Waiting for Eternal Justice
Perhaps you’re thinking, after listening to yesterday’s message, that even the most you do will never be enough to help in the long term. Maybe you’re thinking, I’m just one person—how can I fight for justice? How can I expect any real change?
Well, consider this. Maybe, like the psalmist of old, you and I need to learn to wait for eternal justice.
Understanding God’s Justice
Remember that Psalm we read earlier in the week—Psalm 73? The writer was lamenting how the rich get away with all their evil.
And then, at the end of the Psalm, he says this:
“When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. Surely You place them on slippery ground; You cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!” (Psalm 73:16–19)
Frightening words, and Paul said similar stuff in the New Testament 2 Thessalonians 1:6–10:
“God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might on the day He comes to be glorified in His holy people.”
Trusting in His Timing
Scary stuff—but true. God is just, and sin will be punished by a just God.
I remember when all the looting was happening here in South Africa in July. I sent a minister friend in Natal message just to ask if he was okay. His reply struck me deeply.
He said, “God is in control, and I look forward to the day that these criminals are brought to justice—God’s justice.”
And I thought, Amen to that. Like the psalmist and like Paul, my friend was saying that he trusted God to one day bring the evil, sinful people in the world to justice.
For non-believers, that’s not good enough—and honestly, it doesn’t always feel good enough to us either. We want the evil ones to pay now. The fact that it took so long for Zuma to be taken off to jail felt unjust.
Now we have to wait until they die? That hardly feels fair.
Justice Will Come
But friends, if we have a Christian view of the afterlife, then the justice coming to the evil in eternity is enough. It’s enough. Don’t forget that our God will bring justice for those who have done evil. Friends, we just need to wait.
