God's Heart is Just

How would you define what is Fair or Just?

Fair--marked by impartiality and honesty : free from self-interest, prejudice, or favoritism

Imparticality and honesty. Wow if we think about the nature of God and his treatment of humanity there is an element of this.

One of the challenges that we often have is our understanding of God’s Fairness. His Justice in the world. One of the biggest challenges is we often view God and how he interacts with the People of Israel from our current understanding of our relationship with God.

What is your reaction to God punishing people for sin?

Is God unfair or unjust because he punishes for sin?

It is one of the biggest challenges we face today. It is not uncommon for us to push the idea of God is love. This is foundational for our faith in many aspects. We look at Jesus and his actions and we can’t escape the thought of his love for us. Yet, we look at the OT and we see how God works and we can’t seem to make the connection. We forget these beings are the same being. We can’t escape that. Yet it is important to note the way that God was interacting with the world. The way he presented himself and the connection he made with people changed over the years.

IN many ways God’s interaction with the world was through the Israelite people. His approach was one that was more corporate. IT was the sins of the whole community that was the focus. It was not the focus on the individual that we get in the NT.

Jesus came and things changed.

Let me ask this though.

Why is it unfair or unjust to let sin and injustice go unpunished?

How do we grapple with that. It is hard to identify the idea of both invidual and or corporate sin. We don’t want to be seen as condemning people for the wrongs of their lives. Is God not supposed to punish sin. Is that Justice? That is why we struggle with the passages like

Exodus 34:7 NIV

7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

What happens when we compare this to this verse.

Deuteronomy 5:10 NIV

10 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

What is the difference between these two verses?

The truth is we gravitate toward the idea of love but we want to forge the idea of punishment. We forget and don’t want to recognize the forms of punishment in our lives.

Generational punishment is a harsh reality that we have to wrestle with.

The idea exists that the sins of the current Generation will inevitably affect the coming generation.

This isn’t the blame game this is truth

What Sins commited by a generation have affected the next?

What do you think of God as Judge? How does that Make you feel? What Concerns or questions might you have?

Have you ever thought about a judge as an unliving person. We still look to this idea that when someone is judging and delievering punishment we can’t see them as loving.

If a judge makes a decision about a murderer and finds them guilty are they an unloving person.

Love and justice aren’t at odds they are intricately connected.

Romans 3:23 NIV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

How do we react to the idea that everyone is guilty of sin?

Romans 3:24–26 NIV

24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

God sent his son to pay the price of our sin. Not just the sin of the few but the sin of all. The pain and suffering and the challenges we face. The truth is justice had to be satisfied. God found a way through his son. Through his grace and forgiveness. He paid the price for all of us. He shifted the world from a corporate view to an individual focus. WE focus now on sin from an individual basis.

God’s justice is such that the price has been paid. WE have recieved forgivness and we can be at peace. This isn’t the freedom to just do what we want but it is the call to live a life that is devoted to him. A life that Seeks justice and peace.