Spiritual Justice and Forgiveness
Greetings and good morning brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years, the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them with you. This morning we ponder our lives as we seek to understand the meaning of spiritual justice and forgiveness.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
Spiritual Justice and Forgiveness
"Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgression: According to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness sake, O Lord.” Psalms, Chapter 25, Verse 7.
Brothers and sisters, in today’s broadcast we explore the concepts of spiritual justice and forgiveness. “Thus says the Lord, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways." Our concepts of justice and forgiveness grow out of the necessity of our material experiences. In the conduct of our life experiences, we invariably experience personal losses. In our attempt to recoup these losses, we first develop the concept of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This principle had the effect of minimizing losses that were committed willfully for a person realized that if he took something away from another individual, that something of equal value would be taken away from him. However this concept did not provide a suitable solution to the problem of accidental losses, and involuntarily losses. To meet these conditions, the concept of forgiveness evolved.
While an individual may have had control over deliberate acts, he had no control over being associated with someone who died of no apparent reason or from an accident. Extracting an eye for an eye under these sorts of circumstances tended to create an even greater sense of outrage in the individual for he could never be sure when he would fall victim to this same sort of circumstance. While the deliberated acts of wrongdoing required justice, the ambivalence of circumstances required mercy while the definitive restoration of the individual back into the good graces of society required forgiveness.
Now the stage was set. Now that the mind of man actually had developed a concept of justice and forgiveness, it now becomes possible for revelation to provide the true concept of justice and forgiveness. Always must we develop the value of the concept, before the meaning of the value can be revealed.
There is a vast difference between material justice and forgiveness and between spiritual justice and forgiveness. While material justice and forgiveness tries to discover the motive, it primarily deals with the act while spiritual justice and forgiveness deals directly with the motive of the individual. It can do this because it is inherently aware of true motives. Spiritual justice and forgiveness deal with the purpose of the soul not with the manifestation of the soul as the manifestation of the purpose may be handicapped by circumstances that are beyond the control of the individual.
In a progressive universe, righteousness requires the sometime spiritual perfection of our souls, souls that have the potential to know God, and to become like Him. That which can not be spiritualized must be disorganized, and that which is disorganized will sometime be returned to the primordial energy units from which it emerged. Justice and forgiveness are the techniques that insure the rule of righteousness and the mandates of mercy. Justice and forgiveness function as the culminating efforts to spiritualize our souls.
The progressive technique of growth means that the potential to know God, and to choose to be like Him are largely unrealized at the beginning of our existence. It requires time to develop the consciousness of God. Experiential love must function before divine love can be realized. The realization of divine love is a gradual process. Recognition of divine love requires time. Therefore patience must intervene between the unfolding and outworking of divine love, and the application of mercy.
Mercy must function if we are to be successful in identifying with the superior values that are constantly unfolding. Without mercy, we would be like "a straw in the wind, blown from pillar to post, so helplessly. And what we want the most would turn out to be an empty ghost." Mercy reinforces our desire for superior and supreme values. After mercy has firmly cemented our desire for superior values, then does forgiveness functions which destroys the desire for the inferior values, and salvation is assured. But in the event love, divine love is ignored, and patience is interpreted as God being powerlessness, and mercy is denied an opportunity to function, then does justice function, and destruction follows.
This concludes today's message on understanding the spiritual meaning of justice and forgiveness. We hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day. Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
Inspirational Messages of Light
By Dr. James Perry
Spiritual Justice and Forgiveness
