The Justice of God

Big Idea: God's justice demands that he judge sin, yet he offers salvation through Christ's sacrifice.

In his book Our God is Awesome, Tony Evans poses a thought-provoking question: What would you think of a father who didn't warn his children about danger? What would you think of a friend who saw you heading toward danger but did nothing to prevent it? What if a doctor knew you had a serious illness but just recommended taking two aspirin and resting? What if a police officer saw smoke coming from your roof or burglars breaking into your home but didn’t inform anyone?

Then he asks: What do you think about a pastor who speaks of God's love, forgiveness, and patience but never mentions his wrath? I'll give you his answer: "That pastor would be doing you a great disservice."

This morning I'd like to examine one of the less popular characteristics of God: his justice. God's justice can be simply defined as God always doing what is right. God is just.

The Two Sides of God's Justice

Let's first look at the positive aspects of God's justice before exploring the more challenging dimension of his attitude toward sin.

First, the good news.

God is just. He always does what is right. In fact, so many passages in the Bible call God righteous, it's hard to know where to begin.

For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face. (Psalms 11:7)

Righteous are you, O LORD, and your laws are right. (Psalms 119:137)

Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever. (Psalms 111:3)

God's justice means that every decision God every makes is a good and right decision. Furthermore, every single law that God has ever spoken into existence is a good law.

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. (Psalms 19:7)

We can have confidence that even though we might not understand God, everything that he does is right. As Abraham says in Genesis 18:25: "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25).

I love talking about this part of God's justice, because it means that God plays fair. As Bill Hybels says:

God isn't swayed by the color of our skin, the size of our office, or the amount of our tithe check. His laws are "equal opportunity" and apply across the board. There is no discrimination, and no affirmative action either – just all-around, perfect righteousness. Every law protects us from harming ourselves, from harming or being harmed by others, or from squandering our lives and eternities. Each one emanates from an inherently righteous core and applies the same regardless of our gender, our age, our religious affiliation, or our heritage.

Moses could say of God: He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. (Deuteronomy 32:4) God is holy and just, and he only does what is right. It would be very comfortable to stop here, but there's the flip side to this. And I wouldn't be a very good pastor if I didn't give you the full story.

The other side of the story is this: God intensely hates sin.

God loves all that is right and good, and everything that conforms to his character. But let's be honest and say that God hates everything that is opposed to his moral character. God hates sin. This begins to get a bit troublesome, because it affects you and me. God strongly opposes all sin.

Because of his own righteousness, and the justice of his law, God must judge sin. There's no way around it. The Greek word for wrath indicates God's displeasure at sin and his judgment against it. Don't go thinking that God throws temper tantrums, or blows up like we do, but make no mistake about it: God is angry against sin. Against big sins and little sins. All sin is repulsive to him.

Did you know that God hates sin? His hatred of sin is intense and perfect. He can't stand sin. Psalm 5:4-6 says:

You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong. You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the LORD abhors. (Psalms 5:4-6)

The idea of God's wrath appears over and over in the Bible; you just can't ignore it.

The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies. (Nahum 1:2)

Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him. (Nahum 1:6)

Many believe God is judgmental in the Old Testament and loving in the New Testament, but he never changes. The New Testament speaks over and over again of God's wrath:

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John 3:36)

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. (Romans 1:18)

God hates sin. The good news is that God always does right. The bad news is that he hates sin, and we're sinners.

Understanding God's Wrath

Let's explore the idea of God's wrath a bit further.

God wouldn't be just if he wasn't angry at sin.

Are you sickened when you hear of men who beat their wives? Are you outraged when you hear about children who are molested? What about when someone preys on the elderly and robs them of their life savings? If we're outraged when we see injustice, imagine what goes on in the mind of an intrinsically righteous God! Part of God's justice is that he hates evil. You love righteousness and hate wickedness. (Psalms 45:7) One aspect of God's goodness is the positive that God does. But the other aspect of God's goodness is his negative reaction to evil. This demonstrates God's justice. God wouldn't be just if he wasn't outraged at sin.

We also need to understand how God reacts to sin.

Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. (Romans 11:22)

If your theology doesn't include both the kindness and sternness of God, your theology is lacking. If you don't think that God negatively reacts to sin, just because God is kind and patient, you don't understand God. You haven't read the Bible! When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they got booted out of the Garden. God destroyed the whole world with a flood in the days of Noah because of sin. God sent fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah because of the sickening sin of those cities. God sent plague after plague on the Egyptians. When Israel sinned, he said to Moses:

I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation. (Exodus 32:9-10)

When Jesus bore the sins of the world, God unleashed the fury of his eternal wrath on his only Son. If God's sinless Son didn't even escape God's wrath, we had better take this seriously! "God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day" (Psalm 7:11). When we have evil thoughts or actions, it angers God, as His perfection requires a response to wrongdoing.

