Judgement and Justice, Part 4

CONCLUSION

Do we want justice? To see right exalted and evil punished? God does. Can we proclaim with the Psalmist (45:4-7): “Ride on in majesty to victory for the defense of truth and justice! Your strength will win you great victories! Your arrows are sharp, they pierce the hearts of your enemies; nations fall down at your feet. The kingdom that God has given you will last forever and ever. You rule over your people with justice; you love what is right and hate what is evil. That is why God, your God, has chosen you and has poured out more happiness on you than on any other king.” 

The price of justice is that punishment takes place. Imagine a world (this may not be hard) in which criminals are convicted but the judge frees them and says “don’t do it again”. Is this justice? Imagine a God who, when Hitler (other dictators are available) stands before Him says, “Well, you were evil, you didn’t repent, but come into Heaven anyway.” Is this justice? Does it show God hates evil? 

And yet, God doesn’t want to punish. He wants us to repent and live with Him eternally. Thus, “God has shown us how much he loves us—it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)! Thus, “Christ died for sins once and for all, a good man on behalf of sinners, in order to lead you to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

Is it just that a thief dies on a cross, repents with his last breath, and Jesus says, “See you in Paradise”? Is it just that a kind atheist is punished for not believing in Christ? Hitler, a thief, a kind man. You and me! “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The difference is only the degree of sin. We all deserve punishment for our sins. Each week in church we confess our sins trusting God is merciful to those who repent. We want justice, but it traps us, too, so we want mercy more! We need Jesus, who died for sins, a good man on behalf of sinners. “Because of our sins he was wounded, beaten because of the evil we did. We are healed by the punishment he suffered, made whole by the blows he received. All of us were like sheep that were lost, each of us going his own way. But the Lord made the punishment fall on him, the punishment all of us deserved” (Isaiah 53:5-6). In Christ on the cross, God punishes our sins. We are not just nodded into heaven by a lovey-dovey, dopey god. Our sins were punished. Judgement has been served on Jesus, so mercy can be granted to us. Freedom is won, for all who believe. This is our Lord. This is our God.