Where is the God of Justice?

Imagine that someone you deeply love was harmed in such a way that criminal charges were pressed against the offender. And you chose to go to court in support of your loved one.

As you sat in the courtroom, you listened to the defense attorney plead with the judge that his client had done a lot of good things in life and was really a good person. He reasoned that, surely all those good things out weighed this one bad thing, so that no punishment should be given.

Wouldn't you be outraged? Wouldn't you be looking up at the judge hoping he wouldn't buy that crazy reasoning. I mean, if that were the case, where is the justice?

But isn't that the same reasoning of the world today?

Don't people walk around from day to day, putting off any greater concept of God and salvation because they think all their 'good' acts out weigh their 'bad' ones?

Funny how we think the world is so much worse than in years past, but listening to Malachi, it doesn't really seem so. I mean, we are justifying our sin just as they did in his day.

But thankfully we serve a God of justice! A judge who cannot bear to listen to that rediculous reasoning. Our God requires a just punishment for every crime committed. He will stand for nothing less.

But amazingly, in His compassion, He decided to pay the penalty Himself.

It's just as if the judge deciding your loved one's case had risen from his place, seated higher than the rest of the courtroom, stepped down from the judge's seat, and took the criminal's place. And then he let the officers of the court handcuff him and take him away to be sentenced, serving the punishment in the place of that criminal.

And that person who had formerly been charged with a crime got to freely walk out of the courtroom. 

Can you imagine that?

I wonder how long they would be grateful for being set free?
I wonder how long they would be relieved of their burden?
I wonder how often they would think about the judge?

I wonder how I consider myself in this scene...
Am I the judge?
Am I the jury?
Am I the offended?
Am I the offender?

And where is the justice?
This is TRUTH. Take some time today to reflect upon the grace of God and what He has done for us. Try to reflect upon how you might feel walking out of the courtroom after this trial.

​"I the Lord do not change"
"Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty
“On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
Malachi 3:6, 7, 17-18