CRC Sunday 3.15.26 | Four Parts of Forgiveness - Justice

We don't miss the gospel because we want justice. That is a good and holy thing to desire justice. Nothing wrong with that. We miss the gospel when we are happy that it's necessary. Does that make sense? We could very quickly think this person did a bad thing, and it's a good thing that they get caught. And, man, I'm glad they got their comeuppance. Now, are we glad that they stopped and they can't perpetrate evil and hurt more people? Yes. Absolutely. But what does it look like to hold this intention where I'm happy that the justice was there and it stopped, but I'm sad that they did the deed in the first place?

Justice is a holy thing. There's a reason that you and I want to see wrong things made right. I believe it's really simple that we're made in the image of God. He is a perfect and holy and just God and we live in a world that's shattered by sin. Even though we're disconnected from him without the gospel, we're still made in that image, and the broken shards of us that are crying for things to be made right—that's a reflection of the image of God. You wanting things to be made right is a holy thing. When you're bothered and frustrated when things are wrong, I'd even say low key angry as long as your anger doesn't bring you to sin, I think it's a holy thing to desire, demand, and fight for things to be made right.

While you were saying, this person needs to be confronted, this thing needs to be said, or I need to go and confess, I need to go apologize—whatever's going on in your life right now—at the same time, Lord, while I hope this happens and while this needs to be made right, God, I pray against my will: lead them to repentance. Lead them to life. Let them find you. And even if that has nothing to do with me, and somebody else is gonna do it, I pray they find you at the end of this road. In my heart, I need to get away from bitterness, and I can do that by praying against my will for somebody else to repent and believe.

It's not that I did anything for this. If you don't understand the gospel, the gospel is not do this good stuff so that then God says, okay, you've earned the kingdom. The gospel is that you go to the Lord Jesus Christ who paid our debt—our sin debt, our prison debt if you will—on our behalf. His perfect righteousness gets applied to your account, so when the Father looks at you and me, he sees the righteousness of Christ. We don't have anything to pay for anymore because he paid for it for us. Then for the rest of our life, we live like him so other people can meet him.

I was in prison and you came to me. But what he doesn't say here is why you visit those in prison. He doesn't say you went and visited those in prison who were there unrighteously. He doesn't say you went and visited those who were there because they deserved to be there. So both of these situations are true—we don't know why. He just says they're in prison, I'm in prison, you came. That's all that matters. There's no line of “you deserve to be here so I don't need to come.” There's a line of “you do deserve to be here and I'm coming anyway.”

Listen—don't walk out of here thinking if my feelings haven't caught up to this thing that I believe and know is true in Scripture, that I am a bad believer. Your feelings are real. They need to be considered, and you need to be honest about them. Your feelings aren't facts, but they are real. Sometimes you can make a decision to forgive and the decision to pursue justice and deal with it, and your emotions haven't caught up to that, and that's okay. That's what the journey is for. This isn't just a transactional thing. This is a commitment to walking it out and letting God mold you more into his image day by day.

Depending on what side of the aisle you find yourself on, if there's something over there that lines up with the gospel, celebrate and lift that up and do that thing. I don't care what side of what aisle you're on. If there's something on the side of the aisle that does not line up with God and does not line up with the gospel, you are to call that thing out no matter what team you find yourself on. When we're not willing to call out our team, we are perverting justice. My enemy said something that lines up with the gospel—I have to agree with them on this. We cannot pervert justice.

Top of 2023, March, I had a chance to visit a maximum security prison in North Carolina—and March 2023 is gonna be very important in a minute. I'm walking through the hallway and it's just straight concrete, and I'm reminded there's a long hallway, can't see the end, and just how cut off you are from the world. And I get to see the glass enclosure where the gentlemen who were incarcerated were kept. Then they walked us into a white brick room—an old gym—where they put some chairs out for us to have a time of fellowship and serve them.

No physical contact. And I'm a rule follower—annoyingly so. Like, don't sneak Twizzlers into the movie theaters, we're gonna pay $12 for these Twizzlers. So we go in there, and they let the guys in, and they're sitting down, and they're like, “Hey, legend.” And I'm a fist bump. And I'm like, “Hey, man, what's up, big dog? Don't tell nobody.” Because the last place you wanna break the rules is a place where they keep you for breaking the rules. You feel what I'm saying? Like, they just don't have to let me go. I don't know how this works.

I'm in South Africa and I meet a friend named Marco who becomes a hero of mine for two reasons. One, he spoke the native language and helped me negotiate in the souvenir shop so I didn't have to pay a whole lot of money. For an hour, I shut my mouth—my wife still doesn't believe I didn't talk for an hour. The second reason Marco was my hero is because he said, “I go into the hardest prisons in South Africa, I talk to the worst gang members, and I preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to them.” And I said, “Wow. I hope you have fun doing that. I'm not ever going to do that.”

You've never had church until you worship with people on death row. He said, “We are all looking forward to meeting Jesus. They know the day is gonna happen.” He said, “Been pro capital punishment my whole life. You do the you do this, you deserve that. It is simple to me. Until I had to walk my first brother down there and watch the life leave his—” He said, “I don't know how to reconcile this stuff.” He said, “I've had to do that five times now. I never wanna do it again. But if any of them ask me to be there, I'll be there every time.”

I have a question for you I'd like you to ponder for a quick second. Be serious and honest with yourself and God. In your personal life, who do you desire justice for? What wrong needs to be made right? Who deserves the consequences of what they've done? What bill needs to be paid? Take thirty seconds in silence and think about that—and be honest with yourself with any name or face that comes to mind. Do not tuck this away. And as I call the band up, I wanna ask you a second question: ask God to help you desire their repentance as well.