JUSTICE AND MERCY

Justice cannot be robbed by Mercy.

There is a spiritual account, with a balance kept and a settlement due, that not one of us will escape. 

To understand this we must talk about intangibles like love, faith, justice and mercy.  You know they are real and we learn them quietly during our life here.

We learn them by feel, not actually touching them, but feeling them within our being.  These truths register in our minds and in our hearts as pure knowledge, or truth of things as they were, as they are, and as they are to come. 

Each of us will eventually settle that spiritual account and be judged for what we have done during this earth life in our bodies. 

We will be judged because we have our Free Agency to choose.

The Eternal Law of Justice will be used to settle this account.  Our lives will be weighed on the Scale of Justice which must be blindfolded.

Alma 42: 22

22 But there is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and a repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God.

Justice and Mercy can both be satisfied.

A story is told about a man who made a large debt to a creditor.  He had promised to pay the debt on the terms agreed with the creditor. 

Things went well for a while, but eventually fell apart.  The creditor came for payment in full of the debt. 

The borrower said things went bad and could not pay the debt.  The creditor demanded payment or the borrower would go to jail.

About this time, the borrower’s friend showed up and heard about the situation.  He loved the borrower. 

His friend talked to the creditor and said that he could pay the debt for the borrower and then the creditor would be dealt with justly. 

The creditor said he would agree. 

Then the friend turned to the borrower and asked that if he would consider him his new creditor, he would pay off the old creditor and the creditor would go away. 

Would the borrower agree?

With much relief the borrower agreed to pay his friend, the new creditor, the money on the terms that his new creditor would lay out.  So, his friend paid the old creditor and the old creditor went away. 

The old creditor was dealt justly by receiving the money he was owed.  This was justice to him.

To the borrower, he had received mercy by his friend, the new creditor.  Both justice and mercy were extended.

Each one of us is like this borrower, but not a financial debt is owed, but a spiritual debt.

Eventually, at judgment our account will be closed and payment demanded. 

Who is going to help us then?

Mercy cannot be extended to us unless there is someone else who will accept and pay our debt for us.  Otherwise, we will have to suffer the consequences of our actions.

Because we know the gospel truths, we know that we do have a friend who will be our Mediator.

1 Timothy 2: 5-6

5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

Accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Redeemer.

He can extend Mercy to all of us without offending the Eternal Law of Justice.

This action will not be automatic.  We all have to make a covenant with Him on His terms which are repentance and baptism by immersion for the remission of sins by someone in authority.

Do you have something on your conscience or are you guilty of anything small or large? 

Our transgressions are being added to our account, and if we do not settle them, we will someday be judged and found wanting.

2 Nephi 2: 6-8

6 Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth.

7 Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.

8 Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth….

There is a Redeemer, a Mediator for us.  Accept Him and clear your account now.

The Atonement that He performed gave all of us Immortality. 

We will live to stand before Him at the Judgment Bar but it did not clear our sins.

To be redeemed from the Second Death, which is spiritual death which is separation from the presence of Heavenly Father, we have to be clean because no unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God, the Father.

Let’s get it done.  Repent and Keep the Commandments.

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