Attributes of God - Justice

Justice refers to that attribute of God which vindicates the righteousness of God, not vindictively or in vengeance, but in holy justice. Justice refers to the judgment which God, as a righteous God, must exercise against anything which falls short of His holy standards. Righteous laws and principles proceed from God’s holiness to legislate and govern the affairs of men. This is God’s righteousness at work, the legislative branch of His holiness (cf. Deut. 4:8). But from God’s holiness also comes the penalties and judgments attached to these laws. This is the judicial branch which we call justice.

We believe in a sovereign God who controls all things. On one occasion He said, “There is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Saviour” (Isaiah 45:21 KJV). How can a just God allow injustices to exist? We learn from the Bible that people who have not trusted Christ as Saviour from sin are condemned to eternal separation from God, even if they have never heard the message of salvation. Some may protest rather indignantly, “How can a just God allow that?” Maybe we need to find out what God’s justice involves.

While the most common Old Testament word for just means “straight,” and the New Testament word means “equal,” in a moral sense they both mean “right.” When we say that God is just, we are saying that He always does what is right, what should be done, and that He does it consistently, without partiality or prejudice. The word just and the word righteous are identical in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Sometimes the translators render the original word “just” and other times “righteous” with no apparent reason (cf. Nehemiah 9:8 and 9:33 where the same word is used). But whichever word they use, it means essentially the same thing. It has to do with God’s actions. They are always right and fair.

God’s righteousness (or justice) is the natural expression of His holiness. If He is infinitely pure, then He must be opposed to all sin, and that opposition to sin must be demonstrated in His treatment of His creatures. When we read that God is righteous or just, we are being assured that His actions toward us are in perfect agreement with His holy nature.

Because God is righteous and just, He has established moral government in the world, laid down principles which are holy and good, then added consequences which are just and fair for violating those principles. Furthermore, He is totally impartial in administering His government. He does not condemn innocent people or let guilty people go free. Peter says He is a God “who impartially judges according to each man’s work” (1 Peter 1:17). His treatment is never harsher than the crime demands.

If God is truly just and always acts in harmony with His holy nature, then He must show His displeasure with sin by opposing it and punishing it wherever it exists. He cannot enact a holy law, threaten a penalty, then take no action when His law is broken. Scripture makes that quite clear. God “will by no means leave the guilty unpunished” (Exodus 34:7). “The soul who sins will die” (Ezekiel 18:4). “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil” (Romans 2:9). Since the violation of God’s infinitely holy nature demands an infinite punishment, eternal condemnation can be the only just penalty for sin. Jesus said, “And these will go away into eternal punishment” (Matthew 25:46).

God takes no pleasure in punishing the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11). But it is the only response which is consistent with His holy nature. However, God loves sinners and since He finds no delight in punishing them, He has devised a plan by which they can be delivered from the just penalty of their sin.

Justice allows for one person to substitute for another, so long as no injustice is done to the rights of any person involved. So God provided a substitute. When His Son voluntarily offered Himself to die in our place, our sin was punished and God’s justice was forever satisfied. The Apostle Paul explained how God publicly displayed Jesus Christ as a propitiation and thus demonstrated His righteousness (Romans 3:25). A propitiation is a sacrifice that satisfies a justly pronounced sentence. Christ’s death on the cross completely satisfied God’s just judgment against our sin. The penalty has been paid. Now God can forgive the sins of those who will accept His payment, and still maintain His own justice. He can at the same time be both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).

Justice also demands that when the penalty has been paid by one, it never needs to be paid by another who has accepted that payment. There can never be any condemnation for the person who has trusted Jesus Christ as Saviour from sin (Romans 8:1). The death of His sinless Son was sufficient to pay for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). Now those who accept His payment can go free. Who then can accuse God of injustice for condemning people to hell? He would be just if He assigned everyone to hell. Yet He satisfied His own justice and provided forgiveness for all. Those who refuse His forgiveness choose His wrath of their own volition. They have expressed their desire to live apart from God and He simply confirms them in their choice. That hardly can be labeled injustice.

What about those who have never heard? The Apostle Paul assured us that God has not left Himself without a witness in the world (Acts 14:17), and that lost men have willfully rejected His witness (Romans 1:18, 32). But whether or not we can explain every problem and answer every objection, we accept God’s revelation of Himself as a just God, and we believe Him when He says He will not act wickedly or pervert justice (Job 34:12).

