If you are a Christian who pays attention to the culture around you, you just might be tempted to yearn for some justice. We seem to so often be in a minority position. The power of the modern sexual revolution, the atheistic ideologies of our universities and the attack against the value of life seems utterly overwhelming. Many of us wonder how many more meetings of congress, or what legal decision might deem much of what we do and say to be illegal. Where is the justice for God’s people?
It’s easy to look at the world around us and miss some basic facts. We know from Scripture that every single person one day will stand before the God of the Universe (Hebrews 9:27, 2 Corinthians 5:9-10). We know that God is sovereign over the nations and that there is none who will ever have power over him (Psalm 2, Isaiah 40:15, Revelation 11:18). We only need to read the book of Revelation to know that Christ brings victory in every realm in this world and over every spiritual force including Satan himself. We read these truths in Scripture and while we long for wrong to be put right at the end, we also wonder how it can be that the wicked prosper.
King Asaph wondered this very same thing and then realized that anyone rejecting God in this world may prosper for a while but will see greater folly in what is to come. Psalm 73:18-20 Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
Often a Christian will take solace in the fact that God’s judgment will happen at some future time. One thing many of us don’t consider is that God has already come into this world in salvation and judgment in the person of Christ. In the reality of Christ and his work on the cross there is a sealing of judgment upon all who will not repent of sin and trust him. We understand this in two ways. First, we understand that God is a God who is righteous and holy and must bring judgment upon sin. Second, this is displayed in the cross.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God’s justice is shown in the cross in that it was poured out on Christ who substituted himself to receive punishment due for our sin. The reason we can be forgiven of sin is because of God’s justice. His justice has been delivered upon Jesus. Anyone who believes in Jesus for forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with God can do so because justice has been served on the Son in our place. The cross is the seal of the justice of God. In rejection of the cross, God’s justice remains on the sinner and will be finally executed on the final day.
Where is the justice for God’s people? It has already been delivered on Christ. Where is the justice for the rest of the world? It remains hanging over the head of every soul who will not repent and believe in Jesus Christ. We should be very careful to see that the winnowing fork of justice has indeed come in Jesus Christ and delivered in and through the cross. Whether someone does well or seems to have power in this world in the meantime is a trivial matter. The cross will be the weapon of justice that everyone remembers for all eternity.