Holy Justice

“The holiness of God” (By R. C. Sproul) is a classic that I’ve been reading courtesy of it being a free download from the Desiring God website a while back.   Chapter 6 is entitled “Holy justice” and deals with passages that are challenging and down right offensive.  The chapter obviously speaks about justice but also covers God’s righteousness, mercy, wrath and grace.

There are some passages in the Old Testament where God seems to be violent, brutal and harsh in the extreme.  Some say the Old Testament God is a different, cruel God and beneath the New Testament God of love.

Nadab and Abihu

The first example tackled is the story of Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu, who were struck down by God for offering unauthorised fire (Lev 10:1-2) and is attributed to God’s wrath and judgement. 

Their instructions had been clear.  The tabernacle and all its vessels had been made to precise specifications.  The procedures were clearly laid out for the priests.  God declared the altar to be “most holy to the Lord” (Ex 30:9-10).  For offering unauthorized fire they were struck dead on the spot.

They had acted in clear defiance – a blatant act of rebellion.  It was treason against God as they profaned the most holy place.  They disobeyed.  God acted in justice.  They have no defence and we can understand God acting in justice.  But does the punishment go beyond the crime – and beyond justice into injustice?  Was it too harsh?  What about Genesis 18:25 which says the judge of all the earth will do right?

In the bible God’s judgements are always according to his righteousness.  They are never unfair, whimsical or tyrannical.  God cannot be unjust because his justice is holy.  Yet this feels harsh.

Uzzah

Uzzah reached out to stop the ark from falling off an ox-cart (1 Chron 13:7-11).  Again this offends our sense of justice.  Uzzah acts instinctively; not in some premeditated manner.  Yet God killed him on the spot too.

Again if we look at the facts, Uzzah is guilty.  As a Kohathite he couldn’t look at the ark, much less touch it (Num 4:15, 17-20).  The ark was made for carrying, not tossing onto the back of a cart.  But crucially, Uzzah presumed his hand was less polluted than the earth.  It’s not the earth that is in rebellion against God, however.  It’s not a touch from the earth that God wishes to prevent.  It’s humans touching the ark – those creatures of creation in rebellion against God – that is forbidden.  Uzzah is not innocent.  He wasn’t punished without warning or without violating a law.  This wasn’t whimsical but its suddenness and finality are unusual, surprising and shocking.

Justice and Divine Righteousness

Uzzah’s story is a story of divine justice.  It is not an example of divine mercy.   The bible links God’s justice to divine righteousness.  His justice is always an expression of His holy character and this means it conforms to some rules or a standard.  The ultimate standard is God’s own holy character.  What God does (external righteousness) is always consistent with who God is (internal righteousness), i.e. the moral excellence of his character.  As a holy God he is utterly incapable of an unholy act.  He killed Uzaah, Nadab and Abihu (and Ananias and Sapphira) in righteous acts of judgement.  He is just.

When God announced to Abraham that he would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah Abraham protested, fearing the innocent righteous would be punished along with the wicked.  “Far be it from you… to kill the righteous with the wicked… Will not the judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen 18:23-25).  Abraham barters with God, and the inference from the passage is that if God had found just one innocent person in the cities he would have spared the entire city.  But the towns were destroyed.  God did right.  No innocent people were punished.  He never condemns the innocent, or clears the guilty.

Mercy

God does not only act with justice.  He also acts with mercy.  Mercy is not justice but nor is it injustice.  Injustice violates righteousness.  Mercy manifests grace and kindness and is often nonjustice – delayed justice. In mercy justice may be delayed but it will eventually be administered.

Many state that there is a difference between the tones of the two testaments.  Take capital punishment, for example.  There is a substantial list of crimes that in the Old Testament are punishable by death – murder, striking or cursing parents, rape, false prophecy, false witness in a capital trial, etc, etc.  This seems much more severe than the New Testament God of Love. 

Yet the Old Testament itself is a massive reduction in the list of crimes punishable by death.  The Old Testament is in fact a record of amazing grace!

In creation all sin was punishable by death (Ezek 18:4, Gen 2:17) and the punishment was to be immediate.   When Adam and Eve sinned, they did immediately suffer a spiritual death.  Their sin also warranted an immediate physical death.  But God on that day granted them mercy in terms of the full measure of administering the punishment.  The full measure of God’s justice was delayed so that grace and mercy could be established.

Yet the death penalty was imposed and is still imposed.  Adam and Eve died.  We all will die (unless Christ returns first) because we are all under the death penalty for sin.  We all sit on death row (and that by God’s mercy) awaiting our execution.  Nature – which works under God’s command – is God’s great avenger.  (This paragraph raises questions in my mind).

