The ideal person to deal with in any situation is someone who does what is righteous and just as commanded by God.
Would you like to have grown up in a family in which your parents and siblings and extended family who lived with you, were always loving, generous, peaceful, and faithful? If that was not the case, it was because one or more members of your family failed to do what is right as commanded by God.
Would you like to live in a town where all your neighbors and all the city officials and employees were law-abiding, honest, responsible, and servant-hearted? If that is not the case where you live, it is because your neighbors are not doing what is just and right as commanded by God.
Would you like to work for a company in which the leaders and your colleagues are generous, fair, honest, treating others as they want others to treat them? If that is not the case where you are employed, it is because your colleagues are not doing what is just and right as commanded by God.
Would you like to do business with a company—buying or selling, using their services—whose employees are diligent, honest, respectful, and fair? If that is not the case where you do business, it is because you deal with a company that has policies and employees that are not just and right as commanded by God.
Would you like to be married to someone who—okay, you get the idea. The point is, the ideal person to deal with in any situation is someone who does what is right and just as commanded by God. That is why God commanded these behaviors. That is one reason why all God’s commands are good. And that is why a holy God is passionately concerned about righteousness and justice.
Righteous and Just
To say God is holy is to say he is the sovereign creator who always does what is right and just and requires the same from the people he created. In fact, his character and will are the yardstick of righteousness and justice, and he will not compromise that standard for anyone.
Isaiah 5:16 says, “The LORD of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.”
For example, he gave to Israel the Ten Commandments and hundreds of laws based on them to reveal what righteousness and justice looked like in daily life and to establish righteousness and justice as the norm for his holy people. Honor your parents. Do not murder or commit adultery or steal or lie or be greedy. And so on. He insisted that his people live in the way that is right and just.
He commanded his people to be generous to the poor, the alien, the widow, and the orphan, and not to oppress them. The Lord upholds the cause of the weak and needy, and defends the oppressed. Psalm 68:5 says the Lord is “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows.”
The righteous judge
God does not stop at giving commandments; he also holds people responsible for how they respond to those righteous and just commandments. He is the Judge of all. As the Creator of all people, he alone has the right, and the infinite knowledge and power, to hold each person morally accountable for their conduct. Therefore because he is holy, he punishes evildoers and rewards the righteous.
Ezekiel 28:22 says, “They shall know that I am the LORD when I execute judgments in her [the city-state of Sidon] and manifest my holiness in her.”
Isaiah 33:22 “The LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver; the LORD is our king; he will save us.”
Romans 2:6 says, “He will render to each one according to his works.”
For example, the Lord punished Cain for murdering his brother Abel (Genesis 4). He judged King Ahab and his wife Jezebel for stealing the vineyard of their neighbor Naboth and killing him (1 Kings 21). He providentially ordered events in astounding ways so that Haman, the oppressor of the Jews, would be hanged on the gallows he had built to execute Mordecai (Esther 3–7).
God is the righteous judge of every person, city, and nation.
Final Judgment
Because he is righteous and just, he will someday bring an end to this current evil age, and he as Holy One will conduct a Final Judgment Day. He will then with perfect fairness and all knowledge judge every person who has ever lived. He will call each person to account who ever wronged you. And he will reward you for every good thing you have ever done, no matter how insignificant or small it seemed at the time. He will bring everything into the light and give every thought, word, and deed its just reward or punishment. He will then create a new heavens and earth in which there is perfect righteousness and justice for all.
Psalm 9:7–8 says, “The LORD sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness.”
It is good that the world is ultimately run according to God’s justice and righteousness, and that God will ultimately judge all people and happenings. Good people want to live in a place where people do what is right. Only criminals, lawbreakers, and those who hate God want a world without righteousness and justice and the Holy One who alone can sustain them through his laws and judgments. God’s holy justice and righteousness make possible peace, prosperity, and happiness for all his people.
How should we live?
Given God’s holy insistence on what is right and just, how should we live?
1. We should obey God’s holy, moral law. We should love our neighbor as we love ourselves, treating others as we want to be treated. (Romans 13:8–10)
Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21–23)
2. We should obey human laws (that do not counter God’s laws). (Romans 13:1–7)
3. We should help the needy and weak, defend them from others who would exploit them, and not take advantage of them ourselves.
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction” (James 1:27).
(Matthew 25:31–46)
4. We should live in light of the Final Judgment, which will be the most important day in our lives. On this day God’s righteousness and justice will be on full, ultimate display, and if we have not prepared for it, we will be sorry. (2 Corinthians 5:10)
5. To be ready for the Final Judgment, we must believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ to receive the forgiveness of sins. Only through faith in Christ will God justify anyone, for only Jesus is the Son of God, and only he died as a substitute for our sins to satisfy completely the justice and righteousness of a holy God. (See Romans 3:9–26. John 3:1–21; 35–36. Ephesians 2:1–10)
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)