God is Just

               A.W. Tozer,  in his book, “Knowledge of the Holy,” states this… “In the inspired Scriptures justice and righteousness are scarcely to be distinguished from each other. The same word in the original becomes in English justice or righteousness, almost, one would suspect, at the whim of the translator.”

Psalm 89:14  Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.

Psalm97:2  Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.

                I found this interesting so I looked up the Hebrew and Greek words which were translated into our English words “just” and “righteous.”

Hebrew

                In the Old Testament the Hebrew word “tsaddiyq” (pronounced: tsad*deek) is translated into the English word “Just.”  The same word in the Hebrew is also translated into the English word “Righteous” 

Greek

                In the New Testament, the Greek word “dikaios” (pronounced: de*ki*os) is translated into the English word “Just” and is also translated into the English word “Righteous.”

                Throughtout the entire Bible, the same Hebrew (OT) and Greek (NT) words are translated into the English word “Just” 94 times and into “Righteous” 238 times.

Deuteronomy 32:4  He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth
and without iniquity, just and right is he.

Jeremiah 12:1  RIGHTEOUS art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee:

                In these two passages it says that God is just and righteous. Both are translated from the Hebrew word “tsaddiyq.” It is safe to say that A.W. Tozer knew what he was speaking about when he said that “justice”and “righteousness” are scarcely to be distinguished from each other in the inspired Scriptures.  These two English words can be used interchangeably. They mean the same .

                What is the definition of “Just” and “Righteous”? The Hebrew meaning is right in governing; right in one’s cause; right in conduct and character. The Greek meaning is upright, virtuous, keeping the commands of God.

                The Word of God is clear in speaking of the attribute of God’s justice or righteousness.  God is a just judge. God is just in punishing sin, and in rewarding righteous acts in His creatures.

God’s justice in punishing sin:

Ezra 9:15

Lamentations 1:18

Daniel 9:14

Nehemiah 9:33

Psalm 129:4

God’s justice in rewarding righteous acts:

2 Chronicles 12:6-7 

Psalm 145:17-20

Psalm 11:1-7

               

                The Holy Scriptures clearly state, in no uncertain terms, that God is just. He does right every time.  Justice embodies the idea of moral equity. Sin or iniquity is the exact opposite; it is the absence of moral equity.

                As we saw in Deuteronomy 32:4, all God’s ways are judgment. A. W. Tozer has this to say about judgment… “Judgment is the application of equity to moral situations and may be favorable or unfavorable according to whether the one under examination has been equitable or in-equitable in heart and conduct.”

                When we say that God is just, we are describing the way God is and nothing more. When God acts justly He is not doing so because something outside of Him is compelling Him to do so. There is nothing above God…no law governing Him…forcing Him to act justly. It is His nature to do justice.  When God acts justly, He is simply acting like Himself from within. He is not influenced by anything that is not Himself.

                As we examine the truth that God is just, we are soon faced with the greatest problem man has.  As I was studying God’s justice I came across the following two verses.

Exodus 23:7   Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.

Proverbs 17:15  He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.

                A question was raised by a Christian philosopher named Anselm who was the Arch Bishop of Canterbury. He lived between 1033A.D. and 1109A.D.  His question was this… “How can God be just and forgive the wicked?”  God, by His very nature is just and being so, He cannot forgive the wicked.  The justice that flows from God demands that sin be dealt with. Sin cannot be overlooked. It cannot be pardoned. It must be dealt with. That is the nature of justice. Holy justice must be satisfied!

                The Bible tells us in Romans 3:23 that we all have sinned. Every human who descended from Adam  was born in sin. Every person is totally depraved meaning that sin has affected every part of their being. Every human in his natural condition is right now under the full wrath of God for sin. Yet, Romans 3:24 tells us that some of Adam’s fallen humanity have been freely justified by His grace. How is it that God could justify the wicked when to do so is an abomination to Him?

                The answer is given to us. God cannot justify the wicked. His Holy justice must be satisfied. Sinful, wicked men are justified or declared to be right with God, by His grace through what?

Romans 3:24 - 26

24   Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

25   Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.

26   To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

                God justifies wicked men by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.  He was set forth to be a propitiation. Do you know what a propitiation is? A propitiation is an appeasement to pacify. A propitiation is an offering made to calm, quiet and reduce one’s wrath to a state of peace.

                God set Jesus Christ forth to be an appeasement or to pacify the wrath of God for sin. Let me give you an example of propitiation.

            An example:  Say you were a slave in biblical times. If a slave was caught stealing, justice required immediate death…that is what the law said. So, imagine you are in your master’s home and you are caught stealing by your master who takes you by the collar and drags you down to the square where you will be executed. As you go, you fall to your knees and ask your master to be propitious to you.  In a sense you are asking him to disobey the law and let you live. You are asking for mercy. The problem is the law must be satisfied. The law requires a death.

