Chasing justice

Today, I had to chase down a spray painting juvenile who decided to run through the parking long of my school. As I was running after the guy, I couldn't stop thinking of how surreal the situation was. I'm on my phone with the police dispatcher zeroing the cops in on the guy I'm tailing and he won't stop even though he knows he's going to be caught. Thankfully, I could tell by the way he acted that he wasn't yet hardened in his ways.


Regardless, my duty as a Christian at that moment was to bring a boy to justice and I realized, even as I wanted to share the Gospel of mercy with him in some fashion, that God glorifies Himself in two main ways: Through his justice and through his mercy. My job at that time was to bring about the justice of God through the position of authority he had give to me as a high school security guard. It pleases God when justice is upheld.

People tend to ignore the justice of God as a means of His glory, it seems. They want to see "God as love" as opposed to the God who, in delivering His love, also took out His wrath on His Son who stood in our place. That is how Christ glorified Himself and redeemed us. Yet, without justice, there can be no deliverance. The wicked go free and are glorified while the righteous wither away and die.