God reveals Himself to us in His Word. We know that God is holy because in Isaiah’s vision of Him, heavenly creatures declare, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:3). We know that God is righteous and just because Psalm 11:7 says, “The righteous Lord loves justice.” Holiness describes God’s character; righteousness and justice describe how He deals with humankind.
These perfections that we find in Scripture aren’t just the result of God’s people seeing what they want to see in Him. Even the enemies of the Lord recognized His perfect attributes. In the book of Exodus, we read about Pharaoh, who hardened his heart by holding on to the children of Israel after the Lord had instructed him to release them. When the Lord sent a series of plagues to Egypt, “And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, ‘I have sinned this time. The Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked’” (Exodus 9:27).
From the very first verse of the Bible, we see that God is omnipotent, all-powerful. If He were all-powerful without being righteous, He would be just a celestial tyrant doing whatever He wanted wherever He wanted to do it. If He were righteous without being powerful, He would be unable to execute justice on this earth. But the good news is that God is all-powerful—and He is righteous. He can do whatever He wants, but He does the right thing in every situation.
That includes the exercise of His justice. Unlike human justice, God’s justice is perfect. He doesn’t show favoritism. He doesn’t look the other way at certain offenses. He demands that wrongdoing and wrongdoers be punished. Scripture certainly bears that out.
In Isaiah 51:4–5, God says, “Listen to Me, My people; And give ear to Me, O My nation: For law will proceed from Me, And I will make My justice rest As a light of the peoples. My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, And My arms will judge the peoples; The coastlands will wait upon Me, And on My arm they will trust.”
Deuteronomy 32:4 says, “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.”
And in Psalm 140:12, David confidently proclaims, “I know that the Lord will maintain The cause of the afflicted, And justice for the poor.”
God’s justice leaves no room for appeal because He is righteous. Everything He determines is, by its very nature, perfectly just. Only our perfect heavenly Father can judge perfectly.
And He wants His people to prize justice as well. Proverbs 21:3 says, “To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.” And Isaiah 1:17 instructs, “Learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.”
Justice matters to the Lord, and it must matter to us.
