“Not fair! I’m telling.”
We’ve all heard it. You get a group of kids playing, especially when brothers and sisters are involved, and inevitably the unwritten boundary of peace and equality is breached by too much take and not enough give or the all too frequented skip-a-turn. When caught in this dilemma as a parent I find myself playing the role of judge. With each child and their advocates spewing forth their prosecution and defense loudly, I must call the court to order with the bellow of a firm “Silence!”
“What is the accusation from the prosecution?”
Turning to the accused, “Is this true?” (All the while I am wishing that it will all just go away and I can resume my enjoyment of feeble nonsense, such as a legal drama on television.) After hearing the facts, Ipronounce judgment, being as fair and just as possible.
With a grin and two frowns the matter is resolved.
(I, of course, bearing one of the frowns.) Turning back to my role of passive observer, I remind myself that I had to be just, I had to convict, I had to be right and therefore, be fair giving the penalty for the crime at hand. After all, God is fair and just and that is what He would have me do.
After turning the mindless entertainment off and pondering my last thought it occurs to me that in fact, God isn’t fair and just. But then what did we say in church last week, God was ... where was that. Oh yes, 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Hold on. It says “ faithful and just.” After coming back from my mind going numbingly blank I come to the conclusion that to me, the one standing rightly accused before a God that has every right to hold me accountable for the blatant disregard of His good will and Word, God is in fact NOT FAIR. Instead of smiting the very self-serving hairs upon my head as an act of justice to my take-all, give-none heart, He loves me and faithfully forgives me. Faithful AND just.
Turning, I look to that cross so delicately decorated on the wall and am reminded that nearly 2,000 years ago, our Lord Jesus came and bore sin on a brutal instrument of death, took my justice and cleansed me from all unrighteousness.
That is not fair, but it is faithful and it is just and it is love. My eternal consequence taken by Christ on the cross.
In the silence I stand up, walk slowly to the back room where I call the court back into order and share with the brood of boundary testers how God is faithful and just. After reminding them that they are still grounded, I sit down and watch them play for some good, old-fashioned entertainment.
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Neil Vanderbush is the
Church, Pages 2 on 07/21/2010