The God Who is Just and the Judge!

In today’s world, any consideration of God, other than his love, mercy, and goodness, upsets modern sentiments. The truths of His holiness, righteousness, and wrath are deemed too unsettling, too intolerant.

In the early 17^th Century, Pastor Jonathan Edwards preached a famous sermon titled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, which was used by the Holy Spirit to initiate the First Great Awakening in America. Today roles have been reversed and a proper title for the general attitude toward God would be “God in the Hands of Angry Sinners! We live in a day where we have set ourselves as the judge and God’s character is on trial. “How can you teach and preach about God the Judge when he’s a loving Father who excludes no one from his Family? “God is Love and there’s no wrath ever shown by him!” “How can hell be just?” “Why would God command the Israelites to commit genocide by destroying the Canaanites, Amorites Hittites and all the other “ites” and give Israel their land and possessions?”

The fact that so many people struggle with these questions, and many more like them, means that more than ever right teaching and thinking is needed from the Scriptures on the nature and actions of the God who is holy, just, the Judge of all humans, and the God who displays his wrath toward those who suppress his truth.

Statesman and orator Daniel Webster was asked what the most awesome thought was ever to enter his mind. Without hesitation he said, "My accountability to Almighty God!"

Although we may shrink from the thought, the truth is our very nature cries out for and demands justice. Listen to the oppressed people of God in Revelation 6:10, "They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"

1. God is Just

Romans 3:26, “It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

While some of God’s attributes are easy to accept or at least appreciate (such as his goodness, mercy and love), he has other attributes that many people find difficult to accept or understand. Among God’s more seemingly complicated characteristics is his justness. Moses’ wrote, “For I will proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God! “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 32:3-4, ESV).

Romans 1:18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”  

The moment we begin a study of the book of Romans, we are confronted with the statement that the wrath of God is part of the righteousness of God - a concept so unnerving to many and distasteful to others that innumerable attempts have been made to avoid the subject. Even a cursory glance at Paul's argument, however, will show that any attempt to avoid what he had to say about the wrath of God at the beginning of his presentation of the gospel would be disastrous. The answer to the problem of the "wrath of God" is to be found in understanding it, not avoiding it. To human beings, who periodically either give way to wrath and feel subsequently embarrassed or are subjected to wrath and feel hurt and humiliated, wrath is a most reprehensible human characteristic. But divine wrath should never be confused with human anger for it contains none of the uncontrolled passion, the unreasonable outbursts, the self-vindication that are the unfortunate ingredients of human wrath. God's wrath is "right": it is a holy response to the unholy, a just reaction to the unjust, a pure rejection of the impure.

The absence of the article from the word “God” denotes the nature of the wrath. The wrath of God does not have in it the ugly, sinful, hateful nature that is manifested in the human anger. The anger of God is only the reaction of the love of a Holy God in the presence of sin. The wrath of God is a precise and controlled response to the belittling of his holiness. Everyone who perishes under the wrath of God in eternity will not be because God lost his temper with them and mistreated them. On that day, everyone will know that God has treated them with precise justice.

In Roms. 1:18, we need to note that there is no article before the word “God.” The absence of the article implies wrath to be the nature of God; that is, it is His nature to react against sin. Wrath against unrighteousness is as natural to the nature of God as His approval of holiness. Wrath is as natural to the nature of God as is his love. He could not be holy without being jealous for His holiness. He could not be holy without reacting against sin. He could not be inconsistent with His holiness and remain holy. This wrath is in perfect harmony with His Deity. It is His righteousness acting consistently with itself in the presence of sin.

Look again at Roms 3:36, “that he might be just, and the justifier of him the one who has faith in Jesus”. One commentator said concerning this phrase: “Glorious paradox! “Just in punishing,” and “merciful in pardoning,” men can understand; but “just in justifying the guilty,” startles them. But the truth of Romans 3:25 resolves the paradox and harmonizes the discordant elements.” The verse declares: “whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” That truth is that of propitiation through faith in Christ’s blood. Propitiation means “to appease, to satisfy, to placate, to avert the wrath of an offended person by meeting his demands for the removal of the offense, and as a result enabling the offender to win back his favor. Propitiation defines the bearing which Christ’s sacrifice had God-wards: it placated or satisfied God’s wrath caused by sin in the sinner. Expiation has reference to the bearing which Christ’s sacrifice had man-wards: it removed the sins of His people.”

