Is God Just?

Think of scenarios where outcomes may seem unfair.

Someone orders a meal at a restaurant. Shortly after, someone else orders the same meal. However, the restaurant only has enough food to fill one order, and the waiter chooses to give that to the second person who ordered simply because he likes the Jordan sneakers that person is ordered.

Two students take a test and have identical scores. The instructor gives one student a higher grade because the instructor is golf buddies with the one student’s dad.

These are minor examples compared to the many injustices that go on in our world. We see a world that is very unjust. Crime and poverty, suffering and evil all happen and it causes us to wonder.

Is God just?

And if God is just, if he’s morally right and fair, why do so many unjust things happen, often seemingly without consequence? Why would a just God tolerate an unjust world? If he does tolerate it, does that not say that God himself is not just?

The importance of the question

Like other questions we’ve examined in this series, it has a way of coming back to the problem of evil, suffering, and pain. The questions often inter-relate.

Is God powerful enough to do something about the injustice, evil and suffering in the world? If he is, then why doesn’t he stop it? That leads us to ask if God is good. Does God understand that something should be done about these things? That can lead us to wondering if he even cares. Is God truly loving?

These are all important questions. Many may not be able to take a step of faith because of their struggle with these questions. This morning we want to tackle that question of whether God is just.

As we look at what the Word tells us, I believe we find that even in an unjust world, God is just.

What does it mean that God is just?

What do we mean when we ask this question? The Oxford dictionary explains that being just is to behave according to what is morally right and fair. It’s about being accurate in how manners are dealt with. The word just is the basis for the word justice.

That means that when we ask if God is just, we’re asking if God is morally right. Is God fair? Does he handle situations properly, interacting with the world in a way that is right, accurate, or fair?

And if he is just, why does so much suffering take place that seems unnoticed? How does a just God deal with an unjust world? To address this, we need to start with looking at God himself.

The Word shows us that God is just.

We’ll look at Deuteronomy 32. After leading Israel more than forty years, Moses is nearing death and preparing to pass the torch of leadership on to Joshua. He knows that Israel needs to learn some things, so he sings a song over them.

Listen, you heavens, and I will speak. Hear, you earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew. Like showers on new grass. Like abundant rain on tender plants. I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh praise the greatness of our God. He is the rock. His works are perfect and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wring, upright and just is he.

Deuteronomy 32:1-4

Moses gathered everyone around here and sang over the community. He says he wants them to know that the Lord is just and his ways are perfect. God is accurate, morally right, fair. He’s upright in all he does. Of all the things Moses could say here, he chooses to leave Israel with this message of justice.

The heavens proclaim his righteousness, for he is a God of Justice.

Psalm 50:6

For the word of the Lord is right and true. He is faithful in all he does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth of full of his unfailing love.

Psalm 33:4-5

Not only is God right and true, but he loves justice. He loves righteousness. Think of how you love to do a hobby. It’s that kind of feeling that’s described here when it says the Lord loves righteousness.

These passages have a common theme: affirming how God is just. God’s nature is just. God has a standard for what is just, he upholds the standard, and he is the standard. He is fair, and he’s accurate in his distribution of justice. God is not only just, but he’s very just.

God’s Response to Injustice

If God is just, why is there injustice in the world? Why do the unjust seem to act without consequence?

The answer starts with the fall of man in Genesis 3. God created this world, everything was perfect and right. Adam and Eve had the same opportunity we all have: to trust in this perfectly right, accurate God who is faithful in how he deals with us. They could also choose to go their own way, which they did.

We all know what happened. They disobeyed, and everything changed. The result was a broken and unjust world. It was like how we play the game Jenga, where you build this tower. Their sin was the thing that knocked it all over.

God didn’t design a world that’s unjust. He didn’t intend that to be the case. He created a world that was perfect, where everything was right. But our choice to go a different route, to make choices against God’s design, is what allows injustice into the world.

