08:22 and doing it by accident. 08:24 And that still makes sense to most of us. 08:27 And now I've managed to accidentally kill enough time 08:30 that we've got to take a break, 08:32 so I'll be right back after this. 08:37 - [Announcer] Life can throw a lot at us. 08:40 Sometimes we don't have all the answers, 08:43 but that's where the Bible comes in. 08:46 It's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 08:49 Here at The Voice of Prophecy, 08:50 we've created the Discover Bible Guides 08:52 to be your guide to the Bible. 08:54 They're designed to be simple, easy to use, 08:56 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 08:59 and they're absolutely free. 09:01 So jump online now or give us a call, 09:04 and start your journey of discovery. 09:07 - Just before the break, 09:08 I was talking about our notions of justice, 09:11 and the way the ancient biblical world 09:13 provided for some nuance. 09:15 And I was talking about the biblical cities of refuge. 09:18 Here's the actual passage now, 09:20 as it's found in the book of Exodus, it says, 09:23 "He who strikes a man so that he dies 09:25 "shall surely be put to death. 09:27 "However, if he did not lie in wait, 09:29 "but God delivered him into his hand, 09:31 "then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee." 09:35 Now, you may not be of the persuasion 09:38 that capital punishment is ever right, 09:41 but just put that aside for one moment, 09:43 and consider the way this passage 09:45 just differentiates between various kinds of murder. 09:49 If you killed somebody on purpose, 09:51 it was considered a far more serious crime. 09:53 But if it was accidental, 09:55 the Bible provided for a cooling off period, 09:57 it pushed the pause button 09:59 until the facts could be examined. 10:01 And really this is something we still do today. 10:04 Our legal system still draws a huge difference 10:07 between murder one and manslaughter. 10:11 You'll notice the penalties are generally different. 10:14 And there's something about that 10:16 that appeals to our inborn sense of justice. 10:19 We all seem to know that intent behind an action matters, 10:25 and this is something you'll find 10:26 across a huge number of cultures. 10:27 And of course, you've gotta wonder why. 10:30 Here in the western world our notions of justice 10:32 owe a lot to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, 10:35 who spent a lot of time considering 10:37 what is considered to be fair and equal. 10:40 In the Nicomachean Ethics, 10:42 Aristotle divides the concept of justice 10:45 into distributive justice, 10:46 which deals with how people get their fair share, 10:49 and rectificatory justice, 10:51 which deals with making wrong things right. 10:55 And as you read through his material, 10:56 you quickly discover that a single 10:58 universal notion of justice is really hard to define. 11:03 How do you know what's fair? 11:05 How exactly do you determine 11:07 if justice has been proportional? 11:10 He writes a lot of pages wrestling with questions 11:12 we still continue to struggle with to this day. 11:15 And if you've ever spent any time reading Aristotle, 11:19 you'll know that he's very concerned 11:21 with things like categories and definitions, 11:24 and that can make the reading 11:25 more than a little bit tedious. 11:27 And I suppose I'll leave the finer nuances 11:29 of Aristotle's arguments to judges and lawyers, 11:32 because what I actually want to do today 11:35 is drill down deeper and figure out 11:37 why we care about justice in the first place. 11:41 And maybe the best place to turn 11:43 is one of the oldest books in the world, the book of Job. 11:47 What we find in this book is a righteous man 11:49 who endures an awful lot of wrong. 11:51 And as the book first opens, 11:53 the reader is the only one 11:55 who knows what's actually going on. 11:57 There's a controversy in heaven, 11:59 and it spills over into Job's life. 12:02 Let's just read a little bit from the opening chapter. 12:05 It says, 12:06 "There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, 12:10 "and that man was blameless and upright, 12:12 "and one who feared God and shunned evil." 12:15 So we're starting with a blameless and upright man, 12:18 and somehow we instinctively know 12:20 that if bad things happen to a guy like this, 12:23 well that's not right. 