God is not fair

 

I’ve had a strong sense of justice since I was a young lad. Even for trivial things. If my brother got more sweets than me, or a bigger desert portion, I would get mad. ‘It’s not fair, I deserve just as many as him’!

The definition of fairness in our society is something like ‘giving people what they deserve’.

People who do bad deserve bad things, people who do good (or at least avoid bad) deserve good things. That’s fair, isn’t it?

And yet we know that God seems to have a habit of saving people who, well, they just don’t deserve it. Like a thief who abused you on a cross for example.

Who would you be angry about if God asked you to share the gospel with them? Someone who’s bullied you at work for years? Someone from a broken relationship who has hurt you immeasurably? Someone who has harmed your child?

Deep down we don’t actually want good for those we resent.

They need to pay for what they’ve done.
For the hurt they’ve caused me.

The idea of God, well, just forgiving them? That they can experience the forgiveness of God and maybe even be happier than me? They just don’t deserve it.

It’s not fair.

What the Bible has to say

The Bible has some cracking examples of people who have felt God isn’t fair.

The prophet Jonah is called to preach to a pagan city called Ninevah – this place would have been quite riotous, and for a God-fearing Israelite like Jonah the people there did NOT deserve God’s mercy. He hated them. He ran away when God told him to go to them. And when he did eventually go he did so begrudgingly, preaching an 8 word sermon, and sulking outside the city when he saw that all 120,000 of them repented and turned to God.  Jonah’s view was that the Jews deserved God’s mercy, to be treated well, to get what they deserved. These pagans? They deserved the opposite. But God had other plans. And Jonah hates it. You can hear him say: ‘God, you’re not fair’.

In the parable of the lost son (Luke 15) the younger son takes his inheritance early, squanders it all, brings disgrace on his family, and then has the nerve to go back home and ask to be taken in by his father. The father does more than that; he throws a party and re-instates him to a place of honour. The older brother is outside. ‘My brother doesn’t deserve this. He deserves death. And me? I’ve worked hard all this time, and I don’t get anything’. He is angry that the father has shown mercy. Just like Jonah outside Nineveh, the older brother sulks outside the father's house. You can hear him say: ‘God, you’re not fair’.

In the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20) Jesus pays men a denarius (a day’s wages) to work for 12 hours, but then also pays the same to those who then work 9, 6 and then 1 hour. The men who worked longer were indignant. ‘It’s not fair! We’ve worked longer than these guys. Why are they being paid the same?’ And Jesus replied: (v13-15) ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.  Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ You can hear the workers say: ‘God, you’re not fair’.

 

God sets the terms

There is a gap between what the Bible says and what we can think. We see God reaching out to people who we think don’t deserve it! But in our own lives we find it hard to accept that God maybe calling us to do the very same thing.

The culturally prevailing view is that we are intrinsically good people. Like Jonah and the older brother, we become self-righteous.

And we have a skewed view of God. We have domesticated him; we have defined fairness on our terms and expect God to live up to it. We place ourselves in the centre of the world and we begin to believe that we are owed something by God.

But God sets the terms. He is a God of love. Yes. But he’s also a holy God, a God of wrath, who is entirely righteous and equitable in all that he does. Jesus was clear – he didn’t owe the workers who worked a full day anything more than what was agreed. And God has agreed with human beings the terms of the arrangement. It’s a covenant. To love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbour as ourselves.

Man, I get out of bed and I’ve fallen short already!

If fairness means all of us getting what we deserve, then we are all in trouble, because the Bible says we would all spend eternity in hell paying for our sin  (Revelation 20:14-15; Romans 6:23).

 

Here’s the good news

But the Gospel tells us this:

God isn’t fair

Instead, He is merciful, good and just.

 

The stunning news of the Gospel is that in Christ God has announced that even the worst sinners can enter His heaven. On the cross God’s love for undeserving sinners and his desire to know them and spend eternity with them was demonstrated. He showed his mercy by giving to Christ what we deserve and letting sinners like me go free. And he showed justice by dealing with sin and punishing Jesus in our place.

And because he rose again he promised that one day soon Jesus will return and will judge in righteousness and equity, and every wrong will be made right. None of us will say that He is unfair, because at the very least everyone will receive what they deserve. But for those who believe in Jesus, they will receive far more than they deserve, an eternity with Him.

God loves to show mercy, and he has a right to do so. We do not deserve it, no one does, and if we think we do then we are as self-righteous as Jonah.

That means that He calls us to share the Gospel with those we dislike, with those who are different to us, who annoy us or perhaps even harm us. We are called to love God's mercy, not only to us, but as it is offered to all mankind.

So is God fair?

No 

The Bible does not use the term in the same way we do today.

He is merciful, just and compassionate and ‘he wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4).

 

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