Justice Finds All
If you have ever been wronged by someone, you know two things: 1) it seems like they get away with it if we forgive, and 2) if we don’t forgive, we are the ones who suffer. However, sin, spiritual suicide, is its own punishment. Justice is found in the natural progression of events. This is not karma, but the nature of a world made good. When one sins, they violate the goodness they were created in and trade it for a much sadder world. The more we follow a path the harder it will be to escape it. Although nothing is impossible this must not be underestimated. God built justice into reality, when we go against what we were made for we find trouble. The more we go against our nature the more ends we naturally are made for will be lost. When we talk of the problem of evil and we say God permits evil to bring about a greater good, we need to also remember that to go against the way we were made is like throwing rocks in a clock tower. Eventually, events will progress to a point something highly problematic will happen. God's mercy is two-fold, 1) hopefully these things communicate to us why they are wrong and 2) to a point, damage can be healed.
First, salvation is thought of more of than not, far too abstractly. We have to work our way to the correct path; we can only finally accomplish this through the gifts and providence of God because we are not able to accomplish anything meaningful in the way without Him. Nevertheless, we can know what the path will look like insofar as it is our proper functioning. We know a tree by its fruits and certainly the tree of life is distinct from all other trees. This "path" involves re-writing habits, adjusting the narrative one lives by, where one searches for happiness, asking for forgiveness, being forgiving/loving to creatures disposed to sin, the priorities one acts for, and not only changing the logic of one's life but also its content. The pain we experience as a result of sin and the pain we see others experience should educate us in a moral way, recognizing that we tend to misinterpret the good of an act, and it can yet be known what makes something reprehensible.
Second, perhaps we should fear getting away with something, knowing the longer we get away with something the more consequences we will face on judgment day if we don't atone for them prior. Retribution is not the only product of justice but also it is a part of mercy especially if we stand stubbornly by those sins we prefer. After all, the first step in any problem is removing the immediate cause so as to find a permanent solution. Every sin we commit affects the world.[1] As evidenced by authentic post-trauma psychology if our hurts are not properly dealt with the will find new ways to express ourselves in our behavior and that corruption, we have chosen spreads.
In conclusion, do they/we really "get away with" those sins they/we commit? No, they have to live with the fact they commit such acts every day as much as we do. Even should they prove themselves sociopathic, God, if not also human law, will find them eventually. Insofar as both God and law are ordered toward the natural harmony of man, every sin can be found as what it is, evil. There is no way to sin and not harm oneself, even if not others directly. Truly, then, if we have people to forgive, we can be assured justice will be exacted according to the content of their hearts, and we do not have to be the executioner. Let us do our best to encourage others to avoid sin and do so ourselves, so as to bring wherever we go the kingdom of God, which is born not from perfection but from healed corruption and grace-filled imperfection. This is precisely what divinization means.
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Written by Carter Carruthers & also available soon at Missio Dei
