We all love to hear about God’s love. John 3:16 is probably the best known and favorite verse in the Bible. It tells of God’s incredible love for us; how he loved us so much that he did not spare even his son but gave him to die for our sins. God indeed does love us in a manner and at a level we cannot comprehend. After all, God is love. God doesn’t simply possess love. He isn’t just like love, or even the greatest example of love. He literally is love. Love does not exist without God.
But God is also a God of justice. He is a just and fair God. His righteousness is composed not just of his love, but of his justice as well. Like love, it can be said that God is justice. Justice is not simply another characteristic of God. He defines justice. Justice, like love, cannot exist apart from God. We would not know what fairness was without God.
The justice of God by its nature has rules. Not rules so much in the sense that you better obey these, but more so in a sense that these rules define the order of all things. Similar to the law, or rule of gravity; drop a rock and it falls to the earth. God created all things, not simply material things but also the system of how everything works.
Proverbs 6:7 tells us ‘we reap what we sow’. Just as in physical nature, grass seed produces grass and seeds from weeds produce more weeds, likewise, our choices, our actions, our response to God will produce results in keeping with their quality and nature.
God does not simply sit by and watch His creation float through time. His righteousness reacts to how we live our lives. If it didn’t, He would not be righteous. Ecclesiastes 3:17 says, “God will bring judgment to both the righteous and wicked and will judge every deed.” Consider this – “When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.” Proverbs 21:15