This question is now hanging in the air: Do we really believe that God is absolutely righteous and just in everything – everything that He has done and everything that He is determined to do? Do we really believe that His righteousness and justice are the very foundation upon which His deity rests?
Like Christ’s disciples learned so long ago, it does not take long as we navigate God’s Word for us to run into some savage, stormy headwind swells of what is often called by sailors “big water,” and sizable speed bumps that severely shake our faith. These are swells of strange Bible truths that will challenge what we truly believe about God’s goodness and fairness. And really what we truly believe about God. It is truth that may weed out those who are not really “in.” It is these truths that become the motivation for much of the world’s hatred of Christians.
New believers soon come to realize that God did not choose to eradicate our sin natures the moment we were saved. Though we become a new creation and are given God the Holy Spirit to teach us and to become our spiritual GPS, we are still sinners and we live shoulder to shoulder with millions of other sinner/slaves – all trapped in a slave market. Our sin nature is so powerful that it touches and affects every thought that we think, every word that we say, every choice that we make, and everything that we do. One of my mentors said that evil touches even the good that we do. God’s Word wielded by His Spirit is the only real, unchangeable truth that we possess.
Not one of us is in the position to judge God’s righteousness and justice on the basis of what we may think is just and fair. For example, we must never think that an action of God is good, fair, and just according to our fallen standards of fairness, and that is why God wills it. Or said another way, we should never think that God wills it because we think it is right. We must bow to the fact that it is just, good, and fair because God wills it. Why? Remember, He is the God who gave us goodness, righteousness, justice, and truth! God’s character rests on it! It is truth because He says it! It is right because He does it! It is just because He says it is! He is the Rock! All His ways are just no matter how they appear to our sin-fogged minds (Deuteronomy 32:4).
God’s righteousness is the plumbline for all righteousness. God’s justice is the plumbline for all that is just. If we are seeking true “right,” we must learn what is right from God’s Word. If we are seeking true justice, we must go to God’s Word. God’s Word is the unchangeable Rock of our salvation (2 Samuel 22:47). Blessed be our Rock! Let God be true and exalted and every man a liar.
We must all give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His mercy endures forever (1 Chronicles 16:34). He is light and in Him dwells no darkness at all (1 Jn. 1:5). Jesus said that He had come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Him should not abide in darkness (John 12:46). John wrote, “In Him is life, and the life was the light of men (1 Jn. 1:4).
God created us to believe He exists and that He is the God that we are to worship! He created us with an eternal nature like His (Eccl. 3:11). God also stamped within every heart a belief that there exists an eternal right and wrong, and that all will be judged against this eternal standard (Rom. 2:14-15). God demands from us worship and praise (Psa. 33:8; 96:9).
God says of Himself that He is always just and always fair. And here is the big idea, no matter how any of His truth may appear to us: If all the above is true, all should gladly worship and honor Him. He is truly a God worthy of our love and our worship. “Let everything that has breath praise this Lord. Praise the Lord” (Psalm 150:6)!
But even with His eternal nature (His holiness) in mind, many do not choose to worship Him. The reason is clear. They apply their own human standards to Him. They desire to worship a God who would never choose to do anything that they themselves would not choose to do.
Jesus’ disciples recognized that no one had ever taught things like Jesus Christ. Following His miraculous feeding of the thousands with just the use of a small boy’s lunch of fish and bread, the people – His disciples included – were absolutely amazed. The disciples who had just been standing around suddenly became waiters, running back and forth feeding the people and returning to refill their baskets with a delicious fish and bread. The food just kept on coming. Wow! Some probably ate all they wanted for the first time in their lives. They loved that satisfied feeling. Their hunger was gone. Others saw the gravity of the miracle and said, “Surely this is the Prophet that God promised us.” Jesus reminded them of the miracle of the manna in wilderness that God the Father had given to them that they would not die. I get that! Then He told them that that the manna was speaking of Him. Speaking of Him?
This was a spiritual truth that had to be seen with spiritual eyes and heard with spiritual ears. This truth had never entered the minds of men before (1 Cor. 2:9). Jesus told the crowd that He was the very bread of life, and if they would just come to Him by faith they would hunger and thirst no more (John 6:1-35).