The Sojo Show
The Sojo Show makes Bible Study fun with spontaneous conversations between Arabah Joy and Jen Evangelista. Together we discover how the study of God's Word can impact our everyday lives.
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The Sojo Show
Where Justice and Mercy Meet
Remember those rare Southern snow days where the slightest dusting on the ground could shut down the whole town? Join us as we reminisce about the delightful chaos of a Georgia snowfall, a moment that brings both hilarity and joy to our lives. We share a personal and humorous family story from Jen involving stolen bubble gum and a mock police visit, illustrating the universal truth about the human condition: no matter the scale of our missteps, we all stand guilty before a just and merciful God. This light-hearted narrative sets the stage for a deeper exploration of sin, guilt, and the redemptive power of grace.
We dive into the profound themes of God's justice and the pathway to true justification through Jesus Christ—an understanding that can transform your spiritual journey. Discover how recognizing our sinful nature and embracing God’s righteousness can lead to a life filled with grace and mercy, beyond societal approval or self-justification. Our conversation underscores the cross as the ultimate meeting point of justice and love, urging us to truly appreciate the salvation offered through Christ. Tune in to explore how embracing these truths can root your life in goodness and gratitude.
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Welcome to the Sojo Show with Jen and AJ, where you'll dig deep into God's Word alongside two imperfect, frequently ineloquent women, as we discover fresh ways to walk out God's truth together.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the Sojo Show everybody. This is AJ and I am sitting here on Zoom with my co-host and friend Jen.
Speaker 1:Hello, In the snow I'm bragging In the snow you had to say that part.
Speaker 2:She had to put that in there Like because, seriously, when was the last time you guys had snow? Actually Years who knows years.
Speaker 1:I was bragging about it, though we have snow, and then I just thought the wind was like oh, it stopped, we got 20 minutes of snow so you?
Speaker 2:you probably can't even see it on the ground yet, can you? No, but you could just see it in the sky.
Speaker 1:But we'll see, we'll see, we'll see what happens. No, all right, those of you who don't know, I live in georgia, but I'm actually more North than AJ, so we don't need the one of us ever see snow, so it's very exciting but a little inconvenient. I will say everything shut down.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, we don't know how you guys up North and in other parts of the world who gets snow. We just really don't know how you do it.
Speaker 1:No, we really don't. I know everybody's listening. That lives above the Mason-Dixon line, dixie line, dixie, dixie, what is it? Mason-dixie Dixon? I think it's Dixon, mason-dixon. Whatever it is.
Speaker 2:Or maybe that was our accent, I don't know. Oh, my word Okay.
Speaker 1:Regardless oh, my word, Okay, Regardless. They don't understand. They're like whatever it snows here every day in the winter.
Speaker 2:I know we actually just got off a call with somebody who said it was one degree where they were at and we were like, oh okay, we're talking. End of discussion.
Speaker 1:Pretty crazy, very exciting, though. It's very exciting when it snows around here, exciting for the children. It is.
Speaker 2:It's a big deal for Jen, so we have to acknowledge this moment in her life right now.
Speaker 1:And it only lasts a few hours. It's not like it shuts us down. I mean, it's like it'll be gone tomorrow, it'll all be. You know well, it's probably will never even accumulate, but anyway, it's good yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, besides the snow, we do have something really more on point to talk about today, and if you have been with us over the past couple of weeks, you know that we're talking through the character of God, his nature and some of his characteristics, and we are getting to one today. But before we get there, I have a question to ask of Jen, and you can totally throw your family members under the bus with this question. If you want to, or or or not, if you don't, if you don't feel that's appropriate, I would. But so the question is has you, have you or anyone in your family ever gone to jail?
Speaker 1:You asked me that question.
Speaker 2:It ties in with our topic today Snort laughed.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I'm proud to say I have never been to jail. Okay, now, there's no condemnation. If you have been to jail and you are now, you know, saved and redeemed and you forgiven, but I have never been to jail, I will say I can't, say I don't there's no way that Don't say the person.
