Justice | Daily Devotional

We’re all familiar with cries for justice. A bereaved mother calls for the prosecution of her son’s killer, swindled stockholders demand that corporate executives be held accountable, and civil rights advocates call on a nation to live up to its creed that “all men are created equal.”

Ever since Adam’s sin in the Garden, the world has not been as it should be. Our nations are not what they should be. Our families are not what they should be. We are not as we should be.

In the book of Judges, we’re treated to story after story, vignette after vignette of this tragic reality. A pattern emerges early on: God’s people rebel, God punishes them, they repent, God rescues them, and finally back to the beginning, where God’s people rebel again.

The one line that best summarizes the saga of that particular period in Israel’s history is found in Judges 21:25 – “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” 

God loves justice

God’s people desperately need a king. That much is made clear throughout Judges. But as that era draws to a close and the age of Israel’s kings dawns with Saul, it’s increasingly obvious that what will really set things right isn’t merely a robed ruler enthroned in a capitol city, but the very presence of God ruling over them in perfect justice.

In Psalm 99, we find God’s people rejoicing in the reign and rule of God—not just over one nation, but “over all the peoples.” As the psalmist glories in the exaltation of Israel’s proper King, he celebrates that this King doesn’t just carry out justice, he loves it.

“The King in his might loves justice.

You have established equity;

You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob;

Exalt the Lord our God;

worship at his footstool!

Holy is he!” (vs. 4-5)

From this psalm, we can get a good start on defining God’s justice. It’s God’s kingly, righteous, wise, and impartial rule over His people. With God as King, no one is above the law or below its protection. No one gets special treatment. With God as King, his people have an ironclad “Yes” to the question Abraham posed in Genesis 18:25—“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”

Little wonder that when the true King finally walked the earth, He came proclaiming the “gospel of the kingdom.” It’s good news when God reigns over His people.

Is God’s just reign really good news?

But this also raises a problem, doesn’t it? For God to bring justice, He’ll need to carry it out on wrong-doers—particularly those who, like Israel in the time of Judges, have done “what was right in [their] own eyes.” Perfect justice isn’t good news to criminals. It’s a terror. 

Psalm 130:3 asks, “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” In other words, if God were to reign in perfect justice, who of us would be left to enjoy life under his kingdom? All of us have joined in armed rebellion against the King of heaven. Like ungrateful, homicidal tenants, we have all done our part to drive out, humiliate, murder, and plunder the righteous crown of the Prince of Peace.

But this is exactly where the shocking, scandalous mercy of God shines through. The very next words from the psalmist’s mouth in Psalm 130 are these: “But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” Psalm 99:8 hits this same theme in anticipation of the just rule of God: “O Lord our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.” 

There’s no such thing as an innocent or even “not guilty” sinner before the judgement seat of God. Wrongdoing will be avenged. This is the central tension of salvation—how can the perfectly righteous, just God of Heaven dwell with people who have so badly violated His law, even going so far as to reject His rightful rule on our lives?

Ruled by an utterly forgiving king

How can God uphold justice while still drawing near to sinners like us? The answer is found nowhere else but at the cross, where Christ Jesus himself was crucified for us. “For our sake,” we’re told in 2 Corinthians 5:21, God “made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 

In order to execute justice, God has to punish sin. He will do so in one of two ways: either by pouring out His wrath on sinners, or by pouring it out on His Son and counting sinners righteous who call on Him as our merciful substitute.  

Praise the Lord. He brings justice, not at our expense, but at His own. What is there left to do but follow the psalmist’s example in the last verse of Psalm 99: 

“Exalt the Lord our God,

and worship at his holy mountain;

for the Lord our God is holy!”

Lord God, you love justice. You are the righteous, good, pure King who executes justice in your kingdom. Rebels that we are against you, we cannot hope to stand in your presence or enjoy even one minute of your perfect rule. Yet you have not left us in our sin. At the Cross, we who could not stand before you are forgiven and drawn near, called your beloved children. Give us grace to live in this freedom, and to be your joy-filled ambassadors today.