Justice

Watch this lesson on YouTube, or listen to it here.

Access the slide deck here. 

NOTE: After teaching this class I determined that this is not an adequate amount of space for this study. If you are using these notes to teach here's what I would do differently if I could go back in time. I would have three separate classes on this subject. One for justice and the cross. One for final justice. And one for justice and eternal hell.

1) The problem

A)   We have all experienced: “It’s not fair / right.”

1) The problem of justice and “right” especially stings in cases of moral evil (opposed to natural evil).

B) Examples

C)   Bible

1)     Ecc. 3:16-17 – There is evil in the place of justice.

2) Ecc. 5:8 – There are supposed to be safeguards and oversight in place, but they fail. What happens when the highest levels of accountability are the most corrupt?

(a)   Example: There are rules in our congress about sexual harassment and prohibited sexual relationships with staff.

(i) There is reportedly $17 mil. of taxpayer money for settlements of these violations.

(ii)  3/4/26 – There was a vote on a resolution to release records related to sexual misconduct and harassment involving members of congress and their staff, and the House voted No 357-65.

D) Justice is something that God is very concerned about. It is one of the MAJOR PROBLEMS that God had with his people in the Old Testament.

1) God’s standards

(a)   Ex. 20:16 – “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

(b)   Deut. 19:16-20

2) Israel failed to uphold justice (Is. 5:7).

3) God promised a day of justice in the future when all things would be set right (Is. 11:1-5).

2)     Justice and the Cross

A)   Rom. 3:21-26

1) v. 23 – All have sinned. We are all guilty, and justice demands consequences.

(a)   Gen. 2:17 – “…in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

(b)   Gen. 9:5-6 – Justice: life for a life.

(c)   Lev. 17:11 – Sacrifices are a picture of a life for a life because the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins (Heb. 10:4).

(d)   Rom. 6:23 – “The wages of sin is death.”

2) v. 24a – Through faith, we are justified (counted as righteous) by God’s grace as a gift. That is, he does not owe it to us and we have not earned, nor do we deserve it in any way.

3) v. 24b – Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. He bought us out of our slavery to sin (Eph. 1:7).

4) v. 25 – God put him forward as a propitiation by his blood.

(a)   Some treat this word as satisfying. God’s justice / wrath was satisfied by Jesus’ death on the cross. Jesus on the cross satisfied God’s justice.

(b)   Some treat this word as expiation, or the wiping away, of our sin.

5) v. 26 – By Jesus dying on the cross, God is both just and the justifier.

(a)   Justice has been served. The penalty of death was paid, and God’s justice was satisfied.

(b)   But he is also the justifier in that he himself paid the price.

B)    Carson

1)     “He sent his Son to die in their place. This bloody sacrifice, designed and purposed by God himself, enabled him simultaneously to forgive sinners and to retain the standards of his own justice. ‘God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them’ (2 Cor. 5:19). His Son died where sinners should have died. Thus God shows himself ‘to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.’

2)     The cross, then, is the place where God’s justice and love meet. God retains the integrity of his justice; God pours out the fullness of his love. In the cross, God shows himself to be just and the one who justifies sinners whose faith rests in his Son. The death of God’s own Son is the only adequate gauge of what God thinks of my sin; the death of God’s own Son is the only basis on which I may be forgiven that sin. The cross is the triumph of justice and love.”[1]

3)     Final Justice

A)   There will be a final judgement where all injustice will be handed out.

1)     Jn. 5:27-29

2)     Matt. 25:31-46

3)     Rom. 2:5-11

B)    *A delay of justice is not an absence of justice.

1)     2 Pet. 3:3-13

2) Warning: Don’t be like the scoffers who shout, “Where’s God” and “Why doesn’t the Lord return and take care of this.”

(a)   Are you ready to meet the Lord?

(b)   Is everyone you love ready to meet the Lord?

(c)   Be careful what you ask for.

(d)   Before you go to shouting and crying out for God’s justice, I would suggest REALLY making sure that you want what you’re asking for.

C) “And so the biblical doctrine of Judgment Day, far from being a gloomy idea, enables us to live with both hope and grace. If we accept it, we get hope and incentive to work for justice. For no matter how little success we may have now, we know that justice will be established—fully and perfectly. All wrongs—what we have called moral evil—will be redressed. But it also enables us to be gracious, to forgive, and to refrain from vengefulness and violence. Why? If we are not sure that there will be a final judgment, then when we are wronged, we will feel an almost irresistible compulsion to take up the sword and smite the wrongdoers. But if we know that no one will get away with anything, and that all wrongs will be ultimately redressed, then we can live in peace. The doctrine of Judgment Day warns us that we have neither the knowledge to know exactly what people deserve, nor the right to mete out punishment when we are sinners ourselves. So belief in Judgment Day keeps us from being too passive or too violently aggressive in our pursuit of truth and justice.”[2]

4) Eternal Hell

A)   The problem of evil is often taught in Evidences classes / books; so, we’re not surprised to see the problem of hell in there also.

B) “The concept of hell, therefore, contributes to the restoration of cosmic justice. It is the final destiny of those who refuse divine grace. It exacts punishment on those who misused their freedom for evil rather than for good. God’s gift of freedom means the possibility of rejecting divine grace. Hell, in this sense, represents the choice of self-centeredness over God-and-other-centeredness.”[3]

C) Geisler: Three things:

1) “Furthermore, God’s only alternative to eternal punishment is worse, namely, to rob man of his freedom and dignity by either (1) forcing him into heaven against his free choice, which would be ‘hell’ for him since he doesn’t fit where everyone is loving and praising the Person he wants most to avoid,

2) or (2) annihilating His own image within His creature, which would be an attack of God on himself.

3) As well, without an eternal separation there could be no heaven. Evil is contagious and must be quarantined. Like a deadly plague, if not contained it will continue to contaminate and corrupt. If God did not eventually separate the tares from the wheat, the tares would choke out the wheat. The only way to preserve an eternal place of good is to eternally separate all evil from it. The only way to have an eternal heaven is to have an eternal hell.”[4]

5) Extras

A)   https://x.com/darwintojesus/status/2031816614157357546?s=20

[1] Carson, How Long, O Lord.

[2] Tim Keller, Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering.

[3] Mark Scott, Pathways in Theodicy.

[4] Geisler, If God, Why Evil.