PrintSeries: Knowing God THE GOD WHO IS JUST Study 5
INTRODUCTION: Romans 3/21-26
Speak of God's love & most people will feel relaxed, comfortable & responsive
a. Speak of God's justice/judgement & same people will feel tense & intimidated
b. The "hell fire & brimstone" preachers of yesteryear now seem like an oddity & liability
c. Yet Bible is unequivocal & unapologetic in declaring both love & justice of God.
d. Love and justice are not ‘either/or’ but ‘both \and’. It’s not a choice to be made.
[1] THE BIBLICAL TESTIMONY.
a. Righteousness/Justice = quality or characteristic of being morally perfect, right & just
b Scripture expresses very powerfully that God is just and righteous - God as Judge
*Garden of Eden *Flood *Sodom & Gomorrah *Achan (Joshua 7) *Israel 's captivity
c. Listen to testimony of the Old Testament – these are just a few of the many examples
*Gen.18/25 *Psalm 75/7 *Psalm 82/8 *Psalm 96/10,13
d. To turn to the New Testament does not lessen God’s justice but intensifies both teaching & examples
*Acts 10/42 *Acts 17/31 * Acts 5/1-11 /Acts 12/13-23 *Hebrews 10/30,31 *Rev. 20/11 -15
e. To the honest mind, reality of God's justice & judgement is inescapable & undeniable
f. How do you feel about the idea of God as Judge?
What are the implications to you and those you know?
[2] THE EMERGING PARADOX
Coming to terms with God's justice presents us with a seeming irreconcilable tension.
A. JUSTICE OF GOD
a. Isn't idea of God's judgement "unworthy" of Him? Retribution is "out-of-character"!
b. Concepts of "hell & punishment" seem 'vindictive' to us - contrary to God's love??
c. But how could God ignore right & wrong and still be morally perfect & just?
d. Real issue here is our own moral imperfection blinding us to sinfulness of sin
e. For God not to judge would prove His moral indifference & compromise His holiness
B. THE INJUSTICE OF HUMANITY
a. If God is just, why doesn't He do something about injustice & the unjust? (like, judge them?)
b. *Psalm 73/3-11 *Habakkuk 1/2-4, 1/13
c. Even our own imperfect, biased sense of justice cries out for God to intervene
d. As we've seen, biblical history gives examples when God has acted to mete out justice
e. There is coming a final, complete judgement that restores justice forever
[3] THE HUMAN DILEMMA
a. Job 9/2 catches dilemma - "How can a mortal be righteous/justified before God?"
b. If God is righteous & we are unrighteous, is there any hope of reconciliation?
c. God has "done something"! In His death, Jesus fulfilled justice & made mercy possible
d. Jesus absorbed the demands of justice - forgiveness & pardon now offered
e. 1 John 1/9- God has not compromised His justice yet has honoured His love
APPLICATION: Romans 3/21-26 (NLT)
Where does this leave you in your relationship with God?
As you think about your social networks, how can you relate this to the people in those networks?
In seeking to present God as Judge, what should you avoid doing or saying