12:25 It's a miscarriage of justice. 12:27 Somehow we know that good people don't deserve bad things, 12:31 and thus, the next 40 chapters really bother us 12:35 because Job's life just begins to fall apart. 12:38 And what happens behind the scenes is this, 12:41 the devil appears in a heavenly council, 12:44 and he proudly declares that this earth belongs to him. 12:48 That's what it means when the story tells us 12:50 that Satan has been going to and fro on the earth, 12:52 and walking back and forth on it. 12:54 He's publicly declaring ownership of this planet, 12:58 which is theologically accurate 13:00 because according to the biblical story, 13:02 the human race actually seeded dominion 13:05 over this planet to him. 13:08 And that's a key concept 13:09 when it comes to the Bible's sense of justice. 13:12 While you and I might choose to believe 13:14 that we're all innocent victims, 13:16 the Bible underlines a corporate sense of guilt for us. 13:19 None of us, no human being is actually completely innocent. 13:23 And if you look at the opening verses of this book, 13:25 you'll see that Job instinctively understands that. 13:29 It says in chapter one, back in verses four and five, 13:32 "And his sons would go and feast in their houses 13:35 "each on his appointed day, 13:36 "and would send and invite their three sisters 13:38 "to eat and drink with them. 13:40 "So it was when the days of feasting had run their course, 13:43 "that Job would send and sanctify them, 13:45 "and he would rise early in the morning, 13:47 "and offer burnt offerings 13:48 "according to the number of them all. 13:50 "For Job said, 13:52 "'It may be that my sons have sinned 13:54 "'and cursed God in their hearts.' 13:55 "Thus Job did regularly." 13:58 So what exactly does Job instinctively understand? 14:02 He understands that everybody is sinful. 14:04 Absolutely everybody. 14:07 All of us, according to the book of Romans, 14:08 have fallen short of the glory of God. 14:10 We are faulty and imperfect. 14:13 And one of the biggest problems we have 14:15 is that we appear to be oblivious to that fact. 14:18 When we look at the world from our own perspective, 14:20 we can easily point out the faults of everybody else, 14:23 their injustices seem really obvious. 14:27 But somehow when it comes to our own sins, 14:30 well, they just don't seem that bad. 14:33 So it becomes hard for most of us to believe 14:35 that we might actually be part of the problem, 14:38 we are also agents of injustice. 14:42 And I can't begin to tell you 14:43 how many times I've talked to people from my past, 14:46 and they suddenly bring up some small incident 14:49 that really didn't make a a deep impression on me, 14:52 but it certainly made an impression on them. 14:55 "When you decided to do such and such," 14:57 someone once asked me, 14:59 "was that because of something I did?" 15:02 Now, this was something that happened 15:03 at least a decade in the past, 15:05 and I had no idea that someone would misinterpret it. 15:09 And she'd been harboring doubt and resentment because of me 15:12 for more than a decade. 15:14 Now, of course, in that case, 15:15 it was completely unintentional. 15:17 I had no idea that I'd contributed to her misery. 15:21 So I think I'll put that one in the manslaughter column 15:23 because it was accidental. 15:27 But then I think about times 15:28 where I put my own interests first 15:30 at the expense of everybody else. 15:32 Now, sometimes that's actually necessary, 15:35 there's nothing particularly wrong with it 15:37 because there are people in this world 15:39 who never seem to actually take care of themselves, 15:41 and they end up having people always take advantage of them. 15:46 That's not what I'm talking about, 15:47 because those people should learn to assert themselves. 15:51 What I'm talking about are those moments 15:53 when you didn't even consider the other people in the room 15:56 and yet pounced on the first opportunity to advance self, 16:00 and that can absolutely lead to a lot of injustice, 16:05 and a lot of hard feelings. 