The attributes of God

The Justice of God

An attribute of God · Deuteronomy 32:4

The justice, or righteousness, of God means that he is perfectly right in all he does and rules his world with unfailing fairness. He is the Rock, his work is perfect, and all his ways are judgment. God's justice is not cold; it is his commitment to what is right, the guarantee that evil will not have the last word and that the wronged will be heard. At the cross his justice and his mercy meet.

He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.Deuteronomy 32:4 (KJV)

What the justice of God means

To say God is just is to say he always does what is right, and that he is himself the standard of right. His justice is not measured against some rule above him; he is righteousness, and his will defines it. He never wrongs anyone, never takes a bribe, never shows partiality, never punishes the innocent or clears the guilty by pretending. All his ways are judgment, that is, all his dealings are perfectly right.

Justice in God is closely tied to holiness and truth. Because he is holy, he cannot be indifferent to evil; because he is true, he must call things what they are. His justice means the moral order of the universe is real and not a fiction. Actions have weight; good and evil are not the same; and behind the sometimes crooked verdicts of human courts stands a Judge who sees everything and will set every record straight. He is a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

How the Bible reveals it

When Abraham pleaded for Sodom, he appealed to God's justice: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? The question assumed the answer. Israel's law reflected God's justice, protecting the poor, the widow, the stranger, and the falsely accused, because the God who gave it loves justice. The prophets thundered against those who ground the faces of the poor, for they were offending the very character of God, who requires us to do justly and love mercy.

Scripture is honest that justice is often delayed. The wicked prosper and the righteous suffer, and the Psalms cry out how long. But the answer is never that God does not care; it is that judgment is coming. He has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. Every hidden thing will be brought to light, every wrong addressed. The justice of God is the reason the oppressed can hope: their cause is not forgotten, and the ledger will be balanced.

Common misunderstandings

Some set God's justice against his love, as if the Old Testament showed a harsh Judge and the New a kind Father. But it is the same God throughout, and love and justice are not rivals in him. Love without justice would be sentiment that shrugs at evil; justice without love would be severity without heart. In the true God they are one, and both meet at the cross.

Others resent the idea of judgment altogether, hearing in it only threat. Yet a world without justice would be a nightmare, where cruelty went unanswered forever and the murdered had no advocate. The promise of judgment is good news to the wronged. And some imagine God's justice can be bought or flattered, as human judges sometimes can. Scripture says he is no respecter of persons and cannot be bribed. His justice is incorruptible, which is exactly why it can be trusted.

How justice is held with mercy and fulfilled at the cross

Here is the heart of the gospel. God is just, and cannot simply wink at sin, for that would deny his own righteousness and leave evil unanswered. Yet God is merciful, and does not desire the death of the sinner. How can he be both just and the one who justifies the guilty? The answer is the cross. There God set forth his Son as the place where justice is satisfied, bearing in himself the judgment our sins deserved.

So the debt is not ignored; it is paid. Justice is not bent; it is honored to the full, and mercy flows through it rather than around it. The cross is the only place in the universe where perfect justice and perfect mercy embrace. God is shown to be just, and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus. This is why the Christian need not fear the day of judgment: the judgment has already fallen, on Christ, in our place. Justice done for us becomes mercy given to us.

How the justice of God is seen in Jesus Christ

Jesus is the just one who suffered for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. In his ministry he embodied God's justice, defending the vulnerable, exposing hypocrisy, overturning the tables of those who made God's house a den of thieves. He had a special fierceness for the powerful who trampled the weak, for he shares the Father's love of justice.

But supremely, justice is seen in his death and his return. On the cross he satisfied justice for all who trust him. And Scripture promises he will come again to judge the living and the dead, and to make all things right. That coming is a comfort to the oppressed and a summons to the comfortable. The Judge is the one who was judged in our place, and so we may run to him and not from him. In Jesus, justice is not something to dread but a righteousness we are given and a hope we await.

A note offered humbly and for all Christians: God is one, simple, and undivided in his being, and these attributes are not parts of him but the one God seen from many sides. His holiness is loving, his love is holy, his justice is merciful, and his mercy is just. He is also greater than all our words, and no page can contain him. What we can say, we say only because he has graciously revealed it, above all in Jesus Christ, who is the image of the invisible God.

Related: The Wrath of God · The Mercy of God · Who is Jesus? · All the attributes of God