There has been a strange trend within evangelical Christianity to extol the unfairness of God. It seems to me that this line of thought has become more prevalent over the last decade or so. It goes like this: all people are wretched sinners, deserving only eternal punishment from a holy God. This predicament can only be remedied through our faith in Jesus. Jesus was the pure and spotless lamb of God, who took upon himself the condemnation our sins deserved. On the great day of judgment, we shall all stand before God Almighty to give account of ourselves. Yet on this day, God will not judge fairly. We shall come before him deserving condemnation but will instead receive vindication. Aren’t you glad that God doesn’t treat us fairly?
This perspective is like a termite-infested house. It might at first glance appear very sound and reasonable. But push just a little below the surface and you will see that it is plagued with all kinds of problems – not just superficial, aesthetic problems but major, structural problems which threaten to bring down the entire edifice.
The entire Judeo-Christian worldview is built upon the affirmation of God’s justice. The children of Israel were unique among all the people of the ancient world. They claimed that their god was the one true God, the creator of all the earth. Yes, the world was full of injustice – violence, oppression, sickness, sorrow and death. But the people of Israel did not simply shrug their shoulders and resign themselves to the sorry state of the world. They believed that their God had created a world of beauty and order, where humanity could enjoy full and abundant life. And not just humanity. Israel’s scriptures held out the hope that when human beings, God’s image bearers, were set right, then all creation would flourish in the way that God intended. This understanding of the world all depends upon the justice of God – the affirmation that although the world seems to have spun out of control, God is determined to take any measures necessary to set things right again. In other words, God will act righteously in order to establish justice throughout the earth.
The bedrock reality of God’s justice is repeated over and over again throughout the scriptures. Here a just a few examples among nearly endless possibilities:
Psalm 33:5-6,9 “The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love. By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth…For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.” (Here is but one example of how the concept of God’s justice is closely related to the notion of God as the creator of all things, just as we discussed above.)
Deuteronomy 32:4 “He is the rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.”
Isaiah 5:16 “The LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.”
So what happens when we reach the New Testament? What happens to the notion of God’s justice? Does it change? Is it somehow modified, or even nullified?
Let’s first check out Romans chapter 2, where Paul carefully lays out the terms of God’s final judgment. The Apostle writes, “By your hard, unrepentant heart you are building up a store of anger for yourself on the day of anger, the day when God’s just judgment will be unveiled – the God who will “repay everyone according to what they have done.” Paul warns his readers that they must not presume that their wickedness will somehow go unchecked. Rather, God will one day call everyone to account. This is entirely consistent with Paul’s fundamentally Jewish worldview.
Paul goes on to explain exactly how God’s “just judgment” will work: “When people patiently do what is good…God will give them eternal life. But when people act out of selfish desire and do not obey the truth, but instead obey injustice, there will be anger and fury. There will be trouble and distress for every single person who does what is wicked…and there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good.”
Christians have a tendency to make God’s judgment far more complicated than is necessary. Thankfully, Paul makes things very clear for us. Eternal life will come to those who patiently do what is good. God’s anger and wrath will come upon all those who act wickedly and bring about injustice.
In Revelation 15 we find God’s people standing beside the heavenly sea, singing praises to God for his deliverance, just as the Israelites in Exodus 15 celebrated along the shores of the Red Sea where God had drowned the Egyptian armies. “Great and amazing are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty One. Just and true are your ways, O king of the nations. Who will not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before you, because your judgements have been revealed.”
In Revelation 19:1-2, the saints rejoice when God finally comes to fully establish his kingdom over the whole earth: “After this I heard something like a loud voice coming from a huge crowd in heaven. ‘Alleluia!’ they were saying. ‘Salvation and glory and power belong to our God! His judgments are true and just!'”
Later in Revelation 19, Jesus the Messiah rides forth, the divine warrior, ready to destroy all the dark forces which resist his rule and reign. “Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse. The one who was sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and he judges and makes war justly.”
At no point in the book of Revelation do we ever find God’s people saying, “Thanks God, for the unfairness of your judgment! If you were truly a God of justice, we would no doubt have been condemned.” What we do find is precisely the opposite! John the Seer (the author of the book of Revelation) repeatedly avouches that God’s judgment will be true and just.
So it should be clear that both the Apostle Paul and John the Seer firmly believed in the justice of God. But what did Jesus have to say about God’s final judgment? Thankfully, Jesus made things just as clear. In John 5:28-29 he proclaims, “The time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out – those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.”
All this repetition might seem as if I’m belaboring the point. This would not be necessary except for the phenomenon that we observed above: the fact that many Christian pastors and teachers seem to have embraced the unfairness of God. It is well worth stopping to reflect upon this dynamic. How is it that these Christians have come to believe something that contradicts the scriptures? There is certainly an important lesson here; if your theological system leads to a conclusion which directly contradicts the Bible, then it is high time to re-think your system!
So where precisely does this stream of thought go awry? Here is my answer: those who advocate this mindset fail to grasp the comprehensive nature of the salvation that is ours through Jesus. Too many Christians believe that salvation consists solely in placing your trust in Jesus’ death on the cross so that you may receive God’s forgiveness. Such people then imagine that God’s final judgment will basically consist of confirming the forgiveness we have received through Jesus, despite the fact that we still stuck in sin.
This viewpoint utterly fails to comprehend that there is much more to salvation than just forgiveness. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to minimize or marginalize the importance of God’s forgiveness. But if that is all we think about, then we’re liable to approach God’s final judgment hoping that God will treat us “unfairly,” when in fact the scriptures assure us that God’s judgment will be true and just.
We must remember that salvation consists, not just in forgiveness, but in the complete rehabilitation of the human person. Yes, faith in Jesus means acknowledging his sacrifice upon the cross, where he took upon himself our sin and shame. But faith does not end there. It involves repentance – the turning away from our previous corrupt patterns of thought, word and deed. We are now called to give our complete loyalty and allegiance to Jesus, making every effort to imitate him, to be conformed to his image and likeness. True Biblical salvation involves the complete transformation of the human person. Of course, this is not a “do it yourself” project. It’s a work of the Holy Spirit from first to last.
Therefore, on the day of final judgment, we shall be able to stand before God, “filled with the fruit of right living that comes through Jesus the Messiah.” And we will be able to have full confidence in our vindication, because God’s judgment is always true and just.
