I Searched for Justice, but Found LoveSample

And still love...how?

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

If we bake a cake and add salt instead of sugar in a hurry, there’s little choice but to throw it all away and start again. If a couturier or a home upholsterer cuts fabrics too small, he will likewise have to start all over again.

God's creation was perfect, but man distrusted Him and chose to go against Him. We still see the consequences around us every day. Yet God does not want to start again, but to bring creation back to Himself. So He wants to give love, but this puts Him in an impossible position. The only punishment we deserve for our sins is death.

There are two dilemmas here. Firstly, how can God bring justice and love together? On the face of it, the two are completely mutually exclusive. Doing justice would mean destroying mankind, and nothing else is conceivable. We are responsible for all misery.

To give love would mean that God would condone everything. This seems an attractive and reasonable option for relatively good people who make mistakes. However, when it comes to crimes, our perspective shifts. For God, this makes no difference; He cannot condone sin, regardless of its size. Moreover, love without justice would contradict His very identity, for God can only be just.

The second dilemma is clear in Psalm 14:1 “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.” It is obvious that any solution will not come from us, except for the option we saw at Day 1: we get to figure out what the solution is. You know, the one that works out well for us and not so much for what is criminal in our eyes.

Any solution must come from God, but this is an impossible task. Do you see God's dilemma? How He would want to love, but cannot? Or can He?