Speaker 2:Okay. So let everybody wonder who it is.
Speaker 1:So there was some person in my very close family One time got caught stealing bubble gum. But let's, let's just say that this person was like maybe nine years old, eight, nine little little young, okay, okay, bubble gum, bubble gum, and and and condoms. Oh my good lord, I think that's what he stole and yeah, yeah. So here's the thing that happened. Another person in our family who was trying to teach this young person a lesson, um, marched him may, had the police take him to the, to the police station, and like, did the whole thing? I mean, they didn't arrest him. Obviously he was a child and and we paid for it and whatever happened.
Speaker 2:But, um, but my, they wanted to put the, the bejeebies in him. Yeah, yeah, they wanted to show him.
Speaker 1:My dad. My dad was like I need to show this child of mine, who's not me, the seriousness of this, and so he actually asked the policeman to like do the things. Obviously it was a fake thing, but yeah, he went down to the police station and they did all the things you know, kind of faked it Okay. So the big question is did it work? Did it work? Well, he never actually landed in real jail. So Okay, that's good yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes, that is good, so I don't, I guess it did work?
Speaker 1:I don't know, but I remember it, I was. I was a child too, but I remember thinking, oh my goodness.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What's happening right now Happening. Oh my. So yeah, that's well. I don't know if we should put that in the podcast or not, but it's kind of a funny story. Now.
Speaker 2:I think it's okay you didn't put any names and that person probably will never, ever, in a million years, listen to this podcast.
Speaker 1:So we're going with it. We're going with it.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that this is a topic that is super important to all of us, because, whether we have actually landed in jail or not, we are all guilty of some sin, right, whether it's like prosecutable or not, we're all guilty of some sin before God, and how?
Speaker 1:many of y'all have stolen bubble gum.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have to say that I was a kid and I stole one time those little I don't they don't even have them anymore. You remember in in the classroom we did. You would do like these, these boards. The teacher would have a board and they'd put like words and and images and stuff. They would like pin them onto these boards and then they, the boards, would have a border.
Speaker 2:I don't even know what you would call those borders, but I stole a roll of that border paper once from like Winn-Dixie you know what I'm talking about. I like put it in my purse. It's kind of like, because I was like, yeah, like the crate paper, yeah, yes, yes, why, I have no idea. I guess I liked it, I liked the idea, I guess I liked it, I liked the. Maybe I wanted to make a poster board in my room, but I got so convicted about that.
Speaker 2:So so I mean, whether you've stolen anything or not, you know we have all. Everybody has lied. You know we have all sinned oh, so many sins, so many and right so many sins and fallen short of the glory of God. And, as we know, god is a God of justice and righteousness and we have fallen short of that righteousness and his justice demands some sort of recompense for that, for each and every time we've fallen short, and that's kind of a sobering thought. We talked about justice a little bit last week, but we're going to talk about it a little bit more this week because it is such an integral part of who God is, because only God is completely righteous and because of his righteousness can carry out justice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, and we do focus a lot we talked about this in a previous episode this month about his mercy and his grace, and that is who he is. But then there's also this component of justice that has to be satisfied and sometimes we don't like thinking about that aspect of God, but it's just as important to his character, it's just as essential as the mercy. It's like I heard a story one time of like you've got a fence and I might get this wrong. You've got a fence and you break the fence, you drive through it, you break the fence, the fence is broken, right? Well, somebody has to pay for that fence. Somebody has to pay the price to fix the fence.
Speaker 1:It's either you or the owner of the fence, but the price has to be paid. And it's like we have sinned against God. We have, we've broken the, we've busted the fence, and that price has to be paid. And either we have to pay it which we can never do, we could never become righteous and holy on our own or or or it has to be paid for us, and that's what happened on the Christ on the cross. So, even though there's this justice component, we are still and we deserve the wrath of God, because he is just. We have this beautiful righteousness that you know we could never have apart from Christ, and yet he pays the price. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's really amazing to think that he what's right for you may not be right for me is true. If that's true, then justice is also very subjective. Like there's no standard for justice if there's no standard for righteousness and I think it's important for us as believers to know there is a standard of righteousness and God is the one and only one who sets that standard. We don't set that standard. It's not different for me as it is for you. Like, the standard of righteousness is set by God and it's not negotiable. And this is a message, it's core and it seems so basic, but I think it's one.
