It’s not fair!!!

From a very early age, children have an in-built sense of fairness. One of the very first reasoned comments that a child may make is ‘It’s not fair!’ 

As we go on through life, this sense of fairness matters more. We can be disheartened by being treated unfairly. May be at work we get blamed for something we have not done, or someone lets us do all the work and then takes the credit. It could be that people misunderstand our actions, misread our words, or misjudged our motives. It is a wonderful thing to remember that whatever we do, say, or are motivated by, God knows and hears our words in the way that we meant them and fully understands why it is that we have done whatever we do. 

In the Bible, the Lord Jesus says, ‘My judgement is righteous.’ He has no ulterior motive and is incapable of doing anything less than what is perfectly right. In one sense, knowing that Jesus Christ will be our judge is great because there will be no miscarriage of justice.

However, knowing He will be our Judge is also daunting, because He knows everything about us; our false words, the wrong attitudes, and thoughts that pass through our minds and the actions that we wish we had never done. Our sin must be judged – that’s only fair!

In Matthew chapter 20, the Lord Jesus tells a parable about a man who owned a vineyard, and he hired workers on a daily basis. They agreed their wages and they gave a day’s work in return. The parable is probably talking about those that serve God. However, if we were to think about fairness, it could be loosely applied in a different way. The owner of the vineyard kept going to the market to hire more workers. Each time that he did, he agreed with them the same wages, a denarius! 

You can imagine the scene at the end of the day, a great queue of sweaty men, all tired from their exertions, but some so much more than others. Some men had worked from sunrise until now, while others for half the day and some just one hour. You can imagine what the attitude was as they collected their wages, and they all receive the same! You can almost hear the cry of the child, ‘It’s not fair!’ But that was the deal that they all agreed! 

Whatever we think of our sin, great or small, it can all be forgiven by God. 

It would be possible for someone who claims to have led a ‘good life’ to look at someone else whose life is steeped in sin and say that it is not fair that they receive the same forgiveness through putting their faith in Jesus Christ and what He did at Calvary for us. 

However, we must consider that none of us are good! Not truly, in fact the Lord Jesus reminded a young rich ruler who called Him good, that ‘no one is good but One, that is, God!’ The Bible reminds us that we fall short of God’s standard. So, it isn’t fair that any of us receive forgiveness from God when we trust in Him. 

But what is really not fair is that the perfect Son of God, Jesus Christ, was punished for our sin so severely. Firstly, by cruel Roman soldiers and secondly, and in a far more intense way, by God, for our sins. 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 18 tells us, ‘Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust!’ What a statement, how unfair, the righteous one suffered taking the place of sinners. Why? The verse goes on to say, ‘that He might bring us to God!’ Will you come to Him?

DAILY MESSAGES WITH MEANING (21/02/25)

Written by STUART SCAMMELL 

All photos courtesy of Unsplash