“For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” – James 2:13

It is a sure sign that one has not rightly understood, or received, the mercy of God in relation to the sin of his or her own heart that would wish judgment upon another. Westernized culture relishes the concept of karma, this eastern idea that the universe will one day heap pain and misery upon a person for their inflicting of the same on others. “They’ll get what’s coming to them!” That’s not a concept thought up in the mind of Buddha or outlined in the Bhagavad Gita, but the natural order of a life lived for sin and self outside of the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ (“…and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” James 1:15). But a child of the Most High God wishing judgment upon another or partaking in the fruitless discussion of the sins of others at the sudden amnesia of their own? This should not be. The just wrath and judgment of a Holy God against my sin fell on the Lord Jesus Christ when I repented (i.e. acknowledged and forsook) and placed my faith in His atoning sacrifice on my behalf at Calvary’s Cross. While sin committed in the flesh might still have very real consequences in the day to day of life this side of Heaven, its full judgment (that would have ultimately brought about death both physically and spiritually) has been short circuited and re-routed to the Lamb of God slain for the sins of the world. That means that we didn’t get what was coming to us, Jesus did. If I would receive mercy, that great act of God whereby He does not give me what my sins deserve, I must show mercy. We must take heed lest the moral superiority in our hearts that would hang someone else for their sins is not the very noose by which we hang ourselves. Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (Jn. 3:17), and He is still offering mercy instead of judgment, and we should go and do likewise. There will come a day for every person when mercy is cut off forever, but today – today is the day of salvation. Look to the Cross and let mercy rejoice against judgment.