I have a friend who pursues justice; she wants everything to be fair.  The bad thing about absolute justice is that it leaves no room for mercy.  In many ways, justice and mercy are opposites:

• Mercy is getting off with a warning, while justice says you deserve a ticket.
• Mercy is having a test question thrown out, while justice says you got it wrong.
• Mercy is receiving probation, while justice says you deserve jail.
• Mercy is getting a second chance, while justice says there are no “do-overs.”
• Mercy is being permitted to retract your chess move, while justice says “sorry, you took your hands off it.”

In a paradox of Godly proportions, God is both fully just yet full of mercy.

Justice says that an imperfect person cannot be in the presence of a perfect God, while mercy through Jesus allows us to do so anyway.

Thank God for his justice and his mercy — and for paradoxes!