Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word

Theme · ethical

Justice and Mercy

God reveals himself to Moses as simultaneously just and merciful — punishing sin yet abounding in steadfast love. The law demands justice for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner. The prophets thunder against those who trample the needy while offering lavish sacrifices: 'What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God?' At the cross, justice and mercy meet perfectly: sin is fully punished and sinners are fully forgiven. James warns that 'judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful,' for mercy triumphs over judgment.

Passages expressing this theme

  • Amos 5:24 — But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
  • Deut 10:18 — He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.
  • Deut 32:4 — He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
  • Exod 34:6 — And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
  • Exod 34:7 — Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s c
  • Gen 18:25 — That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do rig
  • Hos 6:6 — For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
  • Isa 1:17 — Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
  • Isa 30:18 — And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait
  • Isa 61:8 — For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
  • Jas 2:13 — For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
  • Jer 22:3 — Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, ne
  • Matt 9:13 — But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
  • Matt 12:7 — But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
  • Matt 23:23 — Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have do
  • Mic 6:8 — He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
  • Prov 21:3 — To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
  • Ps 33:5 — He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
  • Ps 37:28 — For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.
  • Ps 85:10 — Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
  • Ps 89:14 — Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.
  • Ps 146:7 — Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners:
  • Rom 3:26 — To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
  • Zech 7:9 — Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother: