God Is Just

(Romans 3:5-8)

God is just. His justice is perfect and not susceptible to the weaknesses and failings of mans justice. God sees all things and knows all things and so when He judges, it is a just judgement based upon all truth and all evidence.

When man judges he does not always have all the evidence and knowledge of a matter. That is why man often judges wrongly. But God is not like man and no man can hide anything from God for He will reveal every matter of a mans heart and so judge a man accordingly.

There is a standard by which God will judge the world. It is the standard of right and wrong according to the way God sees it. He set the standards for what is righteousness and what is unrighteousness and it is by those standards that every person on earth will be judged.

Knowing this to be true makes the way many people of this earth think and behave something of a puzzle, for man uses the same processes for judgement, albeit they are imperfect, as God does.

Hypocrisy of Men

We have governments on earth and one of their primary functions is to establish the laws of the land. In a democracy the people elect a government and the representatives of the people are meant to listen to what the people have to say about what is good and acceptable to the people, culture and land that they represent. The laws of the land should then reflect what the society recognises as being good for the society.

The laws reflect what the culture and society believes to be in the best interest of all members of that society and these standards in the law are meant to maintain stability, harmony and peace.

Thus whenever anyone breaks the laws of that society they are arrested and held to account for their failure to meet the standards of that society. The breaking of the laws of the society show that the person is acting and behaving in a manner that is not acceptable to that society. So they are held accountable for the failure and judged and sentenced in order to restore balance to the society.

At least that is how it's supposed to work.

However in modern society things are changing. The laws of the land in most places had their origins in the laws written in the bible, and even those places where the bible was not a commonplace book, the laws of the land followed the just and moral principles laid down in the bible.

But the laws of the land are being perverted. Pressure groups, minorities and those with a particular axe to grind are attacking the fabric of the laws of the land and seeking to change what has worked and been acceptable for many generations, so that they can justify the evil and wrongdoing they choose to do rather than living right.

And as this perversion of the laws of the land grows and spreads, society begins to fail, morals decline, evil takes hold and wickedness reigns to the detriment of all. And they revel in their wickedness and call what is evil good and what is good, evil.

God Is Just

But there is a higher power in play and a greater justice that prevails over the ways of man.

Consider this. Why is it that the ways of evil that are being accepted by man today and gradually being enshrined in mans law, causing so much pain, suffering and grief to those who follow such evil? Why is it that those who follow the evils that the world is now seeking to be made respectable and legal in society do not benefit from their wickedness?

It is because the higher judgement and justice of God prevents them from benefitting from evil. And it is the judgement and justice of God that leads those who choose evil to fail.

Consider homosexuality for a moment. This lifestyle is condemned in the bible, both in the old and new covenants as being sinful. Even more than that it is called an abomination and Paul wrote in Romans 1 that those who choose to follow that lifestyle will suffer for it in their own bodies.

And for centuries man condemned this practice, until recent times when the homosexual lobby began pressuring government to make it legal. Well they may legalise it and they may pass laws allowing homosexual marriage and whatever else comes later, but will they benefit from this in the long run? No, they will suffer now and continue to suffer in the future.

But are they suffering for it? Yes they are. It is a well established fact that the rates of sickness, disease, depression and suicide are many factors higher in the homosexual population than amongst those who are not homosexual. I won't go into it here but if you want to see statistics to support this point, this link is a good place to start.

Now this begs the question, why? Why is it that homosexuals are in so much trouble physically and mentally that leads so many of them to suffer?

It is because of the justice and judgement of God.

God's Standard

God established the laws and standards of what is good and right for the whole universe. When we follow and meet His standards we do not suffer. But if we fail to meet those standards, and worse, if we deliberately choose to reject His standards, then we suffer.

But some may say the standards set by God are too hard. No one can meet his standards, and they are right. Every person on earth has been born under the power of sin and has committed sin and so fallen short of the standards set by God.

So what do people do about it? Many complain as is written in this section of Romans 3:5-8 saying,

But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)

They say that because we can't keep the law then God is unjust to judge us by a standard that is too great and too high for a man to keep. So what these people want is not to seek to meet God's standard, but to lower the bar, to make it easier, or rather to have God accept their evil ways rather than seek to do what is good and right.

But God says…NO! For we know there is a day of reckoning and a Day of Judgement coming, and if God were to lower His standard, how could He judge the world? Instead He allows people to follow their own ways as they are, and they will suffer for it now because their ways are not good and acceptable to God and He will hope that they may see the errors of their ways and turn to Him to find the right ways.

And God did not leave man without hope. Sure, he set a standard that was too high for man to keep, but He also made provision for mans weakness.

In the law He established the the sacrifices to atone for a man's sin and He said if man followed those laws and practices we would be forgiven.

Even better than the law though He sent Jesus and established the path of grace so that we may have our sins removed by seeking to learn the ways of righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ.

God has given us the way of escape from sin and so even though His standards are set high, He did not leave us desolate. He wants people to seek what is right and to live their lives in accordance with His standards, because they are good. And to achieve that He has given us the pathway to overcome sin and find life.

So we have a choice. We can choose to follow him and receive the gifts of grace to escape sin, or we can choose to reject Him. We can choose to be like those in the world who want to change the law to suit themselves, and who will continue to complain and wonder why even when the law is changed they still suffer for what is wrong in God's sight, or we can seek Jesus and find the path to truth.

Whatever a man chooses, God is not going to change His standards of what is good and evil. And God is going to judge the world according to His standards, not what a man thinks they should be. And it is right for God to do this because He is a God of justice and judges according to the truth. Like any other judge, He will judge the choices a man makes and so convict or pardon the person on the basis of their beliefs and actions.

There is no escape from the justice of God and that is a good thing for the rule of God is better than the rule of men. And the rule of God ensures and assures true justice for all, whether they do right or wrong they will be rewarded or condemned accordingly because that is what true justice is all about.

(Image sourced from stock.xchng provided by Moi Cody)

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