God is Righteous

Short lecture on the Righteousness of God as part of a series of lectures on the various attributes of God.

Lecture Notes

Gen 18.25 -  “Will not the Judge of the earth do what is just?”

sadaq or sedeq – Hebrew meaning “rightness”, “justice”, or “righteousness”

dikaiosune - Greek meaning “righteousness”

In both cases the full depth of the word involves conformity to a moral or ethical standard established by the nature of God, but also of His judgment and rule in conformity to this standard.

Is. 45.19-24.;  Matt. 6.33;  Rom. 5.18,21 -  instances in Scripture in which the righteousness of God refers more to His moral purity than to His justice

Justification

The first step in salvation, being saved from the penalty of sin.  A legal term to intimating the pardoning of a crime.

rectoral justice of God - God's instituting moral governance over the universe.

Because of this governance and being made in His image, all of humanity, consciously or subconsciously recognizes a standard of right and wrong, or good and evil.

God's rectoral justice means that He has ordained rules that are morally right and they are fair because they are not impossible to obey, even though we are inclined to disobey.

Because God is perfect in nature, His sense of justice and judgment are perfect.  God's perfect justice means that the punishment will always be appropriate to the crime.  Hos. 14.9

God's Righteousness as it Relates to Salvation

1.                God hates sin and mush punish it.

2.                Because the law of God is also righteous, meaning both just and pure, it's requirements must be met.

3.                No one person's righteousness (i.e. moral purity) will ever satisfy the Lord

4.                only the righteousness of Christ which is obtained by faith

5.                This moral purity sense of righteousness is imparted to those who believe in Christ, and is in accordance with His perfect sense of justice (righteousness).

God as Judge

Psalm 9.1-8 - In many peoples minds then, and especially now, things like the destruction of a nation would be cruel and unjust, but when the Lord accomplishes these things, the Psalmist acknowledges that it must be fair and just; Why?  Because God is the source of righteousness.

Psalm 50 - What's spoken of here in Psalm 50 is what has been coined “distributive justice”.  Distributive justice renders to each person exactly what is due.  The recipient receives what their actions have earned.

What saves mankind from this justice is the act of Christ dying on the cross.  In so doing this, He took the death sentence upon Himself so that the justice demanded by God was paid (Rom. 5.7-8).  God's justice demands that all sin be punished, but not that all sinners be punished for their sin.

Is eternal punishment unjust?

This is where many unbelievers will cry foul, because most feel that this is an unwarranted punishment.  Their actions are in no way deserving of death from earthly law, and, considering our own justice system finds its impetus in God's law, it seems unbalanced for them to receive eternal punishment from God.

Answer:

Punishment is always determined, not based on the duration of the crime, but the type of crime, and on the nature of victim.

Example:  A crime against a child receives stricter punishment than a crime against an adult.  Murder for the reason of racism carries a more stringent sentence.  It can only take 10 seconds to take a life, but this does not make a 25 year sentence or the death penalty unjust.

In all cases humanity has committed it's crime against a holy and eternal God.  The crime committed is a rejection of the Holy One.  For God, this is the greatest crime possible.  It is a crime against an eternal victim, therefore the punishment is eternal separation

Side Note: The irony of this is that many who cry injustice about Hell readily admit to hating the very thought of the biblical God yet feel that somehow an eternity in His presence (i.e. Heaven) would be enjoyable for them!  There is no reason to believe that those in hell have any desire to repent.  In fact, the bible seems to suggest that they would continue in anger against God, in light of the world's reactions to the judgments meted out in the book of Revelation.

For believers, God's fulfillment of justice upon sin and even punishment for those who are in sin, does not result in a resentment towards Him from His creatures. ( Micah 7.1-9;  Dan. 9.7-9)

God's love does not obligate Him to do the same loving things for all people, but what it does guarantee is that every act, whether we see it or not, is an act of love.  This is true of His righteousness as well.

How Then Shall We Live?

If God is not just then justice must be found in the hands of men, and this leads to endless death and destruction.  For the Christian, the only reason we do not seek revenge, is because we trust that God will deal righteously with evil.

One of the foundations to the problem of evil that we face is that there seems to be so much evil that goes unpunished, but the truth is that all evil is punished, if not in this life, certainly in the next.  When King David got enraged by the wicked people of the world rising up against God he would often write what's called imprecatory Psalms (Ps. 5), which  call for judgment upon the wicked.  As you read them you see that he did not hold back his feelings toward them, but rather than let his anger cause him to sin he gave it over to God.  In our times of overwhelming despair and anger at evil we must recall that God is righteous and will not let evil go unpunished.  Take that anger and that frustration and give it to the Lord, the Righteous Judge.