God’s Justice: How It Works (Part Eight)

Grace Thoughts

God’s Justice: How It Works (Part Eight)

We are currently looking at the justice of the death penalty in light of God’s command to Noah and his sons in Genesis 9:6-7:

Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man. And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it.

As we studied in the last part, many Christians point to the New Testament and claim that Jesus would not support the death penalty if He were on earth today. We also saw that:

Jesus did not nullify the death penalty during His earthly ministry.
The same Jesus who we see in the Gospels is the same Jesus we see in the Revelation conquering and killing people “with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse” (Revelation 19:21).
The same Lord Jesus we see in the New Testament is the same Lord we see in Psalm 110 who will “execute kings in the day of His wrath,” “fill the places with dead bodies,” and “execute the heads of many countries.”

The claim that Jesus would not support the death penalty if He were on earth is not true. That then raises another question about God’s mercy. In light of the death penalty God commanded and Jesus supports, what part does God mercy play when it comes to the death penalty?

What About Mercy?

Good question! It’s important for us to understand the Bible’s full view of the death penalty. First, we must agree to accept whatever the Bible teaches about God and about us. If we waver in that area, we will miss many things and get many things wrong. Second, we can and should ask tough questions that bother us about what the Bible teaches. God can handle our questions. Look at the prophets and apostles. The household of God is built on the foundation of the prophets and apostles (Ephesians 2:19-22), yet as we read about them in the Bible we see that the prophets and apostles had many tough questions for God. That’s part of learning and teaching. We can ask God any questions we want, so let’s ask about mercy.

Moses was one of Israel’s greatest prophets. He knew more about God than any other man alive at the time, but Moses wanted to know more. Moses’ request was straightforward – “Please, show me Your glory” (Exodus 33:18). God told Moses He would make all His goodness pass before him, but that Moses could not see God’s face. Here’s what Moses saw:

Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.
Exodus 34:5-7

God is “merciful and gracious.” He is “longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”

The Hebrew word for “merciful” in Exodus 34:6 is raḥūm. It means “compassionate.” The word for “gracious” is ḥannūn and comes from the verb hanan. It means “show favor, be gracious.” The Hebrew word for “mercy” in Exodus 34:7 is ḥeseḏ. It means “goodness, kindness.” God “keeps” (nōṣêr, guards) mercy “for thousands” and forgives” (nōśê, lifts, carries) iniquity (‘āwōn, guilt, punishment for iniquity), transgression (p̄eša‘, rebellion, rebellious act) and sin (ḥaṭṭā’āh, sinful thing).

It’s important to consider the timing of this event. This is the second time Moses climbed the mountain to meet with God to receive His commandments for the people of Israel. We read in Exodus 31 that God gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, “tablets of stone, written with the finger of God”(verse 18). We read in Exodus 32 that when Moses came down the mountain from meeting with God he heard and saw that the people of Israel were worshipping a golden calf. Moses pleaded with God for mercy on the people. God demonstrated mercy by not destroying all of the people, but also demonstrated righteous judgment on many.

Moses ascended the mountain to meet with God to receive the Law a second time and see God’s glory. God, the merciful, compassionate, gracious, good and kind Creator, gave Moses the Legal Code that included requirements to take the lives of murderers and adulterers. How is that merciful? How is that compassionate? How is that gracious? How is that good and kind?

Please don’t miss this because it goes to the heart of God’s justice.

God is first merciful, compassionate, gracious, good and kind to victims of crimes. Read through the Mosaic Law and you will see that clearly. The people of Israel had lived under the wicked rule of pharaohs in Egypt that was unmerciful and cruel toward victims of crime. A pharaoh who did not know Joseph and was afraid of the people of Israel took freedom away from God’s people and made them slaves. The people of Israel had known injustice for many years, but God was changing that. He was turning their understanding of justice on its head. God’s justice is not the same as the world’s justice.

Moses taught Israel a special song after God saved them through the Red Sea crossing. The song included a salute to God’s great mercy:

You in Your mercy have led forth The people whom You have redeemed; You have guided them in Your strength To Your holy habitation.
Exodus 15:13

God told Moses a short time later how to build the Ark of the Testimony (Covenant) and called the top of it “mercy seat”:

You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat … You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.
Exodus 25:17-18, 21-22

The Hebrew word for “mercy seat” is ḵappōreṯ and means “propitiatory, atoning.” It means to “cover over, pacify, to make atonement.” The mercy seat was demonstrative of God’s covering over Israel’s sin. It’s where God would meet with Israel’s representative and speak about everything He would command the children of Israel.

God’s mercy is married to His justice and righteousness. To ask for God’s mercy without His justice and righteousness is to attempt to divide something that is indivisible. That’s important for us to remember as we see how many of God’s people today want mercy without justice and righteousness. We cannot have it both ways. God’s mercy is integral to His justice.

Moses summarized the essence of the Law in Deuteronomy 10 —

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good? Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude.
Deuteronomy 10:12-22

God’s justice in the Law is for the fatherless and the widow and the stranger. God’s heart is with the people who desperately need justice. God’s Son, Jesus, brought that to light in His earthly ministry.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
Luke 4:18

Jesus came with great mercy and justice to address the needs of the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, the blind and the oppressed. He taught them, fed them, healed them, died for them. In all His words and deeds, Jesus was merciful and just.

All of us need to understand how God’s justice works because the day is coming when God’s Son will judge the nations based on His definition of justice.

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ ‘Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ ‘Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ ‘Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
Matthew 25:31-46

We cannot remove mercy from justice. God’s heart is with the victims of crime, hate, discrimination and oppression. His Law is clear about that.

Next Time

But what about God’s mercy for the criminal? Is that not done? Not allowed? We’ll look at that in the next part of our series, God’s Justice: How It Works.

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God’s Justice: How It Works (Part Eight)