One day James came home from school, and his mother had just baked some cookies. They smelled delicious, and he asked if he could have one. His mother said no, he could not, because they were for dessert. His grandparents were coming over, and they needed a special dessert for their meal.
James begged, ‘Please, can’t I have just one?’
‘No,’ his mother responded, ‘and if you take one you will not get any dessert.’
When James’s mother left the room, he looked at the cookies. He smelled the cookies. He even went over and picked one up. Before he knew it, he had gobbled the cookie down. As he was licking the last crumbs from his fingers, his mother returned.
‘Young man, what have you done?” she asked.
With his head hung down in shame, James confessed that he had disobeyed her order. That night, while the rest of the family enjoyed fresh cookies for dessert, James had nothing.
Have you ever been in this situation? James’s mother was showing what just meant. Being just means being fair and sticking to the rules. She said no cookies, and James took one. Therefore, he did not get a cookie for dessert.
Would his mom have been wrong to give him a cookie? No, because his mom has the choice to be merciful, this means not giving James what he deserves. when she was tucking James into bed that night, she offered him a cookie, and explained to him that next time he needed to be more careful to obey. That would be an example of being merciful. James did not deserve the cookie, but his mom gave it to him anyways.
Hello my name is James apple and I was given the apologetics question:
In my attempt to convince you of this I will be using my ____ points.
My fist point is that god made us with the ability to choose to do good or evil. From those choices people make they will either be taking the wide path to death, or the narrow path to eternal life. While either road can be taken, one leads you to justice and one leads you to mercy. God sent his one and only son to die for us on the cross so we can live for him.
Would the love you had for your children be willing to bail them out if you knew all it would do would facilitate the same, sinful behavior? Of course not, and neither will God the father.
For my second point I give you the example of a parent who punishes their children when appropriate. Parents don’t normally punish children because they “wanna give it to em’ real good for what they did there.” But because they love their children and are actually merciful enough to be just and not let them destroy themselves on their way to adulthood. For the parents know that if they let them continue down those roads of sin they will only end with pain , suffering, death, and regret.
My third and final example is that of Sodom and Gomorrah: Sodom was a very wicked city. Before long, Lot and his family had moved closer and closer to the city, until they were living within its walls. Lot was even a city official!
God decided to judge the city of Sodom and its neighbor Gomorrah for their wickedness. That was an example of God being just. The city deserved judgment, and God was sending it.
Before He destroyed them, however, He gave Lot and his family the chance to escape. He sent two angels to the city to tell Lot His plan and give him enough time to gather his family and leave. That was God being merciful.
In return for His mercy, God gave Lot and his family one rule. They could not look back at the city after the destruction began, or they would be destroyed along with it.
Lot quickly packed up his family and left. As they were leaving the city, God sent fire from heaven to destroy it. I imagine they could hear the cries of their friends and neighbors.
Suddenly, Lot’s wife started to hesitate. Lot encouraged her to keep going, but she stopped. She turned around, and in a second was changed into a pillar of salt. Lot had to leave her behind as he took his daughters and escaped God’s judgment. Again, God was just, because He punished Lot’s wife for disobeying His command to not look back.
See, God gives us specific commands that we need to follow. If we do not follow them, we deserve whatever punishment He gives, because God is just. However, God often chooses mercy because He loves us. Instead of giving us a punishment, He instead blesses us.
The greatest example of God’s just nature and His mercy is His gift of salvation. Because we are all sinners, we deserve to go to Hell when we die, and we will. However, because He is gracious, God gave us a way to escape Hell and spend eternity in heaven with Him, and that is through believing on Jesus Christ as our Savior.
I hope that my short speech has shined some light on the question;
I would like to go back over my points one last time before leaving you to your wonderful evening.
My first example was that of James and the cookie. And how that related to my question.
My first point was that God is merciful to us by letting us have free will.
My second point was an example of a parent who punishes a child.
And my final point was the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Thank you.
