The Necessity of Justice

Most people, Christian and non-Christian alike, are at least passingly familiar with the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal...it's a list of do's and don'ts that most people have broken at least a few of in their lives. You may not have murdered or committed adultery, but have you shoplifted? Have you coveted what someone else has? Have you ever told a lie?

There are a number of other laws in the Old Testament, regarding everything from what to eat and what to wear to using fair measurements in trade to how to purify yourself to go into the temple. Many people think of these rules as onerous tasks that must be observed in order to get to Heaven. There is a measure of truth to that, and that measure is that we could get to Heaven if we followed every last rule all of the time without fail.

Here's the problem, though. We can't. We have already failed. We will continue to fail. Most of us, myself included, have failed today.

In the Old Testament, a priest could go into the Holy of Holies only at a certain time, and he had to be purified in a certain way, too. If he failed in this preparation or went in at the wrong time or with the wrong heart, he was killed instantly because the holiness of God will not allow anything unholy in His presence. The other priests had to tie a rope around one of this priest's legs and the priest had to move constantly to jingle little bells and let those outside the Holy of Holies know he was still alive. The point is that one mistake, just one, was a death sentence.

Where, then, does that leave us? Right where God wants us, fully dependent on Him.

When Jesus died for us and offered us His blood as atonement for our sins, He was NOT removing the law or invalidating it. He was fulfilling the death sentence on us all that the law demanded. In modern legal terminology, this would be called "double jeopardy." You can't be tried twice for the same crime. If your sentence has already been carried out, it cannot be carried out again. Jesus offered himself to take your punishment. You can accept it and be freed from your sentence, or you can accept your sentence.

Why is justice so important in this? Why couldn't God have just wiped out the law? Why did Jesus have to offer himself up for us?

God is holy and pure. He is so powerful that to come into His presence requires that we be pure. In the early days of the space program, they were worried about diseases that might be contracted out in space and so the astronauts were quarantined upon their return to earth. They had to be pure in terms of harmful diseases before they could rejoin the world. We can't taint God with our sin, but He does demand that we be spotless before we can join Him.

Thus, there are two ways into His presence. The first is through obeying all the law, choosing Him 100% of the time in all things in our life. But if we did that, we'd have no need for God. We would be self-sufficient. There would be no need to have a relationship with Him, but the problem is that the relationship is the greatest thing He offers us.

The other way is through accepting what Christ did for us. It opens the door to a relationship with God and makes us fully dependent on Him, like a child is dependent on his or her parents.

Without justice, there would be no need for either Christ or for a relationship with God. If there are no laws, or if there are laws but no punishment for breaking them, then there is anarchy. There is no safety or security for anyone, no way to have any sort of society. If you could do whatever you wanted with impunity, you would not need God because you would get to heaven anyway, but you would miss out on the best part of life. Because a relationship with God is the greatest thing we can have, and because God is holy, His justice bids us to draw closer to Him. It is for our benefit that there is justice, not for our harm.

Justice and mercy are then two sides of the same coin: opposite in one respect, but strikingly similar in another. Yes, God's laws carry punishment with them for violating them, but that punishment has been carried out on Jesus if we just accept it. It is God's justice that makes it necessary to have a relationship with Him, and it is His mercy that allows us to.