Grace Thoughts
God’s Justice: How It Works (Part Nine)
We are looking at God’s justice in light of His command to Noah and sons —
Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.
Genesis 9:6
God expanded that command in the Law He gave Moses for Israel. God condemns murder and the murderer. However, as we saw in the last part of our study, God also showed Moses that He is “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 34:6-7).
How can God be merciful and gracious, yet demand the death of a person who murders another person? How can God be longsuffering and abound in goodness and truth, yet demand the death of a person who commits adultery? Can God be both merciful and just?
King David and Murder
David became King of Israel centuries after God met with Moses on the mountain. David lusted after the wife of another man and had that man killed. How did God respond? With mercy and justice. You can read the details in 2 Samuel 11. David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and set up the events that would lead to her husband dying in battle.
But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
2 Samuel 11:27
The prophet Nathan faced David about his sin and how God would respond. Why had David “despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight?” Nathan told David that because of what David had done, the sword would never depart from his house because he had despised God.
So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:13). God forgave David and “put away” his sin. Nathan told David that he would not die, but the child he had with Bathsheba would die.
Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did itsecretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’
2 Samuel 12:11-12
As you read on about David’s life and the lives of his children, you will see that what God said would happen to David because of his sin did happen. God forgave David of his iniquity, but what David did still carried consequences — “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.“
God is merciful and demonstrated His mercy in David’s life. Murder and adultery both carried the death penalty, but God demonstrated merciful justice. David experienced God’s justice, which included mercy and consequences. God did not take David’s life, but He did impose tough justice that impacted David and his family for generations.
The Standard of Justice
Justice for murder can include mercy. God has demonstrated that for us. However, justice must be appropriate and include consequences that are appropriate for the crime committed. God gave humans the obligation to carry out justice for people who murder other people (Genesis 9:6-7). People need to remember the importance of human life because “in the image of God He made man.” We must not take the life of another human being lightly. Human life must be respected and the murderous taking of life must receive justice.
Kings and queens and those they appointed were the arbitrators of justice for thousands of years. Israel had judges long before they had a king. Those judges determined justice for the people. Countries around the world today have a variety of judicial systems where judges carry out their ideas about justice or their interpretation of laws concerning murder. Many demonstrate mercy for someone convicted of murder or other capital crimes (treason, terrorism, espionage). However, what standard do they use to determine how to best apply justice? When is it right for a judicial system to demand a life for a life and when to show mercy to someone accused of murder or other capital crime? Every nation must determine the standard of justice they will use for murder and other heinous crimes. How do nations get that standard right?
As we pointed out in the introduction to this series, if people believe that human justice is all that exists then what humans believe about justice becomes little more than a compilation of opposing views with limited importance; the importance being limited by who happens to have the power. That means people across the planet will have different viewpoints about justice. Even people within the same countries will often disagree about justice. That includes judges who often rule differently on the same laws because of their particular political or social leanings. Is that justice?
A standard of justice has be founded and grounded on something solid and immovable. The changing opinions of people are like waves of the ocean moving sand around on a beach so that it doesn’t look the same from one minute to the next. It’s impossible to develop a justice system that’s built on sand. If a justice system is to be truly just, it must be built on something solid and immovable.
Jesus addressed that truth at the end of His famous Sermon on the Mount, which is the Lord’s “standard of justice” and gives us some insights into how He will rule His Kingdom on earth. Here’s how Jesus ended the lengthy Sermon:
Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. ‘But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.
Matthew 7:24-27
We must have a solid and well-defined standard of justice to have real justice. That standard comes from the One who created the heavens and the earth. If humans refuse to look to God for true justice, they will find no real justice at all in this life. However, they will see it firsthand when God judges the living and the dead at the end of time (Revelation 20:11-14).
Justice Warrior?
As I hear people cry out for justice, I ask this question — do they know what they want? Do they know what they are asking to happen? Do they have a standard of justice that is based on what is true and objective? Is what they want truly just? What standard of justice would they use to determine whether their cause was just?
I observe life from the perspective of a journalist, martial arts instructor and Bible teacher. Is what people say true and fair? Is what people do based on proper respect for other human beings and their protection, safety and welfare? Are the words and behavior of people honoring to God? Are their actions truly just?
I hear terms like “justice warrior” used in our culture. What do people who call themselves “justice warriors” think that means? A warrior is one who fights for a cause. The cause of a “justice warrior” is presumably justice. Are today’s justice warriors fighting for true justice? How would they know whether their cause was truly just or not? On what do they base their beliefs about justice?
From what I observe, many “justice warriors” either don’t know what cause they are fighting for or they do know and have chosen a cause that is anti-God, which means they are anti-justice.
I believe in being a warrior for a cause and there are many great causes for which we can dedicate our lives. Millions of people through the ages have fought for causes that were dear to their hearts. They’ve fought for family, community and country. They’ve fought for a better way of life. They’ve fought for freedom. They’ve fought to protect the weak and the innocent. Is that what we’re seeing today? Is that what “justice warriors” are doing today? Have they chosen the best and highest causes? Or have they fallen for the lies of deceivers and manipulators who want only to gain and retain power for their own selfish desires?
That’s an important question everyone should ask themselves. Are they investing their time, strength and resources for a truly “just” cause? Or are they wasting their time, strength and resources on “unjust” causes? If the God of the Bible exists and Jesus Christ died on the Cross, was buried, rose from the dead and was seen by hundreds of witnesses alive, then many justice warriors have made a very bad choice in choosing their ’causes.’ The only cause that matters is what matters to God.
Next Time
We’ll look at “justice warriors” and some of the causes they have chosen. We’ll see what kind of people they are and how their choices compare with God’s choices in the next part of our series, God’s Justice: How It Works.
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Founder & Director of GraceLife Ministries View all posts by gracelifethoughts
