You are not a God who is pleased with wickedness; with you, evil people are not welcome. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence.

— Psalm 5:4-5

Imagine that you have purchased a new car. Then one day you find deep gouges in the fender and scratches in the paint. You are upset, but fortunately your doorbell camera has caught it all. The perpetrator is a neighbor. He appears before the judge, who also happens to be a neighbor. The judge says to him, “It is clear that you are guilty, but I remember that last winter you shoveled the snow from my sidewalk, so on the whole I think you are a pretty good person. Case dismissed.”

You return home, and you see the judge and the other neighbor having a good laugh. What are you thinking? Most of us would say, “This is not right; this judge is corrupt!”

Today there are many people who think, “If God was truly kind and loving, he would just forgive everyone.” But if we think that through for a moment, a God who dismissed lying, stealing, rape, murder, genocide, and other sins as nothing serious would be horrible! A God who brushed evil away would not be good; he would be like a devil.

Sin must be punished. And God is a God of justice. Knowing that sin is serious and that it is impossible for any of us to live sinless lives, we know deep down that our sin has to be punished. And thankfully God has also taken care of that for us—through Jesus.

Lord, we confess that we are sinful, and we thank you for not tolerating evil. Thank you for the cross of Christ, where justice and mercy meet. Amen.