The conquest of Canaan

When the exodus ended the Israelites entered the land of Canaan in a conquest.  God explicitly commanded the slaughter of men, women and children.  No treaty was permitted to be made and no mercy was to be shown (Deut 7:1-2).  God commanded genocide.  Ethnic cleansing on a scale we have not witnessed.  Some find it hard to believe that God would or could issue such a command but there is an even greater historical precedent – the Flood.   In both cases the assumption is that God wiped out innocent people.  We have already read that God does not punish the innocent and this was again the case in the conquest of Canaan (and in the flood).  Of all the multitudes of women and children living in Canaan none were innocent.  The conquest was an explicit act of righteous judgement on wicked nations.  God made that clear – but also made it clear to the Israelites that they also were not innocent.  God was not destroying a wicked people for the sake of a righteous people.  God gave justice to the Canaanites and mercy to the Jews.  In Deuteronomy 9:4-6 God warns the Israelites to not think they have been given the land because of their righteousness.  No, it is because of their wickedness that they will be driven out.  It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity… Understand then that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to posses, for you are a stiff-necked people.

God makes his point three times that the Israelites are no better than those other nations.  Underlying God’s actions are his holiness.  He moves to punish the evil by the Canaanites, and he moves to prepare a land and a nation for a holy purpose.  God (in a rare move) explained himself (Deut 7:3-6).  God did not choose Israel because they were holy.  He chose them to make them holy.   They were set apart as the means of God’s redemption plan (hence fulfilling his promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob).  They were also to be holy in a sense of purification.  The Promised Land was to bring forth the Messiah.  There wasn’t room for any pagan practices.

But here’s the question.  Is it unjust – or evil – to punish all sin with death? Or to put it another way, was it unjust of God to say that Adam and Eve would die?

Divine Authority and Human Sin

In creation God was not obliged to give us the gift of life.  He is not indebted to us.  The gift of life comes by His grace and stands under His divine authority.  The task given to humans in creation is to bear witness to the holiness of God; to be His image bearers.  We are made to be his ambassadors.  Sin forfeits the gift of life.  Is it unjust or evil of God to impose the death penalty for all sin?  To answer yes slanders God, violates his holiness and declares the righteous judge of all the earth as unrighteous.

When I sin I commit treason against God because I am saying His law isn’t good.  His authority doesn’t apply to me.  My judgement is better than His.  I am above His authority and jurisdiction.  I have the right to do what I want, not what He commands me to do.  The slightest sin is defiance, rebellion – a revolution.

More than that, I am his witness.  Look at me and you will see God’s character because I am made in His image.  This is how your creator behaves.  As an image bearer of God I declare to the whole of creation what God is like.  My sin corrupts that image and portrays God as one who is covetous, ruthless, a murder, bitter, etc.  I declare God to be unrighteous, unjust, unholy.  Could I be any more guilty?  Could I commit a more serious crime?  Truly the death penalty fits the crime.

Mystery of mercy

The mystery of sin isn’t that the sinner deserves to die but rather that the sinner – in the average situation – continues to exist.  Why does God permit this ongoing human rebellion?  The truth is that God is long-suffering, patient and slow to anger.  So much so, that when he does act in justice we are shocked and offended by it.  We forget that God’s patience is intended to give us time to repent.  We forget that.  We take grace for granted and assume that God either doesn’t care about our sin, or is powerless to act.  We think we will get away with our rebellion.

Questions

I alluded to some questions previously:  What about Enoch and Elijah?  What about the believers who will still be alive when Jesus returns?  None of these people will die?  How does that sit with the earlier statements “He never condemns the innocent, or clears the guilty.” And “we are all under the death penalty for sin.”?

Well their sins have resulted in a death – the death of Jesus.  But Jesus died for the sins of all, and despite that most of His elect have and will die.  Have Enoch and Elijah escaped or cheated justice?  How come God’s righteousness is not violated by taking them to heaven before receiving their punishment for sin?  God can choose to show mercy to whomever he wants.  Are these examples really showing “super mercy” to specific individuals?  The New Testament makes it clear that there will be believers alive when Jesus returns, so He obviously has no qualms about having more humans avoid death. 

Secondly, if we live only by God’s mercy and under his authority what implications does that have for a human taking the life of another human?  I’m thinking abortion, euthanasia (particularly “assisted suicides”), and – perhaps most challenging – war.   Is there any biblical basis for taking the life of another human being?  I’ll need to look into this later.

The Cross

The chapter of the book tries to show that God’s justice is not whimsical or unwarranted.  It is not overly harsh or injust.  God has reserved for himself the ultimate prerogative, namely that he shows mercy to whomever he wishes.  He may choose to give mercy to one and justice to another and that is his prerogative and does not violate his holiness.  God’s wrath is most evident at calvary.  If God’s wrath shocks, let us be shocked at the cross.  It would have been horrific for God to have punished Jesus – the only truly innocent man – if Jesus had not first willingly taken upon himself the sins of the world.  Once he did that, He became the most vile thing in the sight of the Father.  God poured his wrath on this obscene abomination.  This justice was done for us.  This act of Jesus – for us – shows the majesty of his grace.  At the same time we see the justice and grace, wrath and mercy of God.  All are present.  All are satisfied.  None are denied or contradicted.