Justice

For the past 5 weeks I have been preaching through the book of Ecclesiastes @ Restoration.  At times it has been a kick in the teeth, not for everyone else but for me.  As I look at my life and what I fill it up with, the author of Ecclesiastes does a great job of putting everything into perspective.  If your looking for a good kick in the teeth you can check out the messages @ the church website www.restorationchurchwichita.com, but don’t say I didn’t warn you, make sure to have your mouthpiece in.  HAHA

Yesterday was again one of those messages as we discussed Justice.  Justice is something we all want for someone else.  We want to see the person that hurt us get what they deserve.  If we were really honest we want front row seats to see it happen.  The interesting part of justice though is we only want it one-way, we want justice for others but grace for us.  We don’t want what we “really” deserve, we want forgiveness, and we want grace. 

That’s the Gospel, that’s the good news.  We deserve hell, that’s what we’ve earned but God loved us in spite of us, Jesus died for us when we didn’t deserve it.  We are forgiven, we are loved, and we have hope, even though we don’t deserve it. 

We like all of that but yet we still struggle to extend grace to others.  We want justice for them.

What we don’t realize is when we are consumed by what someone has done to us, when we refuse to forgive him or her, when we refuse to show them grace we shackle ourselves to that hurt.  We are now slaves to what they have done.  Every time we see them our blood boils, every time we hear their name our mood changes.  We are enslaved to them and the hurt they inflicted on us.

But when we forgive it’s not about setting them free as much as we are setting ourselves free.  We are taking back control of our lives and emotions.  No longer do they dominate our thoughts, no longer does our blood pressure rise, no longer do we lose sleep, we are free!

The Gospel is freedom, forgiveness is freedom, and who are we who have been forgiven so much not to extend that same grace to others.

The gospel frees us to forgive much because we have been forgiven much.

It’s up to you.  You can live enslaved to what has happened to you or you can live free.  I choose freedom. I choose grace.