This post is based off chapter 17 of the book “The Knowledge of the Holy” by A. W. Tozer. 

​What do we think of when we think of justice? Bad guys getting what they deserve. Justice being served. A situation is unfair and someone restores the balance of power. And we love us some justice. In fact, I would contend that as Americans we are more concerned with justice than any other people group on the face of the earth. It is in our DNA. Case in point, why did we start the Revolutionary War? Taxation without representation. “You can’t tax us without a representative! It’s not fair! It’s not just! Hello Boston Tea Party, goodbye King George.” Then what did we do? We came up with the most fair and just document that has ever governed a body of people on the face of the earth: the Constitution. And what is the Constitution all about? Equality. Making things fair.

We see this in our entertainment culture as well. Justice saturates the big screen. Just look at the massive amount of superhero movies that keep getting cranked out. Superman, Batman, Spiderman. We even did Captain America not too long ago. What are those about? Truth, justice, and the American way. The good guys beat the bad guys. Justice is served! And we eat it up.

But when it comes to religion, our culture doesn’t like to think of God as being just. When I ask unbelievers where they will go when they die, I get different versions of the same answer. The most common ones are, “If you’re generally a good person you will go to heaven” and “I don’t believe in hell. I think we all go to heaven when we die.” Another question I hear a lot is, “How could a God of love send people to hell?” The humor in all of this is that we are all about justice until it comes to us. We want justice for everyone else but we don’t want it for our own actions.

So the question is “How do you tell an unbeliever that God is a God of love and mercy but that he severely punishes sin?” Tozer answers this in one perfect sentence: God could not be good if He were not just. Here’s an illustration that might help:

Suppose we had a president that said, “I want to go down in history as a really good president so from now on I’m not going to punish anyone. I want EVERYONE to like me and think that I’m good so I’m not sending anyone to jail anymore because jail stinks and no one likes to be there. From now on if there’s a murder, rape, kidnapping, an assault, or a robbery, we’re not going to punish it because I’m good and I want everyone to know that I’m good and that includes the murderers and the rapists. We’re going to show them love and mercy and goodness and we’re not going to punish them.”

Would that president go down in history as good president? Of course not! The job of the president is to protect the people of the country and you do that by punishing the lawbreakers. He cannot be a good president unless he is just. The same is true of God. If sin went unpunished God could not be good. Sin is evil and its end result is death and it has to be punished.

So if God is just and He is going to punish sin, how do we reconcile that with his love and mercy and goodness? If you ever don’t understand something about God, the first place to go is the cross. It is there that God gives us a perfect picture of what He is like. At the cross the “wrath of God” was satisfied. Have you ever thought about that statement? God’s WRATH was brought down on Jesus. God did punish sin. Justice was served. But at the same time He showed love, mercy, and goodness. Christ died for us so we wouldn’t have to be punished. The cross is the perfect picture of how none of God’s attributes conflict with each other.

The problem that we run into is we tend to overemphasize certain attributes of God which presents a false picture of who He is. We can’t focus on His love and ignore His justice.

God is just and He punishes sin. That leaves us with two options to tell unbelievers: 1) accept that Christ paid for our sins by absorbing the wrath of God at the cross and repent or 2) refuse that gift and continue to live however you want. Either way sin will be punished. You either accept Christ’s offer to pay for your sin or you pay for it yourself. And the payment is hell for all of eternity. A burning lake of fire for all of eternity. This is a harsh way to end a blog post but it’s how Tozer ends his chapter on justice and I think he did it for a reason. He’s driving home a point. We do a disservice to unbelievers when we don’t explain God’s justice. I’ll close with Tozer’s words:

“The hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions. It hushes their fears and allows them to practice all pleasant forms of iniquity while death draws every day nearer and the command to repent goes unregarded. As responsible moral beings we dare not so trifle with our eternal future.”

The next time you have the opportunity to talk to an unbeliever about God, don’t leave out his justice. If you really care about their eternal soul, tell them the truth. And beg them to repent.

Categories: Paul Austin The Knowledge Of The Holy

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