The Perfect Judge

 

“As for the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. He is a reliable God who is never unjust, he is fair and upright.”  Deuteronomy 32:4

“But the Lord rules forever; he reigns in a just manner. He judges the world fairly; he makes just legal decisions for the nations.”  Psalm 9:7-8

 There’s a lot said in the news lately about different judges. Which judge was appointed by whom and gave what ruling. Who overturned whose ruling. None of it sounds very impartial and therefore none of it sounds very fair. It would be easy to mistakenly see God’s judgment in the same way. How can we influence Him to our side? How can we get on His good side? But thankfully, we don’t have to worry about that!

Just like His righteousness, God’s justice is absolute. He doesn’t decide based on how you look, or what kind of house you live in, or how you vote, or how much money you have. He decides based on what is right. He knows the heart, the motives of people. He knows all that they do, nothing is hidden from Him, and why they do it. He is the only one able to judge justly. What that means is that you cannot argue or sweet talk a different decision from Him. God knows exactly what you have done and what you deserve.

 Really, it’s what we all deserve. To God, sin is sin. There are no “white lies,” just lies. There is no justifiable homicide. He sees the pen you took from the bank and the thief who robbed it side by side. Your sins are no better or worse than your neighbor’s. They are all just sins. And God, being perfectly just, can have no part with sin or sinners. The Bible tells us that, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). That means you, me, all of us are sinners. Romans 3:10 tells us, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” We don’t want to be seen as sinners. We don’t want to think of ourselves that way, but that is the truth and it is irrefutable. So how can we get past this? How can we connect with a just, righteous, perfect God who can have nothing to do with sin?

 That’s the thing, God is not only just and righteous, He is also merciful. In His perfect, infinite wisdom, He found a way for us, a way to satisfy justice and also grant us mercy. We learn in Hebrews 9:22 that, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” In order to grant us forgiveness, someone had to pay the price. In the Old Testament this was done through animal sacrifice. These sacrifices were temporary though, imperfect. They covered the sin they were paying for and nothing else. If someone stubbed their toe and cursed on the way out of the temple, they were right back where they started. What we needed was a perfect sacrifice and God knew the only way to do this, was to do it Himself.

 And so, Jesus came down from Heaven, lived a perfect, sinless life that we cannot, and then gave up His life for us, so that we might live forever with Him. In Romans 6:23 we read, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Jesus did not have to die because He had never sinned, but He chose to die on our behalf. He laid down His life for us. In that perfect sacrifice our debt was paid, our sin was forgiven. All of our sin. The ones we committed before we came to God and asked for forgiveness and the ones we will inevitably commit after. Everything was covered.

Here’s the Thing: God is just and fair and upright. We can count on Him to always do the right thing. We know that He does not make exceptions because He went so far as to sacrifice His only Son in order to satisfy the requirements of justice. We can trust His perfection, His righteousness and His justice. We can know that the things of this world that seem unjust will be made right.