Because here’s the reality: None of us is innocent in this. We’ve made our own choices against God. While we might say that the things we do aren’t nearly as bad as what others do, we’ve also probably done enough things that might seem a lot worse than not eating from a certain tree.

But what did God do? He got on his knees and started picking up the pieces. God didn’t create the mess, but he’s putting it all back together. He didn’t say “you should have listened” and didn’t just leave us to eat what we’ve made.

God puts it all back together. We’ll look at three ways he does this: redemption, vengeance, and restoration.

God responds to injustice through redemption.

We mentioned that God has a standard, and in fact God is the standard.

All of us miss that mark. This isn’t just Adam and Eve’s problem, is it? We’re guilty. You’re guilty. I’m guilty. If we want justice, we have to recognize the part we play, and that we deserve justice ourselves.

For everyone has sinned. We all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God in his grace freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty of our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

Romans 3:23-26 (New Living Translation)

We are all unjust, but through Jesus, our God redeemed us. God responds to an unjust world with redemption. There’s still a price to pay for what we’ve done wrong, but part of how God picks up the pieces is providing redemption through the atonement on the cross.

God responds to injustice through vengeance.

This might sound counter-intuitive to redemption. It can feel uncomfortable.

God knows and sees the injustice you’ve faced. He sees the unfairness that challenge us and others. He knows and believes that these things are not right, and he promises to take care of those things.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the sight of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depnds on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “‘It is mine to avenge. I will repay,’ says the Lord.”

Romans 12:17-19

Interestingly, some of this passage comes from Deuteronomy 32, Moses’s that we looked at earlier. Its recurrence here is like God saying, “I cared about justice then, and I care about it now.”

When I was younger, I didn’t always get along well with my sisters. They would do something against me or do something wrong. When my dad would find out, I’d be curioius what he would do to them. I wasn’t a caring concerned little brother here, more like a sadistic little boy who can’t wait to see them get punished. But my dad would just say, “I’ll deal with it. Don’t worry about what I’m going to do.”

That’s what God is doing here. We don’t know how he’s going to respond or how the vengeance happens. We may want him to come down hard on someone (though we don’t always want that for ourselves). In the end, we have to trust that the God who’s just, morally right, anf fair is the one who knows how to handle that vengeance.

Interestingly, God doesn’t use the word “justice” here, though they may seem interchangable. Justice is about equilibrium, but God is saying that he’ll deal with it as he sees fit.

God is just. He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you, and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and who do not obey the goespel of our Lord Jesus.

I Thessalonians 1:6-8

God’s vengeance may happen in a number of ways. It can happen through the course of life. Those who reject the opportunity of redemption may face it more directly. God, who sees all sides and angles of the situation, knows best how to respond. And we know he will respond.

God responds to injustice through restoration.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying look, God’s dwelling place is now among the people and he will dwell with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. He’ll wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who is seated on the throne said, I am making everything new. Then he said, write this down for these words are trustworthy and true.

Revelation 21:1-5

How does a just God respond to an unjust world? By getting down on his knees and saying, “I’ll put the pieces back together. I’ll respond with vengeance and redemption. But ultimately, I’ll respond with restoration.

We knocked the tower over, bug God says he’s making all things new. He says we’ll start over again. He’s rebuilding it all to make a place for me, you, and all who have accepted his redemption and trusted in his name. There will be a restoration, we will start over.

This is how a just God responds to an unjust world, and it is beautiful.

God responds with redemption, vengeance, and restoration.

How do we respond to the justness of God?

What do we do with this? How do we respond?

We simply trust in the God who is just. Trust that he’s morally right, that he’s accurate, perfect, and fair in how he deals with us. Trust that his way is better than our way.

We can trust that God sees all angles of what’s happening. He knows what he is doing. God is not a passive God in an unjust world. He’s an active God in an unjust world. This active, just God is picking up the peices, rebuilding the tower we knocked down, responding with redemption, vengeance and restoration.

What do we do?

We trust in the justice of God. We follow him. Allow him to do what he says because we know he is right, he is good, he is accurate and fair. Trust in who God is.

Your God is a just God.