The Unfairness of it all.

Time to do some work and the boss has given us a task to complete. We did most of what was to be done, sure the instructions were a bit hard to follow but it got pretty close to what it was suppose to look like. Of course our mind wandered a bit too while we were at work thinking of things we’d rather do and taking a break here and there to do some “errands”… or is that goofing off…. Oh well, as long as we did most of what was expected it’s just fine. We did a good job didn’t we?

When we got hired there was a job description. Even the previous employee could not do all of what the description said. So why is the boss angry, talking about firing us or taking it out of our pay. That’s not fair! We did the work and it looked good enough. What do they expect from us when we aren’t “perfect” anyway?

Now… the person that wanted the task done did have expectations of what it was supposed to look like and it wasn’t quite what they were paying for. Actually it was not at all what they were hoping they would get… all those little differences that made it almost good enough sort of made it a lot more different than it was meant to be. But… we worked hard on it and they should appreciate that effort, they are getting something for what we did. Come on, they are just being uptight about it, they should relax and accept what they get.

And what’s with this God that expects us to be perfect anyway, He’s so unfair and He knows we can’t obey all the rules anyway. What a mean god, a cruel tyrant!

What Lord’s Day 4 says about it;

Question 9. But doesn’t God do man an injustice by requiring in his law what man is unable to do?

Answer. No, God created man with the ability to keep the law. Man, however, tempted by the devil, in reckless disobedience, robbed himself and all his descendants of these gifts.

Question 10. Will God permit such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished?

Answer. Certainly not. He is terribly angry about the sin we are born with as well as the sins we personally commit. As a just judge he punishes them now and in eternity. He has declared: “Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them.”

Question 11. But isn’t God also merciful?

Answer. God is certainly merciful, but he is also just. His justice demands that sin, committed against his supreme majesty, be punished with the supreme penalty, eternal punishment of body and soul.

So in this wonderful Garden of Eden humanity did have the ability to follow all the rules… and there weren’t that many to follow back then….. but the rules were that for us to have something we had to do something.

We like to get paid for our work. Let us turn this around a bit first… suppose we did everything we were supposed to do, our work is perfect, it looks great, no flaws, just what they ordered and nothing to complain about. What? Where is our pay? What do you mean they aren’t paying us for our work? We are angry now! How can they not pay us, we required them to pay us for what we were doing for them. We are going to take them to court and punish them for it, make them pay and then some.

We are after all talking about our pay here. It was in the deal we had with them, and they better pay up. It’s bad news for them if they don’t. The Bible backs us up on this.

Jerimiah 22:13 Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; that useth his neighbor's service without wages, and giveth him not his hire;

Leviticus 19:13 Thou shalt not oppress thy neighbor, nor rob him: the wages of a hired servant shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.

Corinthians 9:7 -10 What soldier ever serveth at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Do I speak these things after the manner of men? or saith not the law also the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. Is it for the oxen that God careth, or saith he it assuredly for our sake? Yea, for our sake it was written: because he that ploweth ought to plow in hope, and he that thresheth, to thresh in hope of partaking.

Oh.. now it doesn’t seem so easy. When the situation is turned around we aren’t so graceful, merciful, or forgiving…. kind of obvious that God has every right to be angry and to punish. Fair is fair when our own attitudes are that someone should not get away with cheating, stealing or whatever else. It also wouldn’t be fair to those that did what they were told to do, somehow they get what we got and didn’t work as hard… or maybe at all.

It is indeed easy to view God as the one being unfair because we can’t keep His rules perfectly, though at one time we did have that ability to do so, but isn’t God the one being cheated? We are being unfair to Him expecting to get something we did not earn. He made a deal with humanity and got less than He bargained for. True, He made the deal with “Adam”… so why are we still required to finish the job? The deal was with us not with one person. We are obligated to do things in the contract. If we are to get the same things promised to Adam so to are we required to do the same things Adam was commanded to do.

Romans 5:12-14 Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned: for until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression, who is a figure of him that was to come.

Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them, for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing lovingkindness unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

We owe God, a God that is merciful, and we can’t compensate for His loss in the deal made with humanity. So what is the answer?