God's wrath is not only present today, but he is storing up his wrath for eternity:

But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. (Romans 2:5)

The Bible repeatedly mentions a future time when God will clearly show his wrath against sin. It states that the wicked will face eternal punishment and suffering far worse than any misery in this world. The Bible depicts hell as a dark place, a lake of fire, filled with weeping and gnashing of teeth. It signifies eternal separation from God's blessings, a prison of endless torment where there is no escape. And it is eternal.

If you emptied the Pacific Ocean, the largest body of water in the world, and piled it full of sand as high as Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, you would have a pretty big sand pile. Now suppose you got a bird and trained it to pick up one grain of sand every million years. How long would it take that bird to empty that sand pile? A long time. We probably don't have numbers to count that high. "But guess what? When that bird has picked up that last grain of sand, you will have only spent your first second in hell. That's what I call an eternity!" (Tony Evans)

Nobody likes to think about these things. I'd be lying if I said it didn't break my heart. As the Bible says:

For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:30-31)

But like all God's attributes, we should be thankful for his justice. Viewed alone, it's hard to be thankful for his justice and wrath, but what would God be like if he were a God who didn't hate sin? He would either be a God who delighted in sin or wasn't troubled by it, and such a God wouldn't be worthy of our worship.

I've left out the good news about God's wrath, and that's his patience.

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. (Psalms 103:8-10)

God has not unleashed his wrath on evil because he is waiting for more people to be saved from it.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

God doesn't come out of nowhere and lower the boom on unsuspecting people. God is long-suffering – holding back for a lifetime what we truly deserve. You see, justice is getting what we do deserve. But mercy is not getting what we do deserve. And God is showing us his mercy.

The good news is that God has allowed a substitute to bear the weight of God's wrath in our stead. Jesus took all of our sins, our rebellion, and our guilt, and paid for everything at Calvary. All sin had to be punished, or else God wouldn't be God. God has delivered us from the wrath of God through Jesus Christ:

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! (Romans 5:8-9)

A young man in Germany in 1505 had obtained his M.A. degree and had commenced further studies in law. In spite of his education, he was depressed. His sin troubled him, and he was frightened of dying, for he knew that he would have to meet God as judge. Martin Luther knew that God was holy and also angry at sinners. His heart sank at the prospect of death, because he knew he deserved to go to hell. So how could he get in God's good graces? How can he escape hell? That was his big problem.

After half a term of studying law, Luther returned home for a brief holiday. On his return to college, he was walking along a lonely country road when a dreadful storm broke out. The young man was frightened, especially after lightning threw him to the ground. He prayed in fear. He was so scared that he vowed he would become a monk if God spared his life. Well, his life was spared and he became a monk, and more earnestly searched for God and salvation. After a few months, he realized he hadn't pleased God at any point, despite living a strict religious life. "I was a good monk," he said, "and I kept the rules of the order so strictly that I may say that if ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery, it was I. If I had kept on any longer, I should have killed myself with vigils, fastings, prayers, and readings."

While reading the Bible, he understood that Jesus Christ fulfilled God's law and took the punishment for our sins by dying on the cross. At last, he found peace with God through trusting in Christ. He knew now that his sins were all forgiven through the Lord Jesus Christ. No, not even Luther deserved to be forgiven by God. He was a sinner like ourselves. But God is wonderfully kind and merciful towards us all. He offers a free pardon to hell-deserving sinners. For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. (1 Peter 3:18) But God's patience will one day run out, which is why the Bible says in Hebrews 4:7-15 that today is the day of salvation.

One final story: in 1829, a Philadelphia man named George Wilson robbed the U.S. mail and killed someone in the process. Wilson was arrested, brought to trial, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged. Some friends intervened on his behalf and were finally able to obtain a pardon for Wilson from President Andrew Jackson. When informed of this, Wilson refused to accept the pardon. The sheriff didn't want to carry out the sentence: how could he hang a pardoned man? An appeal was sent to President Jackson. Perplexed, he turned to the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the case. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that a pardon rejected is no pardon at all. George Wilson would have to face his sentence. Wilson was hanged, although his pardon lay on the sheriff's desk.

Don't let anyone here face God's wrath for rejecting the freely offered pardon that is available now!

Adapted in part from Our God Is Awesome by Tony Evans