God Is Love—and God Is Just
“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
If Christianity was known by one simple phrase, a tag-line that reverberated throughout culture, even lost culture, I believe it would be this: “God is love.”
It’s simple to remember, it’s certainly true, and it’s encouraging and warming to the ears of a lost culture that is mostly hostile to the true God of the Bible. Everyone loves to talk about God’s love— and when I say everyone, I mean everyone…the lost, the saved, the atheist, the agnostic, the new age mystic, the churched, the progressive, and the liberal. It’s all anyone wants to focus on when God is mentioned in conversation, debate, or on social media.
While the love of God is absolutely true of his nature, completely inseparable from his character, and something to shout and exclaim from rooftops and podiums and from street corners, this sadly is all too often where the conversation of who God is, stops. But the reality of the nature of God, is that we cannot talk about God’s love (or really any of His other attributes) without also mentioning that God is just.
God’s Justice Revealed in Scripture
Scripture says in Exodus 34:6-7 when God spoke to Moses, “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty…’”
While God is a merciful God who abounds in steadfast love, He is also a God who will absolutely not leave the sin of the guilty unpunished.
If God did not punish sin with the wrath that it is owed, He would not be a good God, a loving God, or a just God.
The Problem of Sin and the Need for a Substitute
The problem is, we are all sinners. If God forgives all kinds of iniquity, transgression, and sin but at the same time “will by no means clear the guilty,” how can God still remain just and also let sinners go free?
However, since God is God, he cannot be unjust, or He would cease to be God. This means that in order to remain just while at the same time offering forgiveness for the sins of guilty humanity, there had to be a substitute, a plan to pardon the guilty. And as we know, God’s plan to pardon sin came at a high cost.
What Does It Mean That God Is Just?
When we say “God is just,” what are we really implying here?
It’s important that we have the biblical definition of just in mind when we speak of God’s justice. No other definition will do.
Biblical Evidence of God’s Justice
“For God shows no partiality.” Romans 2:11
“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” Psalm 34:8
“The LORD is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.” Psalm 145:17
“He has established his throne for justice.” Psalm 9:7–8
Taking in the whole of Scripture, we can confidently say that God is just because He is morally righteous and good.
Does God’s Justice Contradict His Mercy?
When we say that God is just in punishing sin, does that mean that in those particular instances, He ceases to also be loving and forgiving and merciful?
The answer is no.
God does not cease to be or to demonstrate one attribute while He takes on another. He is perfectly and completely displaying all of His attributes at all times.
Making Sense of God’s Justice and Mercy
To better understand God’s justice, it’s imperative that you first understand the weight of your sin in comparison to a holy and perfect God.
Because God is just, it is only right that He punish the sin done against Him in order to maintain His justice therefore maintaining His “God-ness.”
But therein lies what would seem like a contradiction: If God is to remain God by maintaining His justice in punishing all sin, how can He forgive sinful humanity?
The Cross: Where Justice and Mercy Meet
This is why the reality of God fully and perfectly encompassing all of His attributes at once is so beautifully comforting to the Christian.
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God…” 1 Peter 3:18
Through the death of Jesus, God’s wrath was satisfied and He is able to maintain His justice by pardoning guilty sinners through Jesus.
How God’s Justice Differs from Human Justice
The world around us is full of man’s ideas of justice. While many of these institutions are pictures of God’s common grace, so many of them fall short of the biblical picture of justice we see in God’s nature.
We must humbly submit to what we see in Scripture when it comes to God’s justice.
Social Justice vs. Biblical Justice
One of the most prevalent ways today that we see man’s justice elevated over God’s justice is with the modern social justice movement.
In contrast, God’s idea of justice is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ and the grace He bestowed on us when we did not deserve it.
God’s Justice Gives the Christian Comfort Today
Knowing what we know about God’s justice, how should this affect our daily lives as Christians?
Ultimately, God’s justice should give the believer comfort.
For those who are in Christ, we find comfort in knowing that we will be spared the righteous judgement of God’s wrath in the future. We find comfort in knowing that God’s grace is found in His justice.
Although sin and evil may seem to reign now, the comfort for the believer is in knowing that our sovereign and good God is perfectly, completely, and lovingly just over all things.
About Leanne:
Leanne is a 2011 graduate of Ouachita Baptist University with a B.A. in Christian Studies. After several years of watching friends and family fall away from their faith or develop a lukewarm affiliation with Christianity, Leanne decided to pursue the reasons behind it all. This journey led her into a deeper love for Jesus, theology, God’s Word, apologetics, and a strong desire to defend the historical and Biblical Christian faith– not on a blind or empty basis, but with strong, intellectual, and Biblical reasoning.
She’s served in various roles in her life: teaching, leadership, and administration. However, her gifts have best been used since becoming a wife and a mom. She’s happily married to her husband, Devin, and they love raising their two precious kiddos in the great state of Texas!
You can follow along with Leanne’s ministry on Instagram (@faithfuldefender), Twitter (@faithfuldefend), and Facebook.
