Explain what Christians believe about Justice and forgiveness.
Explain what Christians believe about Justice and forgiveness (A01 – beliefs)
Christians today believe that justice is the right to be treated fairly. Humans should be given the right to a fair hearing, a fair trial and the right to be treated for who and what they are.
Christians and the church today are against prejudice and discrimination. We should not prejudge or discriminate against someone. If we do this then we our not giving people their right to be treated fairly. Jesus did not discriminate, amongst his apostles were outcasts e.g. tax collectors. He healed people who were socially unacceptable e.g. the lepers. He did not prejudge because of their race. This is shown in the story of the Roman Servant whom he cured although he was a Roman and the Roman’s were hated at this time. He spoke and taught against discrimination e.g. the parable of the Good Samaritan. We hear about the parable of the Good Samaritan from Jesus when an expert of the law stood up to test Jesus. He wanted to know what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus only replied ‘What is written in the law’, the man questioned once again with ‘How do you read it?’ Jesus responded ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ However the expert of the law wanting to justify himself asked ‘and who is my neighbour?’ Jesus reply was the parable of the Good Samaritan. This is when Jesus then tells the man ‘to go and do likewise’ show the compassion and not prejudge follow the example of the Good Samaritan. Jesus did not discriminate against women e.g. the women were the first to witness his resurrection, Jesus did not choose for his disciples to witness his resurrection, no he chose for the women. Jesus sets many examples for us to follow throughout his teachings and one of them is not to prejudge or discriminate against others. However to be able to treat somebody fairly then we must be able to forgive.
