Monday, July 9, 2007

The justice of God...

is more often misunderstood and even despised because humanity desires that His justice be the equivalent of fairness. Fairness being elementarily defined as making sure every one receives the same number of cookies or toys. (Cookies and toys grow in degree as the person does.)

But God's justice is not fairness. God's justice has its standard in true and perfect righteousness. Humanity that cannot understand true righteousness, being fallen and depraved, cannot attempt to qualify the parameters of justice.

I appreciate what Walther Luethi, a German pastor wrote:

"If the time should ever come (for these things are conceivable nowadays) when we should succeed in demonstrating that black is white and white black, that good is evil and evil good, if we should ever be successful in invalidating the fundamental moral principles of the universe, so that sin were no longer hated and everyone took a fancy to evil, then there would still be a stronghold where evil would be hated, and that is heaven. And there would still be one who has sworn to fight the evil in the world to the last drop of his blood, and that is God, whose "wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men."


It is to the God who hates evil, who is true righteousness, who is an all-consuming fire, and who is the just judge of all the earth that dispenses perfect justice.

Lest this make us squirm, let this make us squirm even more:

"God does not condemn people for failing to do what they did not even know they should do, but rather for failing to follow the revelation they do have." James Montgomery Boice

6 comments:

  1. Well written, Elle.

    I came face-to-face with this concept a few years ago when I was struggling to forgive someone close to me for an injustice beyond words. My Dad, a pastor, had once said, "Forgiveness doesn't get someone off the hook. It says, 'You are no longer accountable to me. I'm giving you to God.'"

    Which is a great concept, until we realize God may show his compassionate hesed to them as well. It was only when I could be at peace with God's true justice, not fairness, that I could be at peace and completely forgive.

    And what a blessing it's been.

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  2. Beautiful quote from Boice. Wonderful post. We do want things to be "fair", don't we? Or, at least we think we do.

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  3. Great post, and I loved the quote by Boice.

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  4. Great post, and I loved the quote by Boice.

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  5. Great post, and I loved the quote by Boice.

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  6. Yikes! I have no idea how that posted three times. Sorry about that.

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