Because “God has made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin,” justice has full satisfaction; and in that “we are made the righteousness of God in Him,” and mercy has her heart’s delight! The very justness of God illuminates his love, grace, and mercy in a way that nothing else could.

2. God is the Judge

The entire New Testament is overshadowed by the certainty of a coming day of universal judgment and by the problem arising from it: How may we sinners get right with God while there is yet time? The New Testament looks on to "the day of judgment," "the day of wrath," "the wrath to come," and proclaims Jesus, the divine Savior, as the divinely appointed Judge.

He is “the judge who stands before the door” (James 5:9), He is "ready to judge the living and the dead" (1 Pet. 4:5), "The righteous Judge" who will give Paul his crown (2 Tim. 4:8), is the Lord Jesus Christ. "He is the one who has been designated by God as judge of the living and the dead" (Acts 10:42 NEB). God "has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed," Paul told the Athenians (Acts 17:31); and to the Romans he wrote, “God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares" (Rom. 2:16).

Jesus himself says the same. "The Father . . . has entrusted all judgment to the Son. And he has given him authority to judge. ... A time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out - those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned", John 5:22, 27-29. The Jesus of the New Testament, who is the world’s Savior, is its Judge as well.

But the character of God is the guarantee that all wrongs will be righted someday; when "the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed" (Rom. 2:5) arrives, justice will be exact, and no problems of cosmic unfairness will remain to haunt us. God is the Judge, so justice will be done.

Why, then, do we struggle in believing and sharing the truth of God as a Judge? Why do we feel the thought as being unworthy of him? The truth is that part of God’s moral perfection is his perfection in judgment.

Christian apologist, Jill Carattini observes, “A world without a judge, without moral law or law giver, would be like a spelling bee where every word could be spelled at the whim of the contestant and deemed acceptable.”

If there is no judgment, or no heaven or hell after death, then a person can live any way he wants. If there is no final day of accountability with appropriate recompense, then men like Hitler, Stalin, and Chairman Mao - the three greatest mass murders of all time - got away with their dastardly deeds. However, the truth is that injustices and sufferings in history never escape God’s eye. Those who persecute the people of God and who practice injustice can never win. God will judge every deed, all wrongs will be righted, and all attempts to dethrone God and enthrone oneself will be turned around to frustrate God’s enemies completely. The prospect of final judgment ought to be a terror to God’s enemies but a foundation of assurance to the saints because all evil will be frustrated and eliminated.

At the Day of Judgment there will be the most glorious display of the justice of God that ever was made. Then God will appear to be entirely righteous towards everyone. Then the saints and angels will praise God, saying: Rev. 19:1-2, “And after these things I heard a great voice of many people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; salvation, and glory, and honor, and power be to the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgments.”

There is truly a Pay Day Someday coming!

3. God has Defined the Laws of Judgment

To call the God of the Bible a "God of justice" is the same as referring to Him as a "God of judgment." The two phrases are used interchangeably in the Old Testament. Both justice and judgment mean to put things right, to render a verdict, or to pronounce a sentence. God is the ultimate Judge who will always administer justice according to His nature. Because He is a God of holiness and righteousness, His justice is always holy and righteous.

1. Judgment is according to Truth - Romans 2:2, “But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.” (NKJV) "According to truth" here means "consistent with the facts of the case, true to reality." The God who judges is alone able to sift through the evidence and to weigh the motives of the heart. Nothing is hidden from his sight. When he passes judgment, it mirrors reality.

By judgment here is implied condemnation, as Paul's conclusion shows (Rom. 3:20). At no point will the sinners be able to produce last minute, hidden, or unconsidered evidence to defend themselves from a guilty verdict. The judgment of God turns inside out the reality of their lives, hearts, minds, and motives, sifts them before his all-seeing eye, and brings in a verdict of guilty so powerful that before God every mouth is stunned into silence and all the world held guilty before him.

2. Judgment is according to Accumulated Guilt - Romans 2:5, “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.” (ESV) 

Luke 12:47-48, “And that slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, shall receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. And from everyone who has been given much shall much be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more."

Just as there are degrees of rewards in heaven, so there are degrees of punishment in hell. This does not mean that there are different levels in hell. This idea does not come from Scripture but from the history of Christian literature - specifically Dante’s Inferno.

