Tuesday, June 4, 2024

Rom. 3:21-26, God’s Communicable Attributes (5, Justice)

b)    Justice (Righteousness): God is infinitely right, & stands against every violation of His holiness. 

Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He. The context here, “The Song of Moses,” is God’s understanding that man is sinful.  The song was to be a reminder to Israel of how far they would stray from God.

Psalm 58:11 So that men will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; Surely He is God who judges in the earth.”  Because God is perfect in justice, He alone is the judge of the whole earth.  And, by the way, His justice was proven in the earthly life of the Son of God.  That is why all judgment has been given to Him (John 5:22-23).

Psalm 92:15 To declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.  OT writers often referred to God’s just condemnation of Israel in Deut. 32 (The Song of Moses) where God was known as the “Rock.” 

Psalm 19:9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.  God is both just in His character as well as in every one of His judgments.

Romans 3:26 … to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  In Christ God’s justice was perfected (proven).  In “justification” God says the ungodly are righteous (Rom. 4:5).  How can a God of justice do this?  He did not let our sin go unpunished because He punished us in Christ, who took our sin.  He then clothed us in the righteousness of Christ.  As with Abraham, so with us: Abraham believed God and He counted it to Him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6).

2 Thessalonians 1:6 … since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you … Because God is perfect in justice, He is fully capable of rewarding the righteous and repaying the wicked. 

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  Sin is forgiven once for all, and day by day, by our just and holy God.  All this is found in Christ.

As we look around in our world, we see a constant struggle in the matters of holiness and justice.  What we see is evidence that “all have sinned,” that there is not a just man on earth (Rom. 3:23; Eccl. 7:20).  It is because we have suppressed the truth of God and determined to be our own “god.”  Thus, we get what we are!

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