God’s Justice and Mercy at Christmas

by Pastor Paul Wolff

The Prodigal Son returning to his father to beg forgiveness.

I found myself praying for justice recently. Actually I have been fervently praying for justice since before last Christmas (See my 2019 Christmas article). But what if the gross injustice we see is part of a higher justice? It is a matter of faith that God is in control of all things as He tells us in His Word. However, God often uses evil to bring about His greater good purpose, and it doesn’t always seem like God is in control because for a time all we see is evil. The best example of this is the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus is the only human in the history of the world who never sinned against God nor man, but was convicted in an unjust trial and sentenced to die by crucifixion. God did not cause the evil, but He let sinful men do what sinners most want to do, which is to kill God. Yet God used that to accomplish forgiveness and salvation to all who believe in Him and who repent of their sins and trust in Him for forgiveness and rescue from sin and death.

If you find that your beloved child has become spoiled and rotten, what do you do? A loving parent will take away his toys and privileges until he cries. There may be nothing wrong with toys and privileges, because they were given out of love for the child, but if he begins to believe that he deserves them and can do with them what he wants, then it is time to teach him a lesson. If he has a temper tantrum and demands his way, then you spank him and make him cry even harder. “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” This is a paraphrase of Proverbs 13:24, “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.” Solomon also wrote in Proverbs 23:13-14 “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.”

What I was intending in my prayer for Justice was to ask God to let us do what is necessary to bring worldly justice to our nation and to the world. The power of the United States of America does not reside in the government, nor in its military, but in the citizens. We are clearly in the midst of an American Bolshevik revolution. It is relatively bloodless so far (though far from completely bloodless), but this is likely just the set up for a far bloodier affair if the past is a prologue to the future. Corruption in the United States is rampant, and it is obvious for anyone with the eyes to see. Many, however, have willfully blinded themselves to the obvious, but that is part of the problem. If even a fraction of the reports of voter fraud are to be believed, the American people expressed their power in an overwhelming desire for justice in reelecting President Trump. However, the Bolshevik Marxists could not let the will of the people get in their way and did what they thought was necessary to make it seem as if the Bolshevik party won even though their Manchurian Candidate seemingly won without hardly campaigning, and without even being able to draw a crowd on the rare occasions when he crawled out of his basement. The word “unlikely” doesn’t even begin to describe the outcome that we are being asked to accept without question.

“What is Past is Prologue” Inscription on this statue at the National Archives in Washington D.C.

The corruption seems to be widespread and deep. It is extremely likely that this is NOT the first time this has happened. They tried this in 2016, but didn’t fully anticipate the will of the good people of the United States. It likely also happened in 2012 when the worst President in the history of the USA was inexplicably (seemingly) reelected to office. The corruption is not just voter fraud. It is far deeper than that. We have a justice system to combat injustice and fraud, but it has apparently been thoroughly corrupted. We have a Federal Bureau of Investigation (the FBI) which ought to investigate domestic corruption, lawlessness, and treason, but the organization has been corrupted from within, and only occasionally works for justice. The FBI often participates in corruption and covers it up, rather than seeking to prosecute it. Who do you call for justice when the investigators are unjust and corrupt?

The judicial system ought to be the final arbiters of justice, though we have known for a long time that far too many judges do not rule according to the law, but according to their own whims they give out injustice in place of justice. We, the people of the United States of America, elected President Trump to bring justice and peace and prosperity back to our nation, and he has done what he could to work toward that goal. In the past four years over 300 federal judges and three Supreme Court justices have been installed to rule according to the law in order to bring justice back to our nation. It is not enough.

Despite the clear evidence of massive voter fraud in several states, unjust courts have turned a blind eye to the evidence and, following the lead of the lying mass media, pretended that the clear evidence of fraud doesn’t exist. For four years the Marxist Democrats have been claiming without any evidence that President Trump came to power fraudulently, and now that we have real evidence that the other side is really trying to steal power and take over the United States, they pretend that there is nothing wrong. Where is the justice?

We see in the Bible many times where there is injustice, violence and bloodshed, the people of God have called out to Him for justice, peace, and retribution against those who persecute good, honest people. God is a just God. He wants justice, peace, and prosperity for all people, but how He brings it about is often not what we expect. God doesn’t do what we think is good and right, instead God does what is truly good and right. God’s way is always better, though it doesn’t always seem so at the time.

God called Moses to lead Israel to freedom, but the people had to wait over 80 years for the fulfillment of their prayers.

When the people of Israel were enslaved in Egypt they cried out to God to send a deliverer who would rescue them from their bondage and lead them to freedom in the promised land. God heard their prayer and sent them Moses – as a baby. However, a baby is not capable of freeing an enslaved nation and it wasn’t until Moses was 80 years old (!) that God sent Moses to Pharaoh with the message from God, “Let my people go,” and with the authority to call down plagues on the Egyptians when Pharaoh did not let God’s people go free. Eighty years, plus how many more years had God’s people been oppressed before Moses was born? God’s ways are not our ways, but God’s ways are always better.

In the days of the judges when the Midianites were oppressing God’s people they cried out to God to send them a deliverer. God gave them Gideon. This time they didn’t have to wait 80-100 years. Gideon sent the call to raise an army, and 30,000 soldiers answered the call. In worldly terms it was a sufficient army to defeat Midian, or at least make life hard for the Midianites, and free the oppressed people of Israel. However, God told Gideon that the army was too large. He said, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her announce now to the people, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave.’” (Judges 7:2-3) Twenty thousand of the soldiers left and went home. These were good people who wanted justice, but really didn’t want to become killers. They were willing to do what was necessary, including to kill or be killed, but they really didn’t want to be there if they didn’t have to, so they left with God’s blessing. Ten thousand soldiers remained, but God said that was still too many. He set up an arbitrary test at a brook, and those who were chosen were only 300 men.

