Proverbs 24:23-34
Partiality in judging is not good.
Proverbs 24:23b-25
Whoever says to the wicked, “You are in the right,”
will be cursed by peoples, abhorred by nations,
but those who rebuke the wicked will have delight,
and a good blessing will come upon them.
As I have said before, I believe we all have an innate sense of justice, and we look for justice to be done. We watch movies and cheer for the “good guys” and expect the “bad guys” to get their just deserts. But in the real world our own sinfulness corrupts that sense of justice, and we allow our own desires or fears to bias our judgments. So we often see the rich and powerful getting preferential treatment, with serious charges magically dropped or otherwise minimized in exceptionally sweet plea deals. Or to go the other way, we end up with misguided policies like “no-cash bail” in places like New York and California, where serious criminals are released right after arrest, only to see them commit further crimes. Such misjudgments (or “disjudgments”, to coin a term) create new problems and new resentments. In the end no one is satisfied when the wicked are simply let off the hook.
So what about God’s dealings with us? We know that He is a God of justice, yet we receive His mercy. We, who are certainly not righteous in ourselves, are forgiven. So is God to be similarly held in contempt for a perversion of justice? No! God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness are not a simple “get out of jail free pass”, and if we think they are, then we have missed the Gospel entirely. God never says to the wicked, “You are in the right.” Instead, He fully accounts for wickedness and nails it to the Cross, where we are called to come and die with Christ.