Speaker 2:Like I struggle with this with my kids. Even last night we had a discussion on whether Bonhoeffer was correct in trying to assassinate Hitler. Right, we had this whole discussion last night and some of these moral things came into play into this discussion. Some of these moral things came into play into this discussion. So I have these conversations with my kids often, but even at church this past Sunday, in our small group, it came up again because there were people in there who are believers, who want to do God's will, who are like, well, maybe what's right for you isn't what's right for me, or maybe what's truth for you isn't what's right for me, or maybe what's truth for you may may not be truth for me, and so it's kind of this thinking weaves into our Christian culture so subtly that you know it's subjective. Righteousness is subjective and we just we can't allow that to really sway our understanding of a biblical righteousness. You know that is set by god right, right, well, and you know you.
Speaker 1:You said it's foundational and the word even says that in Psalm. What is this? I'm looking at 89. Psalm 89, 13 says you have a mighty arm, strong as your hand, high your right hand. But then 14, 89, 14 says righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. So that's the first half of that verse. But then the second half steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. So it all ties in together. But that's righteousness and His justice. They are foundational. The Word says it. They are the foundation of your throne. And you're right. We live in such a wishy-washy world that wants to choose their own truth and what really is just and what is not. And it is so important for us to go to the foundation of the throne and know that it is the God who is just. That is the. That's where the arrow should point, should point straight to the truth, which is his truth.
Speaker 2:And I think, ultimately, the reason why this is so important, the reason why understanding God as the author of right and wrong is so important, is that without that, we will not see ourselves as sinners and we will not see ourselves in need of a savior. So we will miss out on salvation, we will miss out on eternal security in Jesus Christ because we think we're okay and we don't need it. But if we recognize God is the standard and the author of righteousness and we have fallen short of that standard, then we are able to see ourselves in need of the salvation he graciously supplies. So that is why it's so important for us to understand and to give Him that authorship.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's true. And that gets us back to the fact that we are, in fact, if we're standing before a just God, in our sinful state, which we talked about at the very beginning, we are worthy of damnation, we're worthy of death, we're worthy of nothing more than that in our sinful state, and that is where the gospel comes into play. Sinful state, and that is where the gospel comes into play. When we recognize that, like AJ said, we recognize that we can't and we can't do it alone, we can't do it in and of ourselves. When we recognize that, that's when we fully rely on Christ, who came in order to satisfy, who came in order to satisfy, came in order to satisfy that wrath and to appease a God who is just. And that is the only way we can do. It is by trusting in Him.
Speaker 1:And I think that it's important to know that this is, like I said, part of God's character. We've talked about His character and you cannot separate Him from these things. And then you can't separate these characteristics from God's love, and sometimes, when we think of the judge God and the wrathful God, we forget that the reason for that is because of His love for us, because, like AJ said, we wouldn't recognize our need. But also, if he were not 100% just not 100% righteous, then we couldn't trust in his 100% love. It's all so important. His love is always just, it's always righteous and it's all together, interconnected together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think there's an important word it's one of those gospel words that you don't talk about outside of church, but the word justification. It really ties into his justice and his righteousness too, because justification you know, I'm sure you guys have may have heard the phrase just as if I'd never sinned. So it's like we stand blameless in the sight of God when he reckons us as justified. But the thing about that is God has made each and every one of us to need justification, and a lot of us will give it to ourselves. We will justify ourselves, we'll justify our actions. I mean, I have one child who it doesn't matter how big or how small it is this child constantly justifies herself and her actions. And I've tried to use that as a teaching point to say you know what You're trying to give yourself your own justification, but Christ's justification on your behalf is what you really need to turn to. Just admit that you were wrong. Admit that you were wrong and receive the justification that's available in Christ.