16:07 And honestly, you'd be lying if you told me 16:10 you'd never done it, because we all have, 16:12 both wittingly and unwittingly. 16:15 So the Bible underlines this idea 16:17 that there's something flawed with our human existence, 16:20 and every one of us is a problem. 16:23 In one of those little books of John, 16:25 down near the end of the Bible, it says this, 16:27 "If we say that we have no sin, 16:29 "we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 16:32 "If we say that we have not sinned, 16:34 "we make him a liar in His word is not in us." 16:39 Now, you'll notice I inserted a few ellipses 16:41 into that passage, 16:42 and in a moment I'll come back, 16:43 and we'll look at the rest of it. 16:45 But for now, here's what I want you to notice. 16:47 The Bible says there is no such thing as an innocent person, 16:51 an instinctively we kind of all get that, 16:54 because it's easy to see serious flaws in everybody else. 16:58 Not to drag up an overused example, 17:00 but somehow we all know that a man like Hitler 17:03 needs to answer for what he did. 17:05 We wouldn't be happy if we knew that somehow the universe 17:08 was just gonna let him skate. 17:11 But when it comes to our own transgressions, 17:12 well, that's a completely different story 17:14 because you and I are incredibly gifted 17:17 when it comes to justifying our own actions. 17:20 So the Bible takes the time to tell us, 17:22 look, if you think you're not part of the problem, 17:25 you're lying to yourself. 17:26 Worse than that, you're calling God a liar 17:29 because from where he sits, you are clearly guilty. 17:34 You and I are really good 17:36 at defending our actions to other people, 17:38 but somehow we know that if the judgment is real, 17:40 and we found ourselves standing in front of God's throne, 17:43 our excuses would suddenly melt in the light of truth. 17:47 I'll be right back after this. 17:53 - [Announcer] Here at The Voice of Prophecy, 17:54 we're committed to creating top quality programming 17:57 for the whole family. 17:58 Like our audio adventure series, Discovery Mountain. 18:01 Discovery Mountain is a Bible-based program 18:04 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 18:06 Your family will enjoy the faith building stories 18:09 from this small mountain summer camp pen town. 18:12 with 24 seasonal episodes every year, 18:14 and fresh content every week, 18:16 there's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 18:23 - We all have this profound sense of justice, 18:25 and I would argue that we have that sense 18:27 because the one who made us is just. 18:30 Our Maker is a profoundly just God. 18:34 But our personal sense of justice 18:36 has also been warped by selfishness, 18:38 which blinds us to the contributions we make 18:41 to the misery of this world. 18:43 And what we have in the pages of the Bible 18:45 is a very important corrective, 18:47 a call to relearn the art of seeing the world 18:50 the way that God sees it. 18:52 The call of the Bible in Micah 6 runs like this. 18:55 It says, "He has shown you, o man, what is good, 18:58 "and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, 19:02 "to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." 19:06 Now, that's a verse that makes a lot of sense 19:09 to most people, 19:10 and we instinctively see that a world, 19:12 that lived by these principles, 19:14 would be a much nicer place to live. 19:17 But the part we usually miss 19:18 is that little bit at the end of the verse 19:20 that refers to humility. 19:23 We love the idea of justice for somebody else, 19:26 and we love the idea of mercy for us. 19:30 And because very few people are actually humble, 19:33 we have trouble turning that formula the other way around. 19:36 We struggle to believe that we deserve justice 19:38 for our crimes and that other people deserve mercy. 19:43 And that presents us with something interesting 19:45 to think about. 19:46 We love the idea of a just society, 19:49 and we love the idea of mercy, 19:53 but how do you make both things happen at the same time? 19:56 Well, that mostly escapes us, 19:58 which is one of the reasons I find the Bible so fascinating, 20:01 because it presents a God who is perfectly just 20:05 and perfectly merciful at the very same moment. 