In worldly terms, this was not enough to defeat the enemies and bring peace, but that was the point. If a great army had arisen and defeated the enemy then they would claim that they had triumphed, or that Gideon was responsible for leading them to victory and freedom. Then they would have taken pride in their own strength and power and they would have proceeded to become oppressors themselves. This is the trap of power politics: Use power to defeat the supposed “oppressor” then become the oppressor yourself until someone else comes along and defeats you. That way the bloodshed never ends. This is why power politics is the trick of the devil who seeks to destroy all that God loves, and all that is good.

Gideon and his 300 men blew trumpets just like Joshua did at Jericho but God defeated the enemies and gave the victory.

So Gideon and 300 men attack the Midianites with pots and torches and trumpets and a few swords, but it is God who fights against the Midianites, and turns their own weapons against them so that they mostly slay each other. The 300 Israelites do dispatch the few stragglers who remain, but it is God who fights and wins the victory and brings freedom to His people.

Likewise, in the days of the Roman empire and occupation of the Holy Land, the faithful remnant prayed to God for a deliverer who would rescue them from the oppression of the evil pagan occupiers. They were looking for a Moses or a Gideon or a David who would bring military victory and worldly peace and prosperity. But God had a much better idea. Jesus came amid reports that God was finally fulfilling the promise He had made over 4,000 years earlier to Adam and Eve, to send a Messiah who would undo the deadly effects of sin and death and bring peace and prosperity to God’s people. But Jesus was again not what the people expected.

As God incarnate, Jesus is the King over all worldly kings, yet He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Jesus did not come to set up a worldly kingdom in a sinful world. That would just perpetuate the sinfulness and evil which is the cause of all of our suffering and sadness and dysfunctional angst. Instead, Jesus came to set us free from the bonds of slavery that is caused by sin. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:34-36) Jesus came not just to set us free from evil people like George Soros and his minions who seek to enslave us and destroy all good in the world. Jesus came instead to set us free from all sin which separates us from God who loves us as His children and wants us to live with Him in holiness in His paradise in a new heaven and earth.

Jesus came in humility to drink the cup of God’s wrath over our sin, in order to redeem us

But Jesus could not do this by force of power. Power is a function of the law, and by God’s Law sin must be punished. If God punished all of us sinners as we deserve, then we would be destroyed. God does not play power politics because the result of that is only destruction. God must punish man for mankind’s sins, but God does accept a substitute on behalf of sinful man. If only there were a sinless man on earth who would be willing to accept God’s punishment for the sins of the world. The only problem is that we are all corrupted by sin. When Adam and Eve fell into sin all of their descendants were condemned to inherit that sinful corruption, and that is true to this day. “There is no one righteous, not even one.” (Romans 3:10 and other verses as well as the rest of the Bible) The only solution is if God, Himself, became incarnate as a man and lived His whole life in perfect obedience to God the Father’s Laws, and then offered His life in place of sinners. What are the chances of that happening? Would God live and die as a man in order to redeem liars, cheaters, thieves, adulterers, murderers, and blasphemous idol worshipers? Such is the great love of God that He would do exactly that.

Jesus came in humility, not to conquer violent sinful men, but to take their place before the face of the almighty righteous God who must punish sinful men for their sins – or in the case of Jesus, punish the one righteous man who is God incarnate, in place of all the rest of sinful humanity. So Jesus came not to conquer, but to be conquered, that He may free us from the condemnation of sin and death. Jesus suffered the Father’s wrath over our sin, so that we may be rescued from that wrath which would destroy us. Jesus died to pay the price of sin, so that we may be freed from the sting of death. Yes, there still is death all around us, and we all may taste of death before Christ returns, but all that remains for God’s people is just a taste of death. Jesus drank the full cup of death so that the taste of death that we receive will not destroy us. Because Christ’s innocent death for us fulfilled God’s wrath over our sin, death no longer has a hold on us, as Jesus has conquered death and rose to life victorious over death.

Jesus suffered and died in our place to rescue us from sin and death

The death that Jesus died, He died to sin, so that the life He now lives He will share with all who trust in Him. For all who believe in Jesus have been adopted as children of God through the miracle of Holy Baptism. We have been redeemed by Jesus by His righteous life, and His innocent suffering and death on our behalf, and we have been washed clean of our guilt and sin by the shedding of His blood which is brought to us personally through the sacraments of Holy Baptism and the very Body and Blood of Jesus given to us in the Lord’s supper.

“Trust not in princes, in mortal men who cannot save.” (Psalm 146:3) Whether or not there is a political or military solution to the political corruption and attempted takeover of the United States, we still have hope. Our God rules both heaven and earth. Whether we live as free men or as slaves, we are God’s children. Christ has redeemed us and set us free so that we will live forever with Him in His paradise. The troubles of this world are only temporary, though we may have to endure them for a hundred years (may God forbid this, but even so give us the strength to endure what must come). We need not fear tyrannical governors. We need not fear catching a bad cold that only kills 5 people out of every 1,000 who are infected. We need not fear worse diseases such as cancer, nor murder, nor violence, nor any death.

As Christ lives, so we shall live, even if we die. Christ has won the victory over sin and death and all the consequences of death which cause us so much sorrow and pain. Trust in Christ and live in hope. Christ has won the victory not for Himself, but for you. Jesus lives so that you may live with Him forever. Pray for peace and justice in this world, but do not be surprised if it does not come right away. God disciplines His children as a loving father disciplines his unruly child. It is not a sign of God’s disfavor, but of His love – that we may turn to Him and give Him the praise for our rescue, and not some worldly leader. We live by faith in the redemption won for us by Christ Jesus. That is a sure thing. May Christ give you comfort and peace, both now and forever.