Holy Justice

God's absolute moral purity is not for a museum. It has very practical implications. One of them is that our First Love is a God of justice.

For instance, in Deuteronomy 32 we read, "The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he."

Psalm 33 says, "He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord."

Isaiah 30 teaches us, "For the Lord is a God of justice."

The theologian Chris Wright says:

"When Old Testament Israelites made their great affirmation about the transcendent uniqueness of Yahweh, they frequently associated it with major roles or functions that were attributed to him.

The most outstanding was that Yahweh alone is the Creator of everything else that exists apart from himself. A second was that Yahweh alone is king. He is supreme ruler, not only over Israel, but over all nations, and the whole of creation. And a third was that Yahweh is the ultimate judge of all human behaviour—from the smallest individual thought and action to the macrocosm of international relations in the ebb and flow of history."

The theologian Graham Cole writes:

"Wrath is an expression of his righteousness, as Paul makes clear in Romans 9:19-24. Disobedience to God's will comes at a price, and that price is destruction. This is not the result of some inner divine nastiness but the inevitable application of his justice to creatures who have provoked him and invited their own demise."

Let's put all of this together: God is the Creator of all. He rules his creation. He is perfect moral goodness.

And yet - we know that we are not holy. We are not good. We are not righteous.

And so we confess that God is holy - separate from us.

And we confess that God is a God of justice - as a God of perfect goodness, he must respond to evil.

But that's a challenge: if we are unjust, we will encounter God as a God of wrath. We will see that God is set against us and our wicked ways!