20:10 In the 89th Psalm, we find this description of God. 20:14 It says, "Righteousness and justice 20:17 "are the foundation of Your throne, 20:19 "mercy and truth go before Your face." 20:22 You know, Aristotle did a pretty good job 20:25 of exploring the concept of justice, 20:27 but he left an awful lot of unanswered questions, 20:30 which is why very few people consider the Nicomachean Ethics 20:34 to be the final word on this subject. 20:37 That was a useful contribution to be sure. 20:39 Personally, I like reading it, 20:42 but I find the Bible to be far more profound, 20:45 because it forces us to wrestle with the idea of a God 20:48 who is perfectly just and perfectly merciful 20:52 at the very same moment. 20:55 You know, I have no idea how many books have been written 20:57 about the cross of Christ, 20:58 but it's got to be in the hundreds of thousands, 21:01 if not the millions now, 21:03 because there's something really compelling 21:06 about what happened there. 21:08 I mean, in all honesty, 21:09 Jesus was hardly the only person who was ever crucified. 21:13 The Romans did that to thousands upon thousands of people. 21:16 In fact, I know of one occasion 21:18 where the Roman general Varus crucified 2000 Jews 21:23 right about the time that Jesus was born. 21:25 And I've also seen estimates that over the years, 21:27 the Romans crucified more than a quarter million Jews, 21:31 but still somehow the crucifixion of Christ 21:34 stands apart from all the rest, 21:37 because the way we understand it, 21:39 it was the cruel death of a perfectly innocent man. 21:43 And if you believe the Bible's account the way that I do, 21:47 and you understand that this was God in human flesh, 21:50 you quickly comprehend that this 21:52 was the worst miscarriage of justice 21:55 in the history of the world. 21:57 Nobody was less deserving of that kind of cruelty than Jesus 22:01 because he was the only perfectly innocent man 22:04 to ever walk the face of the earth. 22:07 So what that tells me, 22:09 is that God has not isolated himself from our pain. 22:12 If you and I have discovered that this world 22:14 is a profoundly unjust place, 22:16 then that would hold doubly true for God, 22:18 because come on, you and I cannot claim perfect innocence, 22:22 not even close. 22:24 And what we find at the cross of Christ, 22:26 even though it is the grossest act of injustice 22:28 ever perpetrated, 22:30 is a display of God's perfect justice, 22:33 and perfect mercy at the very same time. 22:37 Now, that's not an easy thing to wrap your mind around, 22:39 which is probably why so many people 22:41 find the story so irresistible. 22:44 Here's the way that one 19th Century author described it, 22:47 and this is probably one of my favorite thoughts 22:49 about the cross. 22:51 Some of you have actually heard me quote this 22:52 on other programs other weeks. 22:55 She wrote, "Christ was treated as we deserve, 22:59 "that we might be treated as He deserves. 23:01 "He was condemned for our sins in which He had no share, 23:04 "that we might be justified by His righteousness 23:07 "in which we had no share. 23:09 "He suffered the death which was ours, 23:11 "that we might receive the life which was His. 23:14 "With His stripes we are healed." 23:18 Now, just try to wrap your head around that idea, 23:21 and I'll be back in a moment to try and wrap things up. 23:28 [heartfelt music] 23:30 - [Narrator] Are you searching for answers 23:31 to life's toughest questions, like, 23:33 where is God when we suffer? 23:35 Can I find real happiness? 23:37 Or, is there any hope for our chaotic world? 23:40 The Discover Bible Guides will help you find the answers 23:43 you're looking for. 23:44 Visit us at biblestudies.com, 23:46 or give us a call at 888-456-7933 23:52 for your free Discover Bible Guides. 23:54 Study online on our secure website, 23:57 or have the free guides mailed right to your home. 24:00 There is never a cost or obligation. 24:03 The Discover Bible Guides are our free gift to you. 24:06 Find answers and guides like, 24:07 does my life really matter to God? 24:10 And a second chance at life. 24:11 You'll find answers to the things that matter most to you 24:14 in each of the 26 Discover Bible Guides. 