The Justice of God
"The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He.”—Deuteronomy 32:4
Justice. In our world we long for justice. One need only watch the evening news to hear the cries of justice echoing from the hearts of men and women across the world. Our world is knee deep in injustice. We have seen such atrocities as the holocaust, genocides in Armenia and Rwanda, along with numerous other perversions of justice by megalomaniacal dictators and corrupt governments. Injustice is rampant in our world, but within the person of God, injustice does not exist.
God is just and all of His ways are justice. While we may try to be just, we can never know an individual entirely or a situation exhaustively. We are limited in our perspective. The daily headlines read about convicted killers set free because DNA, available until only recently, has proven their innocence thus exposing our own justice system’s fallibility. But, not so with God—He never makes a mistake and only He can know the thoughts and intentions of the heart, the inner motivation of the will, and whether a person is innocent or guilty. Why? Because He alone can see our hearts and He is the standard of justice. It is only by knowing God that we can most accurately understand the concept of justice, for God is the perfect standard whereby we know what is right, and also, conversely, we know what is wrong.
God is not compelled to be just, as if there were something that made Him do one thing or another. No, He just is just. He will judge every act of wickedness and knows every thought of the heart. There is nothing hidden form His sight, and there is nothing He doesn’t know about us. When He makes a judgment it is perfectly right. And when God judges us for our sin, there will be no arguing, no technicalities to get us off, and no appeals. He is the perfect standard of justice and we can rest in it, knowing that He will judge wickedness and will reward righteousness. We know that by ourselves even our righteous acts are not righteous in the sight of God. Our righteous acts could not satisfy God’s justice. Christ paid the price God’s justice required—death. And because of His perfect life, atoning death, and resurrection from the dead, we are made new. May we rest in His justice knowing that every wicked deed will be punished, as well as every righteous deed done in the name of Jesus Christ rewarded. Amen.
Justice. In our world we long for justice. One need only watch the evening news to hear the cries of justice echoing from the hearts of men and women across the world. Our world is knee deep in injustice. We have seen such atrocities as the holocaust, genocides in Armenia and Rwanda, along with numerous other perversions of justice by megalomaniacal dictators and corrupt governments. Injustice is rampant in our world, but within the person of God, injustice does not exist.
God is just and all of His ways are justice. While we may try to be just, we can never know an individual entirely or a situation exhaustively. We are limited in our perspective. The daily headlines read about convicted killers set free because DNA, available until only recently, has proven their innocence thus exposing our own justice system’s fallibility. But, not so with God—He never makes a mistake and only He can know the thoughts and intentions of the heart, the inner motivation of the will, and whether a person is innocent or guilty. Why? Because He alone can see our hearts and He is the standard of justice. It is only by knowing God that we can most accurately understand the concept of justice, for God is the perfect standard whereby we know what is right, and also, conversely, we know what is wrong.
God is not compelled to be just, as if there were something that made Him do one thing or another. No, He just is just. He will judge every act of wickedness and knows every thought of the heart. There is nothing hidden form His sight, and there is nothing He doesn’t know about us. When He makes a judgment it is perfectly right. And when God judges us for our sin, there will be no arguing, no technicalities to get us off, and no appeals. He is the perfect standard of justice and we can rest in it, knowing that He will judge wickedness and will reward righteousness. We know that by ourselves even our righteous acts are not righteous in the sight of God. Our righteous acts could not satisfy God’s justice. Christ paid the price God’s justice required—death. And because of His perfect life, atoning death, and resurrection from the dead, we are made new. May we rest in His justice knowing that every wicked deed will be punished, as well as every righteous deed done in the name of Jesus Christ rewarded. Amen.
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