Lesson 72: God’s Justice
God forgives our sins when we repent sincerely. But the universe itself demands justice. There is no punishment God could inflict on us, no matter how many years spent in hell, that could satisfy our sin debt; because God is eternal the scope of our sin and punishment must be eternal. So, what we cannot do for ourselves God did by allowing the sinless Jesus, His Son, to suffer punishment to pay our sin debt. Through faith in Him we have forgiveness of all our sins. We are supposed to give evidence of our faith by turning from our sins, by crucifying them with Christ on the Cross. As such we have no right; we are bought and paid for by Jesus. God’s justice is satisfied by us accepting Jesus as Savior and turning from sin, or by Him exercising His wrath and punishment on those who don’t accept His salvation. We need to be constantly repenting, trying to turn from sin, praying, reading scripture, and glorifying God.
From Sermon based on James: We don’t do good works to earn justification with God; we do them as a result and an expression of justification by God. We will endure trials all though this life because we are fallen beings living in a broken world. When we face trials, these make us see what we turn to, if not God, then He needs to make us aware of our need to turn from trusting in lesser things to trusting in God. This will bring us to maturity in faith. Part of the way we express justification with God is through repentance for not expressing this strongly enough and by asking for His help in living our faith.