Tag: God’s justice

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God’s Righteousness and Justice

The ideal person to deal with in any situation is someone who does what is righteous and just as commanded by God.

righteous and just

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)

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God’s Compassion for the Lost

God's compassion for the lost

God seeks and saves the lost.

Imagine a man who doubles as a judge and social worker. By day he wears a black robe and dispenses justice. By night he wears blue jeans and walks the sidewalks of his crime-ridden city, befriending as many gang members and drug addicts as possible, hopefully to redeem their lives. On weekends he visits prisoners in the penitentiary, giving life-coaching and helping convicts care for their families and prepare to return someday to society as upstanding citizens. On holidays he volunteers at the hospital emergency room counseling with people experiencing drug overdoses.

Although he judges criminals according to the requirements of the law, he also loves criminals. In love he seeks criminals to help them. In love he saves those willing to be saved.

In a similar way, God is both Judge and Savior. Because of his love, he does not want to condemn sinners. Because of his love, he does not want anyone to perish, but all to be saved. And so, because of his love, he seeks and saves the lost.

God’s compassion for the lost

This is what we learn about God from the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus both taught it and lived it. He went from town to town preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, delivering people from demons. Thereby he demonstrated God’s love. He did not come to judge, but to save.

Seeking and saving one notorious sinner

One incident especially brought this into perfect focus. As Jesus walked with his disciples and a crowd of people through one town, Jesus suddenly stopped, looked up into a tree, and spoke to a man who had climbed it to see Jesus as he passed by.

The man was a notorious sinner, one of the hated Jewish tax collectors who in greed had betrayed his people in order to work for the Romans and cheated his own neighbors by demanding more than they were required to pay.

Lunch with scoundrels

Well, Jesus invited himself over for lunch, and the tax collector cheerfully brought him home. He not only brought home Jesus and the 12 disciples, he invited all his tax collector friends. In no time, the man, whose name was Zacchaeus, believed in Jesus and was ready to repent of his evil. He stood up and announced, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”

Like a perfectly ripe apple ready to be picked and eaten, Zacchaeus had been a sinful soul just waiting for a Savior.

One lost soul does an about-face

Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:8–10 ESV).

In this story Jesus demonstrated his gracious, uncondemning love for sinners, and then as some in the crowd complained about it, he explained God’s love unequivocally: “The Son of Man [Jesus] came to seek and to save the lost.”

This was the purpose of Jesus and this is the purpose of the Father. When you see Jesus, you see the Father (John 14:9).

The compassionate heart of a savior

Elsewhere Scripture says, “God our Savior…desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3–4).

Stated another way, the Lord is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Scripture specifically attributes God’s soul-saving desire to his love: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16–17).

Jesus’ mission of compassion

In the early stage of Jesus’ ministry, he stood up in a synagogue to read Scripture. He chose a text that was a prophetic description of the ministry of the Messiah. Jesus read it as a statement of his mission. It reveals the loving sympathy God has for sinners. Even though they have brought suffering on themselves through their wrongdoing, they are truly experiencing all manner of torment, and the God of love cares for those who suffer. So, Jesus reads:

“‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’

“And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’” (Luke 4:18–21).

In other words, Jesus said, that’s me. That’s who I am. That’s who the Father is. That’s what we’re about. We care about the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed.

God’s compassion for Satan’s victims

God has compassionate love for suffering sinners. He wants to save them from what destroys them.

Scripture says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

Jesus demonstrated this with a crippled woman who for 18 years had been unable to stand up straight. Scripture says, “She had had a disabling spirit”; that is, a demon had caused this affliction. Jesus laid his hands on her and healed her instantly.

When the synagogue ruler objected because it was the Sabbath, Jesus said, “Ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” (See Luke 13:10–17).

This woman was not perfect. She had sinned in many ways as all people do. Yet God had compassion for her suffering inflicted by Satan. In love he wanted to set her free.

Three parables of love that saves

On another occasion, “the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him,” and the religious leaders again objected to Jesus’ welcoming them. Jesus defended his actions with three parables that emphasize the love of God that seeks and saves the lost.

The first parable told of a shepherd who lost one of his sheep and therefore left the ninety-nine to hunt for it until he found it.

The second parable described a woman who lost a coin and therefore swept the house thoroughly until she found it.

The third parable told of a father whose son took his inheritance and left the family. After the son ruined his life and decided to return, Jesus emphasizes the love of the father, which he demonstrated by his joy over the salvation of his son:

“The father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’” (Luke 15:22–24).

God acts as both judge and savior

The Old Testament Scriptures frequently show God acting as first the righteous judge and afterward the compassionate savior of people from his very judgment. This is the plotline of the books of Judges and all the prophetic books from Isaiah to Malachi.

One prophet wrote, “Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up” (Hosea 6:1).

The prophet Jeremiah lived through the judgment God brought on Israel when he brought Assyria to conquer the nation and carry them into exile. In the wake of all the sorrow that entailed, Jeremiah wrote of the Lord: “Though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love” (Lamentations 3:32).

Our way and God’s way

Our way: In a world of suffering and evil, fallen people often question God’s love.

God’s way: God’s heart is moved with compassion for suffering people, even when they are suffering for their sins against God. The gospel perfectly reveals God’s love as a seeking and saving love for lost sinners. His love does not want anyone to perish, but for all to be saved.

