Reg Christensen lives in the Midwest with his wife, Carol. They have seven children and seventeen grandchildren. Reg has fulfilled a variety of callings in the Church and he and Carol have been blessed with many service opportunities as Pathway missionaries and service volunteers at the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies, to mention a few. While living in Jerusalem, they served in the Bethlehem branch, Carol as the Relief Society president and Reg as the branch president. His happy times come from being with family and friends, reading, writing, woodworking, leathercrafting, exploring nature, and blessing lives with his handyman skills. He has published several books, including Unlocking Isaiah: Lessons and Insights that Draw Us to the Savior.
Enter Reg…
We may be tempted to consider the Lord’s strong justice and tender mercy as “bad news—good news,” but when we correctly understand these principles, we find that, in truth, they are “good news—good news.” We each receive a perfect blend of justice and mercy. We are each subject to the Lord’s loving justice—His guarantee of the reliability of our life choices. He really does have the power to bless our lives according to His promises. Through His consistent, fair, and loving justice, we gain confidence in Him and in the eternal promises of the great plan of happiness as we make correct choices. We are each blessed and redeemed by His loving mercy that restores us from our broken and fallen condition to the true and complete nature of our divine potential.
The Gift of Justice
The Lord’s blend of justice and mercy is simply portrayed in two adjacent verses of scripture. I have used these verses many times in my efforts to teach the beauty and balance of these saving principles. First verse:
“For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:31)
The Lord does not grant us license for sin—He teaches and guides us away from harmful choices and toward correct choices that further effectuate our peace and joy. For example:
- “No, you may not beat up on your sister just once to teach her a needed lesson.”
- “No, you may not tell a lie just this once.”
- “No, you may not steal, even if you promise to never do it again.”
The justice of God is an eternal principle and part of His divine character—He is a “just” God.
His justice is good news for us. Through it, He designates choices that show love and choices that may hurt us and others. We are blessed and guided on a righteous life-course through a trying world. Through His divine justice, He validates our power to choose; we may know with surety that we are making a correct choice that is “justified.” As we break laws, we suffer that we may be motivated to change our course. As we keep God’s laws, we are blessed according to His justice. Through the perfect Atonement, we are pronounced healed as a gift from God. Through the Lord’s justice, and by His Atonement, we are exonerated from fault.
The Gift of Mercy
“And we know that justification through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is just and true.” (Doctrine and Covenants 20:30)
Second verse:
“Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven.” (Doctrine and Covenants 20:32)
Through the Lord’s mercy, we are restored to wholeness.
“Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)
A lifetime of receiving His mercy results in our sanctification. This was expounded upon in a conference talk giving in April 1977 by Boyd K. Packer.
“Through him [Jesus Christ] mercy can be fully extended to each of us without offending the eternal law of justice. This truth is the very root of Christian doctrine.”
Our Desires Evolve
Through Christ’s pain and suffering, He made it possible for us to be purified through our pain and suffering. As we accept His gift and become purified, we lose desire to participate in worldly, unholy things. The Lord’s desire to restore us to wholeness by healing our wounded and sorrowful souls is accomplished by His Atonement and leads ultimately to our sanctification. And we know also that sanctification through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is just and true, to all those who love and serve God with all their might, mind, and strength.
Sometimes I have heard people attempt to classify our Heavenly Parents and our Savior as being sternly just on one occasion and yet tenderly merciful on another. The truth of the matter is that They always operate in total unity with a complete and perfect blend of justice and mercy in all circumstances.
The Good News
The eternal law of justice and mercy is good news for each of us. Hopefully a personal parable will help illustrate the operation of the law of justice and mercy.
Two of my older brothers were truckers and my heroes. I wanted to be a trucker someday—the idea of maneuvering huge vehicles through traffic and across the country fascinated me. In my growing-up years, I took advantage of my opportunities to drive trucks and equipment, and, on a few occasions, my brothers even let me drive their big rigs.
A few years ago, I mentioned to my wife that I still thought it would be fun to drive a big truck, and she replied, “You have been saying that all of your life—why don’t you just do it?” So, I did.
We began with classroom instruction in laws, safety, and systems, and within a few 185 days we were assigned a partner and began driving a semi-truck on the range. A few days later, accompanied by an instructor, we began driving the streets and freeways in and around the town. Our goal was to prepare to pass the state examination administered by a certified examiner and to receive our Commercial Driver License (CDL).
Near the end of the course, my time came for the CDL examination that consisted of three parts: pre-trip inspection, backing exercises, and road test, in that order. We were required to pass one portion before advancing to the next. I was confident but also quite nervous. I did fine with the pre-trip portion of pointing out the 300+ plus parts of the truck to the examiner and was relieved to successfully complete the straight, offset, and 90-degree backing tests.
