Justice is desert and mercy is grace!

If the wages of sin is death (eternal conscious spiritual damnation), then God is just in giving men this or any other less severe consequence, such as suffering or failure, at any time, it truly being what we deserve. However, for God to give us anything less than what we deserve is mercy. So how can this truth practically be seen and applied? Last night, I made one of my first-ever bids on e-bay for a computer monitor. It seemed like a really good deal, until after I bid I realized that I was also liable to pay for shipping, which was one and a half times as much as the monitor itself. Needless to say, I was a bit frustrated with my irresponsibility, while still trying to take heart in His promise of working all things for good. Then it hit me! God should make me pay for this now overpriced monitor as a consequence for making an such an impatient, undependent decision. I deserved to pay and knew it. It was then I began to pray for mercy that God would perhaps move the heart of another to outbid me. God should have made me pay, but behold delighted to show mercy! I've never been so grateful to loose something. Yet the mercy seemed all the sweeter in that I fully realized my desert of justice in the form of an exorbitant payment. What truth did this teach? Every difficulty or trial in life is both justice and mercy. It is justice in that we deserve to pay for our continual unfaithfulness to the commands of God to delight in obeying Him. Yet it is mercy in that we don't deserve for God to do one good thing for us, much less do we deserve the blessing of being able to live through a trial or injustice and be told that it is being worked for our eternal good and God's eternal glory. In this light then, even having to pay would have been mercy in that it also would have been worked for my good and His glory. So when something seemingly unfair happens to you, see it as justice and mercy, and may it be a reminder of the ultimate act of mixed justice and mercy in the cross of Christ. Lord help me delight to obey, to see justice as desert and mercy, and to see mercy as amazing grace! Help us all to "give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us." (1 Thes. 5:18)