Every Longing Heart
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 53
We’ve determined that we have an innate longing for justice, but what if that justice is executed against me?! We aren’t as quick to demand justice when we realize our own guilt. Okay, Lord — if I’m guilty, maybe I don’t actually want justice. I need mercy!
Looking back to the political expectations of Jesus at His first coming, maybe the Israelites didn’t realize that spiritually, perfect justice is actually bad news for us. God is a righteous judge (Psalm 7:11). Again, God doesn’t have a choice about being just; He is justice. His way is perfect, and His decrees are flawless (Psalm 18:30). So if the bad guys gotta lose and the good guys gotta win, I’ve just convicted myself.
“No one is good— except God alone” (Mark 10:18 NIV)
We need Jesus to be the conquering King, as the Jews expected! But He came at His first advent to conquer not those governments or groups who oppress others, but to conquer the enemy who introduced oppression into our world.
Since God is perfectly just, sin cannot go unpunished. In any modern courtroom, we would be outraged if the guilty walked free! To be a good God, He must be a God of justice. You see our problem? He is just, and we deserve His judgment. Since God is love, though, He made other arrangements for our death sentence. In His mercy, the God-Man, Jesus, took the judgment we deserved so that justice could still be served — but also so that we might still live. Justice, and mercy. What an incomprehensibly good God.
“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 43:6-7 NIV)
You see, forgiveness doesn’t mean the consequences of the offense just go away. Forgiveness means someone else is willing to absorb the consequence so you don’t have to. My husband has often used this analogy: If you run your car into my fence, the fence will have to be repaired. Either you or I can pay for the repair, but the cost has to be absorbed by someone.
In more intimate terms, if someone’s actions hurt my heart, those wounds need tending. Either the offending party can help the healing by offering apologies and reconciliation, or, in forgiveness, I can tend to my own wounds and release him from the responsibility of healing the hurts he caused.
We don’t understand the magnitude of the cross until we comprehend the guilt of our own sin. We have transgressed the law, offended God’s holiness, and hurt His heart. Here is one of my favorite Psalms:
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.
And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
(Psalm 130 NIV) (emphasis mine)
Jesus came the first time in the cause of mercy, without neglecting justice. This is why Advent is the hinge of history. This baby came to earth for the purpose of absorbing the consequences of our sin. By His death on the cross, we can receive His mercy, forgiveness, and grace.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 NIV)