Sinners.

                            

"'Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.'"  Luke 15:7 (NRSV)

"Then he said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven.'"  Luke 7:48 (NRSV)

"And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you, go in peace.'"  Luke 7:50 (NRSV)

And so it is that God does not punish sinners.

He opens His heart to them and forgives them.

Many people presume that God destroys sinners.

But this is not the case.

"Why do the wicked live on,
    reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
Their children are established in their presence,
    and their offspring before their eyes.
Their houses are safe from fear,
    and no rod of God is upon them."  Job 21:7-9 (NRSV)

So is there no justice?

Natural Justice is a human conception.

So when there appears to be no Divine Justice in life men have projected this (human) expectation into the afterlife.

In fact this is not how God functions at all.

God is Love.
And He extends His Love even to sinners.

As Jesus explains in the parable of The Two Debtors (Luke 7:41-43) he who is forgiven more will love more.

So do not hold out for a Day of Reckoning, a day when Natural Justice will be vindicated.

It will never come.

God waits for us.

"The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance."  2 Peter 3:9 (NRSV)


[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

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