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The Justice Of God

Justice of God

The word "justice" means among other things; the righting of wrongs, the correction of unfairness, the reward of obedience and punishment of rebellion.

Think for a moment what you think of when you hear the word, "justice".  Do you think of court proceedings?  Do you think of someone getting what they "deserve", either reward or punishment?
Now, what do we mean when we say, "The Justice of God"?  What justice does God carry out?
The Reformation icon, Martin Luther on this subject once wrote:
  • "I greatly longed to understand Paul's Epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, 'the justice of God,' because I took it to mean that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage Him.  Therefore I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against Him." -- source
Luther understood that if God was just (fair) in how we humans see justice, then we all deserved punishment.  Luther points out that even he, being an impeccable monk, who devoted his entire life to God still stood before God as a guilty sinner and that there was no amount of "good things" Luther could do to pay off his debt.  In this reality, Luther at first privately hated God.

It seems this is one of the reasons many nominal Christians then like to paint God in an almost fairy-tale manner where He is always gushing with unconditional love.  Where almost everyone gets a pass as long as they put forth even a little effort or if they were somehow ignorant of God but did good deeds anyhow.

The justice of God is something that frightens us because we know, if we're honest with ourselves that we can't measure up.  We begin to wonder in ourselves, "why am I this way?"  

In Romans 9:10-24 we read almost this exact sentiment, where a hypothetical questioner asked why God made him faulty and yet blames the creation?  The questioner questions the "justice of God" in this.  

This question underlies our need to be reborn as something new.  We spend our lifetimes becoming ourselves to find we aren't really anything without God making us who we are.  From the lowliest criminal to the impeccable monk, we all stand before God in reality as sinners.  It isn't until the moment we realize that, that we see the "justice of God" is even more loving then the fake depiction of God people often have of God being some sort stay-puff marshmallow man in the sky.

When you begin to see God ins the light of His justice and compassion and mercy, you will begin to see the God of the Bible instead of the god of "shhhh-we-can't-talk-about-religion-too-much" society we live in.  You will begin to see the "justice of God" and begin to wonder not why isn't He more tolerant but rather why doesn't He wipe us all out?  And therein we see that the "justice of God" is also the "love of God".