Thoughts from The Bible

Thoughts from the Bible

Wednesday, 09 August 2023 08:44

The Just God
by Cody Anderson Corinth Missionary Baptist Church

How many times have you heard, “That’s not fair?” Or how about, “Because I said so.” These are common phrases you probably heard growing up. As we grew up, we realized that life isn’t fair because fair is subjective. Our parents, being the authority in our lives, had the right to tell us to do something, and we were expected to do it. So, who decides what is fair and what dictates authority? It all comes from a just God.

God, being the Creator, has the right and authority to tell us how to live and ultimately judge us. If you come up with a new sport, you get to create the rules for that sport. How you score, if it is played on a court or field, and how participants compete are all up to the creator. You would also be the one that creates the official rulebook for the game. This is exactly what God has done. He created mankind and laid out the rules of life. He gave us His Holy Word to know Him and live according to His ways. The great thing about this is God is all-knowing, so the way He sets things up is sure to be right. Man was to commune with God, but there had to be rules in place for man to be in the presence of Holy God. Knowing that man would not be able to live up to the rules, He, thankfully, already had a Redeemer prepared to reconcile man back to God.

In Deuteronomy 32:4, Moses is singing a song about God when he says, “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he,” (ESV). Moses says that all God’s works are perfect and just. Whatever God decides is just and right because He is God.

God is the Judge, and He is just. Adam sinned one time, and God cast him out of the Garden. He was just in doing so because anything unholy cannot commune with God. Paul says in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (ESV). Isaiah 64:6 proclaims, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away,” (ESV). None can be good enough to commune with God forever. If God was to allow one person in Heaven based on their own merit, then God would not be just and would cease to be Holy. This is literally impossible.

God judges everyone fairly. 1 Peter 1:17 says, “And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear…” (ESV). God judges not based on other men, but on His Holiness. Our deeds have never and will never amount to His Holiness. He is the perfect Judge because He is not like us. God has no wrong to His Name, and we, in comparison, have no right to ours.

Praise God, He provided a way for all to be made right or just in His Holy eyes. All have sinned, and the result of that is death. We die because of our own sin. Jesus, who had no sin, was able to die for our sins. Just like it only took Adam’s sin to separate God and man, Jesus is the only one that didn’t sin and is able to bring man back into a relationship with God. God will only allow those whose hope and trust are in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to enter His presence. There is only one way because God says there is only one way. He gets to judge by this standard because He created the standard and His redeeming Son lived up to the standard in order that we might be saved.