“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?”
GENESIS 18:17
He didn’t, as we found out last week. God and Abraham negotiated over the point at which the city would be spared, but the righteous were too few. It was too late. The sin of Sodom had become the point at which there was no turning back. God’s patience had run out.
Already we have seen this scenario play out. God tolerates sin up to a point, and then no more. Justice must be meted out. Abraham asked, “Will not the judge of all the earth do right?” GENESIS 18:25.
The answer is obvious. Yes. Absolutely, because God is a God of justice.
J. I. Packer speaks of God’s justice this way:
“It becomes clear that the Bible’s proclamation of God’s work as Judge is part of His witness to His character…It shows us also that the heart of justice which expresses God’s nature is retribution.”
“The rendering to men what they have deserved; for this is the essence of a judge’s task. To reward good with good, and evil with evil, is natural to God. So when the New Testament speaks of the final judgment, it always represents it in terms of retribution. God will judge all men, it says, according to their works.”
Our confidence when we consider God as a God of justice is the blood of Jesus. The sacrificial death of God’s Son absorbed the wrath of God, meaning that we can escape sure spiritual death. We deserve to die, but thanks to Jesus we have been snatched from the fire. Praise God!
“Even though we live in a fallen world where sin mars our concept and the timing of justice, God wants you to know that He is just, that He is fair, that as you trust Him, in the big picture of this all-knowing, sovereign, all-wise God, you will never, ever be treated unfairly.” —CHIP INGRAM