Psalm 36 -God’s Justice

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David said in Psalm 36:6 that God’s “righteousness is like the highest mountains”, and the verse continues with David saying: “Your justice (is) like the great deep.”

So again he is using these terms that imply a measureless quantity – God’s righteousness is higher than we can imagine, and His justice goes deeper than we can measure.

Humanity Desires Justice

Human beings, in general, love to see justice served. When people have done evil, something in us knows that this evil should be punished. And so when we see rapists and murderers sentenced to jail time, we feel some sort of satisfaction. “Good” we say, “that is just.” And when we see guilty people go free, we are outraged at the “injustice” of it, as we should be.

Now, if God’s righteousness is as high and great as we claimed in yesterday’s devotion, then consider this: even the smallest sin is, really, an offense to Him. All throughout the Bible we see this theme: that God is so holy, and people are not, and so there needs to be a way to reconcile people to God because in His justice God must rightly punish the sin of the world.

God's Justice and Love

But, God is love! And instead of just destroying everybody because of His righteousness, He made a way. In the Old Testament, Jews could make certain sacrifices to atone for sin. This would allow them to be forgiven by God’s grace. Their guilt would be placed on the animal being sacrificed, and God would graciously forgive them.

Jesus came to extend this system to the whole world. His death on the cross meant that the sin of the world could still be rightly punished, but that He would be the one bearing the punishment. It’s not that God was angry at Jesus. It’s that Jesus willingly bore the  just punishment that the sins of the world deserve by dying on the cross. And so now, all people may find forgiveness by counting Him as their substitute, their Saviour, their atonement.

Accepting God's Justice

Justice is served. Punishment for sin has been taken by Jesus. We just need to truly put our faith in Him, and those who don’t put their faith in Him never enjoy this benefit of forgiveness. Their sins still need to be dealt with. Sadly, they choose their own fate apart from God, and their separation from Him in eternity is the self-determined justice that they face.

So our God is just. Sin is always punished rightly. It’s up to you to decide whether you will accept the offer from Jesus to have your sins dealt with on the cross, so you can go free, or if you’d prefer the just dealing of your sins to land on you one day.

I hope you’ll choose Jesus!