Justice is getting what you deserve.
Grace is God’s mercy sparing you from getting what you deserve.
The residents of Malta understand justice as getting what you deserve. When they see Paul be bitten by a snake after he escaped from the sea, they say to themselves,
“This man must be a murderer; though he escaped from the sea, justice had not allowed him to live.”
After Paul shakes the snake off and suffers no ill effects from its bite, they change their mind and think he must be a god.
I imagine Paul using this episode to help them understand the relationship between justice and grace.
As human beings we all stand guilty before God for the manifold sins we have committed. We deserve punishment but God’s grace in Jesus Christ forgives our sins and reconciles us into a right relationship with God.
