"Mercy is the Suspension of Justice"?

"Ray I notice your always speaking either about how just your God is or how merciful He is. Yet each time you speak of this, you contradict yourself. Because mercy is the suspension of justice, your God can't be just and merciful. So is He just, or not? Is He merciful, or not? Which is He, just or merciful? Are you going to heaven or hell? If you say heaven, then you can never claim your God to be a just God. If you turn around and say that others are going to hell, you can't claim Him to be a merciful God. This is such a blatant contradiction that I'm surprised even one with as much cognitive dissonance as yourself could miss it for so long." imadallasguy

There is one way that justice and mercy can meet. If a judge levels a $100,000 fine at a guilty criminal, then pays the $100,000 out of his own hard earned money because he cares about the man, justice has been done, and mercy has been extended. The law is satisfied, and the criminal is allowed to go completely free. Even a dummy like me, with such cognitive dissonance, can understand this principle.

Justice for me would be to be damned in Hell. I am a guilty criminal in the eyes of a morally perfect God. I have violated God's Law (the Ten Commandments) many times in spirit, if not in letter. However, God is "rich in mercy" and, as supreme Judge of the Universe, He paid my fine in full through the suffering death of Jesus of Nazareth.

God became a morally perfect man (see 1 Timothy 3:16, KJV, NKJV), and took the wrath of the Law upon Himself so that I could freely leave the courtroom. That means that God can be just and commute my death sentence, and He can be merciful and let me live forever.

This vicarious sacrifice meant that the righteousness of God's Law could be fully satisfied, and yet I could have peace with God. This amazing expression of God's love was predicted in the Book of Psalm 800 years before it happened: "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Psalm 85:10)