The Consistency of the Triune God’s Justice

In other religions, God is thought to suspend His justice on account of the good works of sinners. For Muslims and Jews in particular, God is capable of suspending His justice so long as those who seek to please Him are good enough. But this is completely contrary to the nature of God, who is altogether holy and cannot stand to forego the punishment of sin. There are several texts which make this very plain—

Proverbs 11:21—Though they join forces, the wicked will not go unpunished; But the posterity of the righteous will be delivered.

Proverbs 16:5—Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Though they join forces, none will go unpunished.

Proverbs 17:5—He who mocks the poor reproaches his Maker; He who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished.

Proverbs 19:5—A false witness will not go unpunished, And he who speaks lies will not escape.

Jeremiah 30:11—I will correct you in justice, And will not let you go altogether unpunished.”

Jeremiah 49:12—For thus says the LORD: “Behold, those whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunk. And are you the one who will altogether go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink of it.

John 16:8—And when [the Holy Spirit] has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.

Acts 17:11—He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.

Romans 2:12—For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law… 

Galatians 5:10— I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.

Notice that last text, in Galatians, how judgment is connected to the protection and comfort of the saints. Every religion aside from Christianity has a view of God which understands Him to be an imperfect judge. One who arbitrarily decides who should be delivered and who should not be delivered based on the subjective quality of each one’s works, notwithstanding their prior sinfulness. The true triune God of Christianity, however, judges each one’s works without partiality, and thus maintains perfect justice. Therefore, as Christians, we need to understand God as a perfect, uncompromising Judge. It is only when we understand the uncompromising justice of God that we properly understand the project of God’s grace in the gospel, and why gospel-satisfaction of God’s justice is so necessary.

All other world religions, especially Islam and Judaism, fail to recognize true justice in God. They instead require God to make determinations based on the deeds of the creature without any place for the satisfaction of His justice upon their sin. Their sin, then, goes unpunished. This, perhaps, provides an explanation as to why both Islamic and Jewish societies are rather lawless in our day and age. They have no divine exemplar for their justice system.