Speaker 2:And that is a message that each and every one of us needs to grab a hold of, because our tendency and we see this in culture our tendency is to come up with a law that justifies our sin, right? Oh, now we've passed a law that says I can do X Y Z it's now morally acceptable. Law that says I can do X Y Z it's now morally acceptable. And we come up with ways that we can overwrite God's law and God's rules and God's standard of righteousness so that we can be accepted and not condemned by peers around us or by social networks or by cultural law. By the legal system. We will do anything and everything except confess our sin and acknowledge before God that we are fallen. And yet confessing and acknowledging that sin is the only way that we can be justified by God and receive true justification. So I think that just understanding the ways we need God's justice and we need to be justified personally, and the ways that we maybe look for it in other, inferior ways, that's just been a real eye opener for me personally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think it's just part of understanding who he is, who God is, and trying to wrap our brains around those aspects of Him. So it leaves us, when we start to understand these things more, we're freer to live a life of grace, to recognize that all of this is who God is and we can trust Him. We can trust Him because we know that he is just when we are feeling like injustice is going unpunished. We know that he is fully just when we remember that our injustice was reconciled during the process of justification. Then we can live in grace.
Speaker 1:So I completely agree, it's not an easy topic to put in a nice little bow, a tidy bow, but that's also part of the reason why I need to reflect on it and think on it more, so that I can worship. And it should bring us to a point of worship when we think of these things and we think of God's goodness and God's love and God's mercy, His justice and His righteousness. When we think about these characteristics of God, it should bring us to a place of worship and praise and gratitude for that justification and continual walking in that day by day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because ultimately it does lead us back to the cross and that was God's answer to his need for justice and his need to show compassion and love and grace. They're both combined right there and it really is very sobering and it's liberating and it's joy inspiring. You know, that's ultimately where we land is with the cross and the precious blood of.
Speaker 1:Christ. Yeah, he pays for the fence that we broke. That's right, okay? Well, as always, we're going to challenge you to dig a little deeper in this. Think about justice and righteousness as characteristics of god. Look it up in in your bible, see what scriptures point to that and kind of reflect on it. Meditate on it this week. If you are a member of sojo or you want to join us in sojo, this is what we are looking at this week. If you are a member of Sojo or you want to join us in Sojo, this is what we are looking at this week and we are we're finishing up this series on the characteristics of God and starting something brand new coming up next week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we are. Do you want to do you want to give us a sneak peek? Or do we even know what it is? Yet we didn't know what it is.
Speaker 1:We've looked at the characteristics of God and we're going to look at a little bit of the life of Christ or the work of Christ. We're going to really focus in on Christ in February and we're going to do that by looking at one of the Gospels, the Gospel of Mark, and it's going to be good times. It's going to be that by looking at the one of the gospels gospel of mark, and it's going to be good times.
Speaker 2:It's going to be good times. There's a lot there. A lot, yeah, there's a. There's definitely a lot there, but you can't really get any better than than looking at the person of christ. In my opinion, yeah, exactly so.
Speaker 1:So this is part of our foundations in first quarter of 2025, looking at the character of God, looking at the life of Christ and next, and so we're going to continue to build and strengthen that foundation that we have and grow in faith and love for Him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, we invite you guys to join us inside Sojo Academy. If you are not a member, you can find out how to do that at sojoacademycom, and otherwise we will be back here with another episode next week. See you then. Bye everybody.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Sojo Show. We are so grateful that you did and we're so thankful for the opportunity to spread the good news of the gospel in such a fun and unique way. If you enjoyed the show, we'd love it if you would leave us a rating or review wherever you're listening to this podcast or subscribe to the show. Also, tell your friends. That's the number one way we get people finding out about who we are, and we really appreciate you sharing Sojo Show. We'll be back every Monday digging into the truth of God's word, sharing, laughing, glorifying God in all that we do and, hopefully, encouraging women from all over the world in the truth of the gospel. Talk to you, then.