In addition, God will punish people in varying degrees according to the crimes (sins) they have committed. This is clearly taught in Scripture and aligns with God’s nature and our sense or understanding of justice. For example, Hitler will be punished and experience a greater degree of separation, isolation, emptiness and suffering/torment than, say, someone who lived a pretty good life by our standards, but who made the decision not to follow God. If God punished Hitler and this person equally then someone could accuse God of being unloving and unfair. However, God being loving and just repays people according to their deeds and therefore hell or the final judgment, it would seem, will have differing degrees of punishment, emptiness, isolation, suffering and torment.

Justice demands retribution, the distribution of rewards and punishments in a fair way. It would be unjust to allow evil to go unpunished and to reward evil with good, even if the good was not sought in a genuine, informed way. Thus hell is in keeping with God’s justice…God’s holiness requires him to separate himself entirely from evil, and hell is essentially a place away from God. Thus, hell is in keeping with God’s holiness.” The conception that there are degrees of punishment, separation, isolation and torment in hell is well supported in Scripture and flows reasonably from God’s nature/attributes of justice and holiness and fits well with the Christian understanding of justice.

3. Judgment is according to Works - Romans 2:6, “He will render to each one according to his works.” In commenting on this verse, John Gill observes: “God will be the Judge, who is righteous, holy, just, and true; every man in particular will be judged; as the judgment will be general to all, it will be special to everyone and will proceed according to their works. In other words, God will render to evil men according to the true desert of their evil deeds; and of his own free grace will render to good men, whom he has made so by his grace, what is suitable and agreeable to those good works, which, by the assistance of his grace, they have been enabled to perform.”
4. Judgment is without Respect of Persons - Romans 2:11-12, “For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.”

Paul is underlining that no matter who I am or what I may think myself to be, God never favors me on account of position, lineage, or possessions. This is devastating to our egocentricity, for by nature we assume that God views us the way we view ourselves: each as a special case.

Notice how that in Paul's theology, future punishment is connected to God's wrath. God’s wrath being the required response of a holy God to sin including idolatry, disobedience and rebellion of His children, and all demonic powers and principalities that seek to overthrow His rule and reign.

According to Scripture, the wicked are presently under his wrath (Roms. 1:18-32), are objects of his wrath (Roms. 9:22), they continually store up wrath for the day of wrath (Roms.2:5-8; 3:5) and can only be saved from this coming wrath by being justified by faith in Christ (Roms. 5:9-21).

At the Final judgment there is no jury, no hearing of arguments, and no settling out of court. No one can present a letter of introduction or bring pressure to bear on the Judge. Power can't awe the Judge who is omnipotent. Wealth can't buy Him who owns it all. Cunning can't deceive Him who knows it all and judges the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The books, when opened for the judgment of the lost, will all say, “Guilty, guilty!” All the people judged will cry, “Guilty, guilty - hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne! The judge will say, "Guilty, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire!”

The saints of God will join with the holy angels in shouting as written in Revelation 19:1-3, “After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” Once more they cried out, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.” 

4. God is Just and the Justifier

But here’s the greatest news ever to fall on human ears! God is not only just, but the Justifier of those who repent of their sins and trust in and follow Him.

I can only escape God’s wrath if I am justified. So what is justification? Justification is the transfer of Christ’s righteousness to me, whereby God declares me “righteous” and takes my sin and wrath and transfers these upon the account of Christ, whereby He is declared “guilty” and endures the wrath I deserve. “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Rom. 5:9).

God must be perfectly consistent with Himself. He cannot break His own Law or violate His own nature. “God is love” (1Jn_4:8), and “God is light” (1Jn_1:5). A God of love wants to forgive sinners, but a God of holiness must punish sin and uphold His righteous Law. How can God be both “just and the justifier”? The answer is in Jesus Christ. When Jesus suffered the wrath of God on the cross for the sins of the world, He fully met the demands of God’s Law, and also fully expressed the love of God’s heart. The animal sacrifices in the Old Testament never took away sin; but when Jesus died, He reached all the way back to Adam and took care of those sins. No one (including Satan) could accuse God of being unjust or unfair because of His seeming passing over of sins in the Old Testament time.

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
'Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live, I live

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand

And that’s good news!