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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman The
Demands Of Justice 2
Thessalonians 1:6 states that God is just. "God
is just: He
will pay back trouble to those who trouble you" God
does not only act justly. He
is just. His very essence is
Just. He has no other
alternative, then, but to demand an accounting of humanity's sin, a
verdict of guilty, and a sentence of eternal death.
If He fails to exercise justice, He fails to be just, and thus,
He violates His very nature. In
short, He fails to be God. With
this in mind, read Nahum 1:2.
"The Lord is
a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes
vengeance and is fierce in wrath. The Lord takes
vengeance against his foes; he is furious with his enemies." Nahum
1:2 states that God exhibits fierce jealous wrath by avenging His
enemies. Many struggle over
this portrayal of a loving God. Some
say it's an Old Testament portrayal, but it's not.
Hebrews 12:29 reads: "...
for
our God is a consuming fire." Now
read Hebrews 13:8. "Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever." Understanding
that Jesus was God in a human form while on earth, and He is God in some
kind of super-human form now, I conclude that the essence of God remains
constant. He, therefore, is
a consuming fire that exhibits jealous fierce wrath against His foes
today as He did in Nahum's day. Of
course, God's jealous wrath cannot be understood in terms of our human
jealous wrath that stems from sin. It's
based on God being just and the owner of creation.
God is, thus, justified in avenging those who oppose Him and that
which is His. It
is God, not us, who avenges His enemies.
Both present and past history shows us that as Christians we
often take vengeance into our own hands.
That's not our job. Hebrews
10:30 reads:
"For we know the one who has said, Vengeance
belongs to me; I will repay, and again, The
Lord will judge his people." God
being just was demonstrated on the cross of Christ, which in fact, was
a legal transaction. Justice
demands an accounting, a verdict, and a sentencing.
God, the Universal Judge, pronounced the verdict of guilty and the
sentence of eternal death on all that is human.
That being so, His love motivated Him to be the recipient of His
own fierce jealous wrath. He
pronounced the verdict of guilty and the sentencing of death on Himself.
Justice was facilitated through His act of sacrificial love. These Biblical facts
remain. God is just.
Justice demands an accounting, a verdict, and a sentencing.
God, not us, must then, avenge all of His enemies, whether
national or individual, with a demonstration of fierce jealous wrath
(Revelation 18, 19, and 21). It
is the demands of justice by a God who is just.
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