God’s justice and holiness are aspects of his goodness.
After exploring for several weeks (beginning here) the goodness of God’s holiness, we now turn to the aspect of God’s holiness that may have been the first thing that came to your mind when you think of the holiness of God: his judgments. Because God is holy, he judges evildoers.
God’s justice and holiness are aspects of his goodness
God’s justice is actually a necessary part of his perfect goodness. A good person cannot be indifferent or passive regarding evil. A good person cannot be unjust. And God is 100 percent good, so he must be 100 percent just.
For example, if someone is walking down Madison street and sees someone being robbed at gunpoint on the other side of the street, but does nothing about it—not calling the police but rather turning and running away to protect himself—that is bad. That is neglecting one’s responsibility to another person in need.
Similarly, if a person is a registered voter, and there is an election with moral issues at stake, but that person doesn’t bother to vote, that is moral negligence. He or she is contributing to evil in society by failing to act to prevent it. A truly good person is not passive or indifferent about any moral situation.
This is particularly so with someone who has the role of a judge in society. A good judge must uphold justice by condemning evildoers. A judge who ignores the laws and its punishments, who thinks he is being compassionate by regularly releasing murderers, thieves, rapists, corrupt politicians, lawless corporate executives and financiers, and drug dealers without punishment is not being compassionate to the past victims of their crimes, or to future victims of their crimes, or to society as a whole as law and order break down, and law-abiding citizens live in fear.
God’s justice and holiness require punishment of evil deeds
But justice is about more than protecting law-abiding people from predatory people. Justice requires punishment for its own sake. Justice requires that evildoers reap what they sow. God has created a moral universe where there are rewards and consequences for how a person acts, morally or immorally.
So, justice demands that an evildoer not only be kept from harming others in the future but also that the evildoer suffer punishment for doing evil. For that reason, putting an evildoer in a prison that kept him or her from society but provided a paradise of luxury living with gourmet food, daily live entertainment, and so on, would not be just. That would be rewarding evildoing. Justice requires negative consequences for evildoing.
I’m laboring this point because this is one idea Western culture has trouble embracing. Our culture does not like to punish evil-doing except in the most extreme cases, and this reluctance is a fault. It is unjust. It is this uneasiness with punishment that leads some people to dislike that God punishes evildoers.
Why many people disagree with God’s justice and holiness
This uneasiness with punishment can stem from noble impulses. We don’t want to be hypocrites, and we know we all fail in one way or another, and so we can feel hypocritical about punishing others when that means we also deserve punishment in some area of our lives. What’s more, we want to be compassionate, and it does not feel compassionate to inflict punishment on others, even evildoers. Moreover, we want to do to others what we want done to us, and we all want mercy for ourselves, not judgment.
The effect of all this is, the more aware we are of our own faults, the less willing we will be to punish others for similar faults, or for any faults. So, as our culture becomes increasingly immoral, we have become increasingly unable to dispense justice and punishment. People in our culture are confused about justice and uncomfortable with punishment.
And therefore, people are confused about God, who is the judge of all because he is the creator of all. People have trouble embracing the One who is perfect justice and righteousness. Therefore, we can be uncomfortable with God’s holiness. This is particularly the case when we realize that we or someone we care about deserves to receive punishment. Then we have skin in the game, and we lose impartiality.
How Scripture links God’s justice and holiness
Having laid this introduction, we come finally to the Scriptures. Because there is so much injustice and evil in the world, the Bible often and rightly talks about God’s holy judgments, for example:
From the Old Testament: “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Sidon, and I will manifest my glory in your midst. And they shall know that I am the LORD when I execute judgments in her and manifest my holiness in her; for I will send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets; and the slain shall fall in her midst, by the sword that is against her on every side. Then they will know that I am the LORD’” (Ezekiel 28:22–26).
From the New Testament: “And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, ‘Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments’” (Revelation 16:5).
This is God being good—doing what a good judge must do. Holy means good, and good means just.
God is never cruel; he is always perfectly just, and perfect justice is often severe, toward severe evil, and sometimes violent, for the wages of sin is death; this is not because God loves violence but because he is perfectly good, perfectly just, perfectly holy.
Our ways versus God’s ways
Our ways: We are for justice as long as nobody gets hurt, especially not we and people we care about, and especially not people who seem nice even though they break God’s moral laws.
God’s ways: God is completely, impartially just. He never compromises justice—never ever—because he is perfectly good. He always does what is right. But in holiness he has made a way to be both just and merciful: through the Cross of Jesus Christ. Through the Cross of Jesus, justice is completely satisfied, and at the Cross, mercy is offered to all who will believe and follow Jesus.