Jehovah‑Tsidkenu (Jer. 23:6) "the Lord our righteousness"

Perfect Righteousness
Righteousness and justice are synonymous. Righteousness is holiness in action against sin. The holiness of God demands that sin be judged and the sinner punished. Such punishment is the righteousness and justice of God in action. Rom. 2:8-9; 2 Thess. 1:8) Righteousness is a holy God acting in a just and upright manner toward His creatures. The righteousness of God is His
holiness dealing justly with His creatures. This justice is seen in both punishment (Gen. 2:17; Rom. 1:32; 2:8-9) and reward (Rom. 2:7; Heb. 11:26; Deut. 7:9-13; Ps. 58:11; Matt. 25:21)

The scriptures attest to these statements.

a. All God’s ways are judgment. He is a God of truth and without iniquity, and He is just and right (Deut. 32:4).

b. The Judge of all the earth will do that which is right (Gen. 18:25). That he is Universally Righteous in all his administrations in the world. Psalm 145:17. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.

c. The Lord judges with righteousness (Is. 11:4-5)

d. Righteousness belongs to the Lord (Dan. 9:7, 14)

e. The righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel. (Rom. 1:17)

f. True and righteous are the judgments of the Lord (Rev. 16:5-7)

g. The Lord is righteous. (2 Chron. 12:6; Ezra. 9:15; Nehm. 9:33; Is. 45:21; John 17:25)

h. Justice and judgment are the habitation of God’s throne. (Ps. 89:14)

i. Righteousness and true holiness are the characteristics of the new man being conformed to the image of God in Christ (Eph. 4:24)

Righteousness is that attribute of God which leads Him to always think and do what is right or act in perfect goodness in relation to men and angels.

In righteousness we have the manifestation of God’s love of holiness, of what is right and good. In justice, we have the manifestation of God’s hatred of sin. Habakkuk 1:13 expresses both.

The Manifestation of God’s Holiness in His Righteousness and Justice:

The following gives just a few of the ways God’s holiness is manifested in His righteous actions in His governmental dealings with man.

(1) It is manifested in His works. All that He made was good (Gen. 1:31), He created man upright and in God’s image (Gen. 1:26-27). Even Satan was created perfect and without sin until he turned in arrogant rebellion against God (Ezek. 28:15).

(2) It is manifested in the Law (Rom. 7:12) which is holy, pure, and good.

(3) It is manifested by God’s clear statements of His hatred of sin and His love of righteousness (Gen. 6:5-6; Prov. 6:16; 15:9, 26; Zech. 8:16-17; Jer. 44:4).

(4) It is manifested in His judgments against Israel and the nations for their rebellion against God (Deut. 28-30; Isa. 1-12).

(5) It is seen in the gift of God’s own Son to die on the cross for the sin of the world (Ps. 22:1-3; Eph. 5:25-27; Col. 1:20-22; 1 John 3:5, 7-8).

(6) It is seen in the separation of God Himself from the sinner (Hab. 1:13; Isa. 59:1-3).

(7) It is seen by the continual presence and work of Christ before God on behalf of the believer (Rom. 8:34; 1 John 1:7; 2:1-2).

(8) It is seen in the eternal punishment of the unbelieving sinner (Rev. 20:12-15; Matt. 25:41-46).

(9) It is seen in God who, as a holy Father, disciplines sin in His children to train them in holiness (Heb. 12:5-10).

Unlike men, God is not subject to anything outside of Himself. No one states this better than A.W. Tozer: The Knowledge of the Holy, pp. 93-94
It is sometimes said, ‘Justice requires God to do this,’ referring to some act we know He will perform. This is an error of thinking as well as of speaking, for it postulates a principle of justice outside of God which compels Him to act in a certain way. Of course there is no such principle. If there were it would be superior to God, for only a superior power can compel obedience. The truth is that there is not and can never be anything outside of the nature of God which can move Him in the least degree. All God’s reasons come from within His uncreated being. Nothing has entered the being of God from eternity, nothing has been removed, and nothing has been changed.

Justice, when used of God, is a name we give to the way God is, nothing more; and when God acts justly He is not doing so to conform to an independent criterion, but simply acting like Himself in a given situation. . . God is His own self-existent principle of moral equity, and when He sentences evil men or rewards the righteous, He simply acts like Himself from within, uninfluenced by anything that is not Himself.”

The righteousness of God is that perfection by which He maintains Himself as the Holy One over against every violation of His holiness. In virtue of it He maintains a moral government in the world and imposes a just law on man, rewarding obedience and punishing disobedience, Ps. 99:4; Isa. 33:22; Rom, 1:32. The justice of God which manifests itself in the giving of rewards is called His remunerative justice; and that which reveals itself in meting out punishment is known as His retributive justice. The former is really an expression of His love, and the latter of His wrath.