We then went on the road test. Other than one intersection where I lost a gear and had to slow down to get the right gear and continue, I did fine and was so relieved to not hit a curb! As we pulled back into the campus yard, my examiner asked me how I thought I had done. “Fine,” was my sincere response. He then kindly informed me that I had failed because of the lost gear in the intersection. I was embarrassed, disappointed, frustrated, and nervous about my required retake of the road test portion the following week.
I had tried so hard to succeed but had failed and felt discouraged and hopeless. Then something wonderful happened. Greg, one of my favorite instructors, invited me to go with him on a trucking all to another town.
During the trip, he let me get behind the wheel again. I successfully navigated back to our town. For several days Greg helped me practice driving and included the route I’d take on my driving test. My test day came again. I was nervous but prayed hard and tried my best. I did not stall in an intersection, nor did I hit a curb. Back at campus, the examiner asked how I felt I had done. I replied, “Fine, except that is how I answered last week, and it did not go so well.” He smilingly replied, “You did an excellent job. You passed. Congratulations!”
Here is the parable of justice and mercy. I did not and would not have asked for any special favors or leniency from my instructors or examiners, nor would they have granted any. They were in the business of preparing us for the desired result: becoming professional and safe drivers. They were not interested in lowering the bar but were totally committed to helping each of us reach the bar.
The Lord’s justice is designed to help us reach eternal life. He knows how to get us there and will not give up on us—ever. He is God. This is His work.
“For behold, justice exerciseth all his demands, and also mercy claimeth all which is her own; and thus, none but the truly penitent are saved. What, do ye suppose that mercy can rob justice? I say unto you, Nay; not one whit. If so, God would cease to be God.” (Alma 42:24-25)
Although far from being a perfect driver once my training was complete, I felt good about reaching the intended level. I was “justified” in receiving my CDL. I will be forever grateful for Greg and the others who demonstrated their professionalism and mercy by caring for me and helping me.
Love and Mercy of Heavenly Parents
The Lord loves us with a perfect, divine love and applies His saving mercy for our progress and eventual salvation. He will not diminish His justice but will apply His mercy as needed to get us where He can bless us with ultimate happiness.
“And thus he shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name; this being the intent of the last sacrifice, to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance.” (Alma 34:15)
The Atonement solves our great dilemma of being sinners but needing to be pure of sin to gain eternal life. Amid our trials and our wounds of mortality, we may at times get discouraged and feel hopeless. But as we exercise our faith and open our hearts and minds to the power of the perfect Atonement, we gain a testimony of God’s tender mercy and ability to redeem us. Elder Orson F. Whitney taught,
“Our Heavenly Father is far more merciful, infinitely more charitable, than even the best of his servants, and the Everlasting Gospel is mightier in power to save than our narrow finite minds can comprehend.”
As we ourselves experience the love and mercy of our Heavenly Parents, we are moved to serve others with greater empathy and mercy for them in their struggles. Joseph Smith taught,
“Our heavenly Father is more liberal in His views, and boundless in His mercies and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive…God does not look on sin with [the least degree of] allowance, but…the nearer we get to our heavenly Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls; we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders, and cast their sins behind our backs.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Deseret Book Company, 1972], 240-241, 257.)
The Perfectly Orchestrated Formula
We need not be overzealous or try to become perfected in this life—that happens well beyond the limits of our current mortality. We just need to keep trying, be believing, and accept the helping hand that Heavenly Parents extend to us through the love and service of others. They do not hammer us with justice—justice is there to guide us in the proper course. They reach to us in love and mercy to help us reach our goals.
President J. Ruben Clark taught us of mercy,
“I believe that the Lord will help us. I believe that if we go to him, he will give us understanding if we are living righteously. I believe he will answer our prayers. I believe that our Heavenly Father wants to save every one of his children. I do not think he intends to shut any of us off because of some slight transgression—some slight failure to observe some rule or regulation. There are the great elementals of course, that we ought to observe but he is not going to be captious about the lesser things. I believe that his juridical concept of his dealing with his children can be expressed in this way. In his justice and mercy he will give us the maximum reward for our acts and give us all that he can give. And in the reverse, I believe that he will impose upon us the minimum penalty which it is possible for him to impose.”
I am grateful for our Heavenly Parents’ perfectly orchestrated formula of the right blend of justice to show us the correct way, coupled with Their abounding love and mercy that draw us unto Them and to the eternal life They have prepared for us.
