"If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.
And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."
Exodus 21:22-25
This is a very specific (and often-quoted) part of the laws given to Moses, which is a very justice-oriented set of laws. Where it can, it requires a punishment that is equal to the crime, exacting very specific and deliberate harm in return for harm... and I think that justice is something that we all want, except when we are are the one that caused harm. Justice is the "fairness" that we all claim to want when we see things that are unbalanced and inequitable. Reading this today reminded me that Christ fulfilled this law. He paid the price that this law, and all others, demand... but he didn't destroy justice in the process. Instead, he grants mercy now, and a chance to repent and change, so that when justice does catch up with all of us, it will give us a full measure of who we are then, at the judgement day, when we are "fully ripe" rather than killing us before we have a chance to repent for or balance out any harm we have caused or had a chance to work to do and become good.
In Alma 41:3-7 we see something similar, talking about people being judged according to their works, and being raised to endless happiness or endless misery depending on what they desired: "good according to his desires of good; and the other to evil according to his desires of evil," and concluding that in essence "they are their own judges, whether to do good or do evil." Justice will assuredly have its day at that point, but how grateful we should be that we aren't instantly punished for our actions, but that Christ effectively says to *all* of us "Go, and sin no more" (John 8:11, D&C 82:7), granting us mercy and further time to get our lives in order before we face justice for our lives and actions.
Today, let's remember that mercy cannot rob justice (Alma 42:24-25), but that Christ, through the great sacrifice and gift of his atonement, offers us time and space to repent and change, so that maybe when we meet justice in the end, we'll get along rather than being at odds. Let's take advantage of this grace-given time and make amends for whatever evil we've done, and work to do good, so that we don't end up condemning ourselves unnecessarily and throwing away Christ's incredible gift.
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