Ezekiel 18:20  The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

           That is the justice of God. God must punish sin. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came and redeemed all those that were given to Him by the Father which speaks of the hated doctrine of election.

John 6:37-39
37  All that the Father giveth to me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. 
38  For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
39  And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given to me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

         Jesus Christ had no earthly father, therefore, He did not inherit Adam's sin nature. Jesus was without sin. He completely and perfectly fulfilled every law of God. At the appointed time, the Lord did not turn to the right or to the left, but set his face as a flint toward Jerusalem. He knew His appointed time had come.

       There in the garden of Gethsemane, just after having observed the Passover, Christ knew He was about to become the Passover Lamb. All those years from Moses until that very day when the Jews observed the Passover and killed the lamb, it was foreshadowing what Christ was about to do. 

       The Bible tells us in Matthew 26:38-39 that Christ's soul was exceedingly sorrowful unto death and as He prayed to the Father, He said, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. "

       The question arises... "what was in the cup that Christ didn't want to drink?" Some have dared to say Christ was afraid of the beating he was about to receive at the hands of the Jews and Romans as well as the pain of the crucifixion. Not so! What man did to Christ, though very heinous, was nothing to be compared with what God the Father did.  

       What was in the cup? The full wrath of God for the sins of the elect. That was what was in the cup. No one but God could have known the wrath of God for sin. Christ was about to become the very thing He hated...sin. Remember that Jesus said he and the Father were one. Remember that God is Holy and cannot look on sin. Because He is holy He hates sin. Jesus Christ hated sin, yet was about to become the sin of all those the Father had given to Him. Christ also knew when He became our sin, He would be separated from the Father...something that had never happened. 

       There on the Cross of Calvary, Christ drank every drop of the wrath of God for the sins of the elect. From noon until 3pm, the Bible tells us in Matthew 27:45 that there was darkness over all the land. God the Father had forsaken God the Son because He had become our sin. Jesus Christ showed us the Father had forsaken Him by crying out "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

       After Christ had drunk the last drop of the wrath of God for the sins of the elect, John 19:30 tells us He said, "It is finished." According to Luke 23:46 He then said, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" and then He gave up the ghost. He had laid down His life for the sheep...His elect (John 10:15). 

       God the Father saw the travail of God the Son's soul and was satisfied. God the Father's wrath for the sins of the elect was appeased or satisfied. 

Isaiah 53:11  He shall see the travail of his soul, and be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

       Now we return to the question that was asked earlier... "How can God be just and forgive men of their sins?"

       A.W. Tozer had this to say about Anselm’s conclusion… “God’s being is unitary; it is not composed of a number of parts working harmoniously, but simply one. There is nothing in His justice which forbids the exercise of His mercy. To think of God as we sometimes think of a court where a kindly judge, compelled by law sentences a man to death with tears and apologies, is to think in a manner wholly unworthy of the true God. God is never at cross purposes with Himself. No attribute of God is in conflict with another. God’s compassion flows out of His goodness, and goodness without justice is not goodness. God spares us because He is good, but He could not be good if He were not just. When God punishes the wicked, it is just because it is consistent with their deserts; and when He spares the wicked it is compatible with His goodness; so God does what becomes Him as the supremely good God. This  is reason seeking to understand, not so it may believe, but because it already believes.”

       Many in our day do not study all the attributes of God, neither do they wish to. All they want to know about is His love and His mercy. They desire to know nothing else of God. Many preachers are not honest with men's souls when they do not tell them of the wrath of God and the justice of God and the Holiness of God. 

       Men will never understand the seriousness of their sinful situation until they are shown these attributes of God. Instead they will be sweet talked down an aisle and lead in a "sinner's prayer" and pronounced to be saved. Many of them...most of them will go home as lost and separated from Christ as they were when they started. 

       I close out with the words of A.W. Tozer in his book "Knowledge of the Holy"...

"Through the work of Christ in atonement, justice is not violated but satisfied when God spares a sinner. Redemptive theology teaches that mercy does not become effective toward a man until justice has done its work. The just penalty for sin was exacted when Christ our Substitute died for us on the cross. However unpleasant this may sound to the ear of the natural man, it has ever been sweet to the ear of faith. Millions have been morally and spiritually transformed by this message, have lived lives of great moral power, and died at last peacefully trusting in it."

"The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions. It hushes their fears and allows them to practice all pleasant forms of iniquity while death draws every day nearer and the command to repent goes unregarded. As responsible moral beings we dare not so trifle with our eternal future."

 Mark 1:15  The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye and believe the gospel.