God’s Justice, My Justification

Joel Kindiak Expositions (6)

Date: 6 October 2014

Topic: God’s Justice, My Justification

Q Is punishment of sins due more to God’s mercy or God’s justice?

A Many of us undoubtedly believe that God is love. (1 John 4:8) In fact, two expositions ago, I wrote on how Christianity is first about God’s love for us (1 John 4:10), then our love for God in response. (1 John 4:19) We also believe that God is merciful. (Exodus 34:6) And, for the purposes of this exposition, we believe that God is just, just as David described Him as a righteous judge. (Psalm 7:11) However, in specificity, forgiveness of sins is on the basis of God’s justice rather than God’s mercy.

Proponents for God’s mercy argue that mercy is, by definition, being exempted from the curses that we deserve, and God, through the cross, has exempted us from death (John 3:16) unto everlasting life, saved by grace, not by works but unto good works (Ephesians 2:8–10), being spared of God’s wrath. (1 Thessalonians 5:9) By this definition, yes, God did indeed save us by His mercy on us and we are spared of God’s justice. God being rich in mercy has not imputed sin on us (Romans 4:8) and thus saved us not only from hell but also made us alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:4), when His justice would destroy us in accordance to His holiness. It is inevitably by God’s mercy that we died with Christ and resurrected with Him (Romans 6:5), being born again in accordance with the Spirit (John 3:6) and these would not come to pass if God judged us based on our works according to His holiness.

However true these truths of God’s mercy may be, they reflect the nature of God’s sacrificial act for us and not the function, which is in accordance with God’s justice. God being holy is far from incognisant of sin (Habakkuk 1:13) and cannot tolerate one speck of sin, as opposed to God’s mercy which withholds judgement in light of sin (2 Peter 3:9), and thus seemingly contradicts the acts of unmerited favour and restrained punishment that follow His mercy. In order to make us free from the imputation and yet maintain a holy stance in punishing our sin, God needs to punish our sin in another person, just like how the verdict of a judge on a prisoner needs to be accomplished, and the punishment that brought us peace was upon Jesus Christ. (Isaiah 53:4) At the cross, Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin punished on behalf of us. (2 Corinthians 5:21) Thus, the process of Jesus receiving God’s wrath exacted upon our sin was more accurately brought about by God’s justice, a punishment of sin rather than the refraining of it that God’s mercy entails.

Furthermore, while God’s mercy introduces the connotation of God’s emotions, where God is merciful when He feels good and is wrathful when He feels bad, the nature of God’s justice lies in an action independent of God’s emotions, thus providing the believer a full assurance of His ever–righteous standing before Him. Some believers are unsure of their salvation as they perceive their sinful acts to pull them out of righteousness, since it was by God’s mercy, seemingly wavering, that pulled them in and by sinful acts, they fall out of God’s mercy and disqualify themselves from salvation.  Whereas by God’s justice, the believer can have full assurance in salvation, as it is not provided by wavering emotions that human comprehends but by the irreversible action of Jesus at the cross. It is by the action of God’s judgement of our sin on Jesus that imputes Jesus’ righteousness onto us (2 Corinthians 5:21), confirmed by the resurrection of Jesus on account of us being justified. (Romans 4:25) In order for Jesus to be raised from the dead, the believer needs to be made righteous, and logically, since Jesus did indeed rise, the believer has been, according to Scripture, judicially made righteous before God Almighty, thus having complete confirmation to salvation and allowing him or her to stand in faith, the confidence of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1), in Him.

Also, by the justice of God, salvation of the believer upholds the holiness of God. God’s justice demands punishment of sin whilst God’s mercy demands exemption from such punishment, by death, according to the Bible. (Romans 3:23) If God were to mercifully sweep our sins under the carpet and forgive us without anyone requiring death, it would violate His holy demands. However, if salvation depended on God judging our sins, it would require a perfect Man who also is God. No one fits the bill except Jesus Christ, the Son of God born of the virgin Mary (Matthew 1:18–25) in the likeness of sinful flesh. (Romans 8:3) And Jesus taking upon the punishment of sins and the corresponding punishment of the separation from God and death upholds God’s divine holiness that demands judgement of sin.  As such, through the cross, the sins of humanity were not spared; they were judicially punished but in the body of another, satisfying the demands of God’s justice. In that sense, God’s mercy gave Jesus, the sacrifice and substitute, to God’s justice, thus settling the debt that mankind incurred by robbing God of His joy of fellowship in the Garden of Eden, and God’s mercy is validated by God’s justice in the forgiveness of sins and imputation of righteousness.

Ultimately, while all believers can agree that where God’s mercy and God’s justice coincides at the cross, bringing about justification, the location where punishment of sins occur is by the grace of God while the act which punishment of sins is dealt with is by the justice of God. Through God’s justice and concrete actions, not His emotions toward us which we perceive to waver, we can stand fully assured that we are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21) and that we may boldly enter the the throne of grace to receive mercy in the time of our need (Hebrews 4:16), securing our faith even in the fiercest of storms, where it’s not about us but about Jesus and how God punished our sins in Jesus righteously to make us righteous mercifully.