“Clouds and thick darkness surround him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne”
Ps 97:3
Justice. The word summons unique images to different people. For me I see a great building with a columned exterior and grand courtroom inside where the judge is going to hand down a verdict. I imagine this is a common image for many people. Another commonality may be that the judge must be a hard soul, an impartial evaluator, a cold, hard person who acts only on the facts. You can almost hear him interrupting your defense of your actions with his thunderous gavel – boom, boom, boom – “Just the facts, please, just the facts!” You are trying to tell him why you did what you did, but your emotions and faulty reasoning are not facts. You did wrong. Period. That is the fact. Here is another: all people who do wrong are sentenced. Yet another: the sentence for doing wrong is an all-expenses-paid, one-way trip to Hell, for eternity.
Seems a bit harsh, don’t you think? What about the extenuating circumstances? What about the peer-pressure? What about the need for pleasure? Well, here’s the rub. We are standing before the judge, who must, by definition, be impartial, and who must uphold the law. We mentioned last month that all things are good in so far as they agree with the attributes of God, and bad in as far as they disagree with the attributes of God. Now remember an attribute is something which is true of its object. God cannot separate Himself from Himself or He would cease to be God. So how can God, who is perfect, judge the imperfect and come up with anything other than a guilty verdict in comparison to Himself? Simple. He cannot.
Seems a bit harsh, don’t you think? Well, here’s the rub again. The law, which the judge must uphold, is not partial. It expects perfection, absolute obedience, and flawless precision in conformity to itself. Now there is nothing outside of God which influences Him or changes Him in any way. So perfection is what God expects, it is all He can expect. To expect other than perfection would be to make Him unjust. Since God is perfect, it follows He must be perfectly just. One who is perfectly just cannot turn a blind eye to injustice (lack of conformity to perfection). Okay, so where does that leave us? Unfortunately, it leaves us in Hell.
Seems a bit harsh, don’t you think? Well maybe to us, but to the perfect one, the high judge of all, it can be no other way. But God, being who He is, is also perfectly merciful. So how does He reconcile the imperfect with the perfect? There can be only one way. The perfect must be sacrificed for the imperfect. The only one who could claim perfection must die for the imperfect and take away all their imperfection. Infinite perfection and absolute justice dies at the hand of the ridiculously corrupt, the epitome of impurity. So the righteous (just) requirements of the law are met on behalf of the imperfect if they claim the sacrifice as their own. And just how do they do that? They must ask Christ to forgive their sin and be their Lord (master). This is the ONLY way.
Seems a bit harsh, don’t you think? I don’t! His sacrifice is the most self-less act ever committed. It is the most beautiful display of love and mercy. It is complex yet utterly simple. But on this there is no bending of the rules: we must confess our guilt (our lack of perfection), for we have parted ways with His infinite goodness. We have sinned. But “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9). “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe…He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:22, 26). So God has satisfied the righteous requirements of the law in that He died as a sacrifice for sin (see Romans 8:3-4). So God is just when He condemns the sin and merciful when He pardons it. He is the perfect judge who has over-whelming compassion on all those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior.
God does not act outside of accordance with His nature. But to look at it as God being forced to act a certain way because of His attributes is wrong. His attributes are names we give His consistent behavior. We say God is just because He acts that way. But it goes deeper than that. God IS just, He does not merely act that way. He IS the truth, He does not merely have it. He IS merciful, He does not merely operate that way. He IS love, He does not merely posses it. So when He judges He IS both just and merciful in perfect balance. “The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.” Psalm 103:6
Oh great Judge, help us to understand our hearts are deceitfully wicked and we have no hope of righteousness except by faith in Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We accept your correction as loving guidance and see your wrath upon the wicked as just. There but for the grace of God we are. Open our hearts a fresh to receive your cleansing mercy. You are perfectly just and perfectly merciful! Only in you could such perfection bring harmony between justice and mercy. We thank you Oh, Lord for your wisdom. Your greatness no one can fathom!
References
All Scriptures not specified are quoted from Life in the Spirit Study Bible (NIV). Stamps, Donald C., and John Wesley Adams. Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. Print.
Tozer, A. W. The Knowledge of the Holy: the Attributes of God, Their Meaning in the Christian Life. New York: Harper & Row, 1961. Print.
The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible New International Version The Old Testament and The New Testament Thompson's original and complete system of Bible study A complete numerical system of chain references, analyses of books, outline studies of characters and unique charts, with pictorial maps and archaeological discoveries. Ed. Frank Charles Thompson, et al. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1983. Print.
