Justice

God is completely Just ALL the time.

Just means that God operates according to justice and this defines God quantitatively. Every other attempt to quantitatively describe God either limits or contradicts Just. Justice says everyone will get exactly what he or she deserves. They will get rewarded for all the good and punished for all the bad.

At first this talk about Justice sounds very naïve and childish. However, when you think about it, every religion believes in Justice. Every religion is based on the idea that you can’t do whatever you want without paying for it. Every religion believes in being rewarded for doing good and being punished for doing bad.

We know Justice exists intuitively. This knowledge creates guilt when we do something that deserves punishment. If we didn’t believe we would have to pay we would be denying Justice. That is the same as denying God’s existence.

The most familiar application of Justice occurs in stories, especially movies. Their plots tend to be driven by the need to resolve an injustice. These stories are universal and consequently so is the concept of Justice.

Other religions use different words to describe Justice. The most familiar version of this is Karma. Karma says that when you put out good energy, you will receive good energy. Likewise, when you put out bad energy, you will receive bad energy in return.

Let’s be clear: this is not fate. Karma does not say there’s nothing you can do about your future. It says the opposite. It says you are determining the direction of your future, but not specific events.

The Bible references Justice when it uses the phrases: “with the same measure”, “an eye for an eye”, “as a man sows, so shall he reap”, etc.

Justice is also seen in the comments about how someone will receive little recognition after this life if they receive great recognition during this life. (Matthew 6:2) This leads to a Big Picture view of Justice.

The Old Testament has several passages that have a small picture view of Justice. In fact, some would say that the Old Testament speaks about Justice not existing. In the Old Testament, Job, Solomon, David, etc. questioned Justice. They saw evil people prospering and asked how could this be just? (“Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal.” Ezekiel 18:25)

When the response was that these evil people are yet to experience a horrible punishment, the writers stated they saw good people die early. How can Justice exist without contradiction?

If we take a Big Picture view, we realize Justice is upheld at the end. This world is not the end. A lot of famous literature misses the boat on this point. God can’t violate Justice. If God were to be unjust, then everything would cease to exist.

We have a free will. We can choose to do anything apart from our nature. This is one of the major differences between God and us. We can choose to be just or unjust; God cannot. God gave us this ability because it would have been unjust to control or limit us. This is why things in this world are not perfect…because God is Just.

The concept of Justice runs throughout the Bible and serves as the engine that makes things work. It is a HUGE concept that can explain God’s “Rules of Engagement” with man.

Justice explains EVERY instance where God moved on the behalf of someone, moved against someone, or didn’t move at all. Ultimately, Justice is the solution to the issue that has stumped the church for ages: sovereignty/predestination vs. free will.

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