The great irony is that God compassionately seeks and saves sinners from his own judgment. God saves sinners from God’s wrath! He is both Judge of those who are not willing to be saved and loving Savior of those who are willing to be saved.

Life principle: When you feel completely unworthy of God, he loves you still. He seeks you as you are in your sins and wants to save you from them. He will certainly receive you if you will turn from sin in repentance and trust in Jesus Christ.

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)

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Why the World Needs God’s Justice

If there is no law, there is no justice. If there is no justice, there is unrestrained evil. Ultimately, the choice is God’s justice or no justice.

God's justice

Imagine living in a place ruled by a weak government led by corrupt officials bribed by competing drug warlords. The cruelty and greed of the warlords is beyond comprehension. No one is safe, not children, not women, not the old, not the weak. Children are kidnapped for ransom or sold into trafficking. Women are raped in public. Men who resist paying extortion to maintain their farms or businesses disappear. Money, power, and violence reign.

Then a beautiful thing happens. Somehow a man becomes president who has the strength, courage, and virtue to oppose the warlords, corrupt judges, legislators, and policemen. He announces, “From this day forward, our nation will be ruled by law and by justice. No one will be above the law, not me, not the warlords or their soldiers, not the judges of our courts nor the police in the streets. Law and justice will rule, not bribery, not money, not power.”

Remarkably, in the months and years that follow, he keeps his promise. He removes every judge from office and appoints new judges sworn to refuse bribes—judges of integrity and courage who love and uphold the law.

The president likewise replaces every person in the police force, top to bottom, with policemen of integrity and courage who love and uphold the law and hate bribes.

Likewise with the legislature.

And over a period of just a few years, the nation is transformed into a place of justice, peace, and human flourishing.

Without God’s justice, evil is unrestrained

If you lived as one of the common people in this land, how would you feel about the law? How would you feel about justice? Only if you have lived in a place like I have described could you fully appreciate the precious value of law and justice. This story illustrates the value of what is called the rule of law.

One of the pillars of the gospel is the importance of law and justice.

What the gospel reveals about God is his love of law and justice.

He says, “I the LORD love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense” (Isaiah 61:8 ESV).

Isaiah 33:22 says, “The LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver; the LORD is our king; he will save us.”

The ultimate law-giver and judge

He is the law giver and justice enforcer.

James 4:12 says, “There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy.”

Both God’s law-giving and justice-enforcing are perfectly good, for he alone is perfectly good. He has the wisdom and goodness to frame perfect laws. He has the power and righteousness to enforce them. He has the commitment to justice to see that all wrongs are made right, that all transgressions of the law are called into account, that in the end justice is perfectly done.

These actions are the essentials for having a society where a good person can live forever in perfect peace, prosperity, and happiness. Law and justice uphold perfect, sustainable order and paradise, a world where humans can flourish.

How Jesus satisfied God’s justice

God’s design for the gospel stands on the truths of law and justice. The reason Jesus Christ had to die on the cross was to satisfy the requirements of God’s law and justice. God would not set aside his law and justice in order to save sinners. Even his infinite mercy would not allow him to do so. Law and justice are too important for that.

Jesus emphasized that the purpose of his human life was to fulfill God’s holy law:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17–18).

Jesus fulfilled the law by being accountable to it: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). And Jesus kept the law perfectly: “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22).

For our part, without Jesus we are completely unable to measure up to the requirements of God’s holy law:

“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:19–20).

The message of the gospel is that Jesus has taken the penalty that God’s holy law demands of transgressors:

“10 ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’… 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (Galatians 3:10, 13).

The centrality of law in a world of justice

The Bible reveals in many ways God’s love of creating and giving what should be life-producing laws.

On Mount Sinai, after God had saved his people from Egypt, he began to form them into a nation. He gave Moses two tablets of stone engraved with Ten Commandments intended to maintain a just and good nation.

In the Tabernacle and eventually in the permanent Temple, in the most sacred 400 square feet on earth—the Holy of Holies—sat the holiest object in the Temple, the Ark of the Covenant, and what was contained in that Ark? The two stone tablets on which were engraved these foundational Ten Commandments. The unmistakable message is the centrality of God’s Law.

Based on them, God gave hundreds of other specific commands that fleshed the laws out in the many situations that life presents.

Looking back from the New Covenant perspective, the apostle Paul wrote, “The law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (Romans 7:12).

Our way and God’s way

Our way: Shackled with our fallen sinful nature, no one can perfectly obey God’s law. In fact, we don’t want to. Humanity resents, resists, and ignores God’s law.

Western culture has almost completely forgotten and rejected the idea that there is a divine law to which every person is accountable. In place of God and his justice, people have substituted ideas such as naturalism (there is no God, just matter), “spirituality,” and “mindfulness,” or a deistic God who is uninvolved or indifferent to things on earth, or a non-judgmental God of love who simply wants to make people happy.

One of the most offensive ideas to people today is that anyone—including God—judges anyone. People don’t like feeling guilt and reject anything or anyone who makes them feel guilty.

God’s way: “Say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity’” (Psalm 96:10).

“He has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).

God sent his Son to become a man, who obeyed the law perfectly and then died on the cross to take our penalty for transgressing God’s law.

Life principle: Through faith in Jesus, our transgressions of God’s law are forgiven, and God credits the perfect law-keeping of Jesus to us. “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (Galatians 3:11).

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)