24:17 Visit biblestudies.com and begin your journey today 24:21 to discover answers to life's deepest questions. 24:28 - The issue of justice and what constitutes justice 24:31 is really too big of a subject to tackle in a show 24:34 that lasts only 28 and a half minutes. 24:36 I mean, look at all the pages Aristotle devoted 24:39 to that subject, 24:40 and look at the mountains of books 24:41 that have been written since his day. 24:44 But you know, what we have in the Bible 24:46 may be the most profound treatment 24:48 of this subject ever written, 24:50 because it goes to great lengths 24:52 to explain a number of really important ideas. 24:56 First of all, it tells us 24:57 why we have an inborn sense of justice. 25:00 If you and I were just the product of a cosmic accident, 25:03 you might explain our sense of justice 25:05 as a mere survival instinct. 25:07 We find anything that blocks our attempt 25:09 to build a more secure existence, to be unjust. 25:13 Competition between living entities for scarce resources 25:16 becomes just for some, but then unjust for others. 25:20 But you know, thinking people understand 25:22 there's more to the subject than just that. 25:25 What the Bible explains is that the one who made us 25:28 is the very definition of justice, 25:30 and that's why our aberrant behavior 25:32 poses such a problem to the universe. 25:35 Our lives have actually become a lie 25:37 about who our Creator is and what he is like. 25:41 Secondly, the Bible tells us about a God who loves us, 25:44 and can act mercifully 25:45 without compromising justice one little bit. 25:49 I mean, in this world, 25:50 if a criminal walks away from his crime, 25:52 his own family might feel a deep sense of relief, 25:55 because now dad isn't gonna go to the electric chair. 25:59 But what seems like mercy to one family 26:02 is going to seem like a grave injustice to somebody else 26:05 because, well, the victim's family 26:07 doesn't have the satisfaction of knowing 26:09 that the magnitude of the perpetrator's crime 26:12 has even been recognized. 26:14 It feels like the life of their loved one 26:16 has been trivialized. 26:18 Human beings struggle to combine mercy and justice, 26:21 and do it successfully, 26:24 but what we have in this book 26:26 is a God that somehow pulls that off. 26:28 And I'll admit, this is not an easy read. 26:31 I mean, if you start to investigate 26:33 what the Bible actually says, 26:35 if you pick this book up and read it for yourself, 26:38 you're gonna be reading it for a really long time. 26:42 I mean, the book of Job continues to explore his situation 26:45 for 40 more very detailed chapters. 26:48 You could spend an entire year in that book, 26:51 and not hit the bottom of it. 26:53 So yeah, the Bible doesn't give us easy answers, 26:56 but of course, easy answers are never very satisfying. 27:00 And reading the Bible is somehow deeply satisfying, 27:04 deeply reassuring, because at the very least, 27:07 it acknowledges the issues that you and I face every day, 27:11 and it acknowledges that they are not simple. 27:15 And the longer you study this, 27:17 the more you find this deep sense of calm, 27:19 because while the world despairs of finding real justice 27:22 or real mercy, 27:24 you discover that there is an order to the universe 27:27 that actually makes sense, 27:28 and you discover a God who promises 27:30 that He knows how to balance the scales 27:32 and set things right. 27:34 A few moments ago, we read that passage from 1 John 27:37 that tells us we're all guilty, 27:38 and there's a part I left out, it's this, 27:41 "If we confess our sins, 27:43 "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, 27:46 "and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 27:50 You know, maybe it's time to just read this book 27:52 for yourself. 27:53 I'd be delighted to help you get started. 27:55 It turns out God recognizes your pain, 27:57 and he's going to give back what was taken from you. 28:00 Just go to bibleschools.com 28:02 where you'll find some incredible free resources 28:04 as our gift to you. 28:06 I'm Shawn Boonstra, and this has been, Authentic. 28:11 [heartfelt music] |
Revised 2023-04-20