Justin Gottlieb, one of the pastors at 7 Mile Road Boston, read my earlier post about one of the conversations we had at Doubt Night a few weeks back. One of the folks in the group asked this great question about the relationship between justice and mercy.

Could there be mercy within justice? Can God be both absolutely just and yet be merciful to sinners through Christ? Is the Cross ultimately unjust?

Justin pointed me to a great excerpt from the book Pierced for our Transgressions. The heading for this section is “Is it unjust to punish an innocent man, even if he is willing to be punished” and ties directly into our conversation. The author presents a cogent argument of how the believer’s union with Christ must be considered when speaking of our sin being imputed to Christ and His righteousness being imputed to us. Anyway, the author adresses the issue far better than I could (or did at Doubt Night), and you can read some of it here.

7 Mile Road