[This post is in a weekly devotional series called Everything New. Sign up here if you’re interested.]
God is right in everything he is and does. His goodness, in other words, is the shape of the way he relates to others. There is nothing God has ever done that is not right and nothing he will ever do that is not right.
Justice is God’s rightness—his righteousness—applied in matters of judgment. In the final judgment, God will do what is right; and in the everyday flow of decisions, deliberations, and minor judgments, God’s opinion is unfailingly right, and thus good. Probably none of us fully realize just how much we need the judgment of God. Life presents us with puzzles. The pieces lie before us—all the complex factors going into a major decision, or the confusing signals we get from the people in our lives. We need to make good judgments, ones that account for all the pieces, and that pull the pieces together.
I have talked to many people trying to figure out how God views a relative who is acting in spiritual rebellion, or to those who are in pain over the eternal destiny of a loved one who recently passed away. Time and again I go back to Genesis 18:25 where Abraham, contemplating the impending judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah said, “Will not the judge of all the earth do right?” Abraham was saying, surely God makes moral distinctions between good and evil, or else what hope do we have? When a matter seems too expansive for us to make a judgment, we can trust that God will view it with righteousness, and that his response will be just.
Romans 3:21-26 speaks of the God who is righteous, and who makes us righteous–the God who is just, and who justifies:
“But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] 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— 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.”
Starting December 1, “Christmas Joy.” Check it out.
This is a well-said and well-written devotional. Reminding us of the sovereignity of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we are NOT to lean on our own understanding of the Lord and His ways is critical to appreciating the ways of the Lord. He is the great architect and designer of life and He does only good. As we cannot see the big picture and fathom the depth of His love for us, we need to have faith in His thinking and plans for all of us. For even the people who cause us grief, the people we do not like to be around, even our enemies are also God’s children….. Thank you for sharing. Please keep it coming….
Good Morning, Rev. L.,
What Bible version do you cite in your “Everything New” e-newsletter? Thanks and God bless.
Joel
New International Version, typically.
This is a wonderful explanation of how God’s righteousness is in play in all our life activities. These truths give the believer great peace and comfort in knowing that “indeed all things do work to gether for good to those who love God and are called according to HIS purpose” It is exciting to know that God is in control, even when we don’t feel or believe it. Thanks for this post…
God made a covenant with us through the shed blood of Jesus and because He NEVER changes, we can be certain of His faithfulness to always do what is right and just on our behalf. We know that righteousness and justice are His character so we never have to doubt or fear that He won’t make the best decision for us. We belong to Him. That’s so amazing!!
The following from your article caught my eye:
“who are in pain over the eternal destiny of a loved one who recently passed away. Time and again I go back to Genesis 18:25”
I have always been puzzled by people who are in Heaven: how can they be happy and joyful, knowing some of their loved ones are eternally separated from them and God, not only separated, but in some horrible place called Hell.
Now if you were to quote me Gen 18:25, I could appreciate that God is just and is always right, but knowing that my loved ones are in Hell because of a right and just act of God, still does not change the fact that they are forever separated from me and from God; but rather, are still in Hell.
John
This was really an insightful piece.
Going through the book of Daniel leaves me thinking of God’s sovereignty …the fact that God can over-rule the affairs of men, the two sides to this coin is that , when He over-rules in our favor we quickly testify of His right-ness but when He over-rules in a way that initially doesn’t look favourable to us e.g. in Job’s case or in the case of James who was beheaded by King Herod (Acts 12:1-2), many of us would find it hard to believe or celebrate His rightness! Yet I believe that the highest point of faith is when we choose to believe in His rightness even when He over-rules contrary to our pleasure… like Abraham on His way to sacrifice Isaac or Habakkuk in Habakkuk 3:17-19a….”though the fig tree does not bud,and there are no grapes in the vines, though the olive crop fails, and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen, and no cattle in the stalls, YET I WILL REJOICE IN THE LORD I WILL BE JOYFUL IN GOD MY SAVIOUR ……THE SOVEREIGN GOD IS MY STRENGTH”(NIV)