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| We All Will Face Justice (2 Cor. 5:10) |
God has woven into our very DNA a sense of absolute right and wrong, a recognition of and desire for justice and love. Romans 2:15 says "the law of God is written on their hearts." Deep down, we all know what's right and wrong. That's clearly shown in the video, too, when the leader interviews his little boy, who innately recognizes Kony's deeds are evil and must be stopped.
The Bible also repeatedly emphasizes that God loves justice because God is love, and He wants us to pursue justice and love. Here's just a sample of the many verses in the Bible:
Psalm 11:7
For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; the upright will see his face.
Psalm 33:5
The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.
Psalm 89:14
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.
Psalm 101:1
I will sing of your love and justice; to you, LORD, I will sing praise.
Isaiah 16:5
In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it—one from the house of David [referring to the Messiah, Jesus]—one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.
Isaiah 61:8
“For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
Hosea 2:19
I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.
Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Luke 11:42
Jesus on justice and love: “Woe to you ... neglect justice and the love of God."
Because God loves justice, he has appointed a day when he will judge each one of us in righteousness, and his judgment and justice will be perfect:
Hebrews 9:27
It is appointed for man to die once and after that the judgment ....
2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Acts 17:31
God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
The bad news is that each one of us, like Joseph Kony, deserves justice and punishment. We deserve to be found guilty of our countless sins against God and held accountable for violating his perfect moral standard:
Romans 3:10-23
None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
The good news, however, is that God is rich in mercy. He is willing to save us from the just consequences of our sins and forgive us, making us just and righteous in His sight, though we are not, granting us eternal life. God poured out His divine justice upon His own Son to show Himself both just and loving that those who repent and believe may receive mercy:
Isaiah 53:4-11
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Romans 3:21-26
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:21
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Ephesians 2:2-9
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit ....
Jesus told us what we must do to get the benefit of what He has done for us. And he told his followers what to tell others to do:
Mark 1:15
Jesus said, "repent and believe the good news."
Luke 24:46-47
Jesus said, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations ...."
John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Acts 17:30
God commands all people everywhere to repent.
Acts 20:18-21
The Apostle Paul decared: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
When we hear of injustice in the news, our hearts naturally cry for justice out of a deep sense of love for the victims, just as God has designed them. When we feel we have been dealt with unjustly, we cry for justice. But when the pure light of God's law shines on our own hearts and reveals what we truly are deep down inside and exposes all of our sinful thoughts, attitudes, and deeds--which are too many for any of us to count--we must turn to God our Savior in genuine repentance with a cry for forgiveness and mercy and cling to Jesus Christ, the sole source of salvation, forgiveness, mercy, and righteousness.
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