The Beliefs of Justice and Forgiveness in Christianity
For Christians, Jesus was sent from God to bring justice to the earth
and in the Kingdom of God, when it fully arrives, justice will reign.
Christians believe that justice is more than just doing what is right.
“Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6: V8)
is an example of what is said in the Bible.
As well as this, justice concerns the element of judgement. It is
believed that God judges Christians on everything they do and one day
there will be a day of judgement when God will judge everyone fairly
based on their life. An example of this is in the Old Testament, when
Adam and Eve went against God’s wishes by eating the fruit. God judged
them both and sent them out of the perfect garden. Christians believe
that God is a God of justice and demands us to live in justice. Jesus
spoke of the day of judgement, when the Son of Man would sit on his
throne and everyone would be judged to be either a sheep or a goat. By
working for justice in their lives, Christians can get closer to God
rather than turning away from him through sin and this is a reason why
justice is so important to Christians.
Forgiveness is completely vital in Christianity and it is a basis of
the faith itself, as the world was forgiven for its sins, through the
death of Jesus. Forgiveness is essential in order for there to be
peace and Jesus taught his followers about the idea of forgiveness
through stories and parables. Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness (Matthew
5:38-48) mentions the Lex Talionis, law of limitation and Jesus’ new
guidance; when any form of retaliation is rejected. Instead, Jesus
tells Christians to “turn the other cheek” and “pray for your
persecutors
Christians believe that everybody in some way is a sinner but God is
always willing to forgive you as long as you repent because he is so
loving and this is shown in the Bible, the story of the woman in
Forgiveness is to stop feeling angry, to stop blaming someone for the way they made a person feel, and stop feeling victims of whatever wickedness was directed towards them. Is forgiveness necessary? Can everyone be forgiven despite the circumstances? If forgiveness depends on the situation, then is it necessary at all? Does forgiveness allow someone to continue their life in peace? Is forgiving someone who causes physical pain to someone, as a pose to forgiving someone who murdered a member of the family the same? If someone can forgive one of these acts so easily can the other be forgiven just as easy? Forgiveness allows for someone to come to terms with what they have experienced. In the case of murder forgiveness is necessary because it allows for someone to be at peace with themselves knowing they no longer have to live with hatred. It also allows someone to begin a new life with new gained experience and different perspectives on life. Forgiveness is necessary from a moral perspective because it allows someone to get rid of hatred and find peace within him or herself to move on with their lives.
In “Out of the Dust,” a story told by 14-year-old Billie Jo, she describes her grief and feelings of lost hope including guilt from the accidental death of her mother and her mother’s unborn child. The accident crushed Billie Jo’s hope and her spirit, as well her father’s. It is a story of remarkable struggle where Billie Jo tries to find inner strength. She seeks the light through the Oklahoma “dust”. The “dust” is symbolic as it signifies a lack of life, dreams, and hope. Billie Jo takes the reader through her emotional of the journey that evokes compassion and empathy. The reader becomes part of the story and part of Billie Jo’s persona. Her journey embraces whom we are in the most profound sense of sadness and loss of her beloved mother. The story also guides us through the powerful enlightenment that defines the clearest explanation of the human spirit. In “Out of the Dust” Billie Jo demonstrates the power of forgiveness in herself and her father. These acts of forgiveness allowed her to move past the darkness and into the light. Her story gives the reader details on how the human spirit is philanthropic by nature and a lifelong process. “Out of the Dust” captures the essence of forgiveness including the transformations that occur during the process.
to do evil to their enemies, but to instead to them good, and to pray
The Christian faith focuses on the orientation of the human heart behind human thoughts and actions. Living by faith is a beautiful alternative to the way people think of themselves and the way they live in relation to others in their daily lives (Merrick, 2014). Christians see themselves in terms of God’s profound love for them but not in terms of what they do. The teachings of the Christian faith; nonviolence, non-retaliation, inward integrity, selflessness, and love your neighbor as yourself provide the framework for ethical thinking. Although, adopting belief in Christianity can bring forth confusion in the heart and mind causing agony of learning to sacrifice one’s rightful claims for personal justice for the restoration of another (Merrick, 2014). Unconditional forgiveness is difficult to understand because spiritual forgiveness and actual costly forgiveness is viewed as the same in the gospel. If you do not forgive, then one does not have faith in God’s forgiveness as it really is. Christianity influences a person thinking and behavior developing wisdom which requires faith. The faith that is needed to reorient the heart away from selfishness to selflessness.
that you should believe in God as you will gain more from it when you
A black woman refused to give up a seat for a white man and was arrest
can use this to be sin free and be able to gain a place in heaven
In her Cosmopolitan article titled “Get Him to Forgive You,” author Debra Wallace states that there are four steps that a women has to take in order to gain her male significant other’s forgiveness after she has “messed up:”
... unique dignity of each person, the truth that God is the Lord of Life not us, and the example and teaching of Jesus on mercy and forgiveness.
Forgiveness and justice are very similar than we believe them to be. We believe that justice is
Forgiveness is one of the hardest things to do concerning one another’s well-being. The step of forgiveness requires us to look past the wrongs that have been done to us, and without any sort of retribution or atonement of sorts, drop that wrong-doing out of the scope of the relationship and move on. Christianity and Psychology have differing, yet surprisingly similar ways of looking at the role of forgiving one another. The agreement is obvious, Psychologists and Christians alike recognize that forgiveness has great value in preserving relationships, not just personal but communal as well. The disagreement tends to be a difference of opinion in what context forgiveness is appropriate. The question then bears itself, who is right? Should we
Religion views forgiveness as one of the most important aspects of living a Christian lifestyle. The Bible gives examples of how to forgive and also how important forgiveness is in
Restorative justice is concerned with healing victims' wounds, restoring offenders to law-abiding lives, and repairing harm done to interpersonal relationships and the community. It seeks to involve all stakeholders and provide opportunities for those most affected by the crime to be directly involved in the process of responding to the harm caused”. The Rwanda government has suffered a tremendous violent act in the loss of their two major ethnic groups that consisted of the Hutu and Tutsi. The large scale of mass murder caused millions of orphans and un-circumscribable agony to a country that has yet to be restored and healed. After such tragic events of rape, torture and decapitation to innocent people, the widespread of horror still is engraved in the survivors’ memory. For any individual to take any other person life is one scenario and to rape and kill a person while there family watch is another. Imagine the site and anguish given by the victim who is fighting or striving to maintain their life with all their being, while the oppressor ignores his/her cries to resolve the situation. That person is not in their right state of mind and probably does not know the purpose or the aftermath of their action. In 1994 the world witnessed one of the most systematic and vast massacre of our time in Rwanda. By the end of the massacre one million people were dead and hundreds were left with physical and psychological scars. The genocide was fueled by years of hatred between the Hutus and the Tutsis. After the genocide the Rwandan government was left with the task of designing a justice system suitable to prosecute perpetrators of the genocide and the reestablishment of peace within the country. Due to the lack of a competent judicial sys...
When I opened my yearbook, I began to reminisce about my half year of high school in China. As I flipped through the pages of the yearbook, a picture of an old man with a benevolent smile caught my eyes. Daydreaming about the incident, my eyesight became hazy, and I felt my hands becoming swollen, which always refreshes my memory of his profound words.
Repentance is essential when it comes to salvation. One must repent of his or her sins to truly believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. As it has been correctly stated, “Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin.” One cannot repent unless he or she believes in Jesus Christ. Paul said in 2 Timothy 2:25, “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.” This sums up the relationship between saving faith and repentance.