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"But the good news is that God is not fair."

A thought by Craig Groeschel, from his book, The Christian Atheist: When You Believe in God But Live as if He Doesn’t Exist (p. 101). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

You might say, that doesn’t make sense.  That’s not good news.  But it is.

Craig says, “If you’re like me when something bad happens, you often feel like your pain is unjustified. It’s just not fair. I’m a good person. I didn’t do anything to deserve this. There is one major problem with my defense: I’m not good.”

He goes on, “But the good news is that God is not fair. Psalm 103: 10 – 12 says, ‘[ God] does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.’ If the wages of sin is death and we’re sinners, then we deserve death. We’ve broken the law. We’re guilty. We deserve to be punished. To die and suffer eternally would be fair punishment for our disobedience. But thank God, he’s not fair.

“He is just, but he is not fair.

“Because someone sinned, someone must die. In his mercy, God sent his Son, Jesus, as a sacrifice for our sins. If we know Jesus, he doesn’t give us what we deserve. We read earlier in Romans 6: 23, ‘The wages of sin is death.’  That’s what we deserve. But that verse doesn’t end there. It continues, ‘But the gift of God is eternal life.’”

Craig then says, “Thankfully, we don’t always get what we deserve.”

So, the good news really is that God is not fair.  I’m really, really glad that’s true. 


Aren’t you?

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