The Justice and Goodness of God (eBook)

1

Only a Holy God

Psalm 119:137

Introduction

Leon Morris brilliantly begins his book on judgment with several texts showing that judgment and justice belong together: if there is no judgment, then there is no justice.1 Isaiah proclaims that “the Lord is a God of justice” (Isa. 30:18). Malachi casts aspersions on those who doubt whether God is “the God of justice” (Mal. 2:17) since no one will trust or obey the Lord if he is unjust. Isaiah reminds us that the Lord doesn’t need human beings to inform him about what is just:

Who taught him the path of justice,

and taught him knowledge,

and showed him the way of understanding? (Isa. 40:14)

Abraham prays to the Lord about the fate of Sodom, asking with confidence, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Gen. 18:25). The Scriptures assure us that God is fair and just since “I the Lord love justice” (Isa. 61:8).

The Lord loves justice because his very person, his very nature, is just. He doesn’t love justice as something outside of himself. Thus Moses sings,

The Rock, his work is perfect,

for all his ways are justice. (Deut. 32:4)

The psalmist declares, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne” (Ps. 97:2). The Lord’s judgments are right because he loves justice, because he is justice.2 He doesn’t need anyone to teach him justice since it is his very nature or character—justice defines him.3 Or, better, the Lord defines justice. Since God is just, he always does what is right, and his judgments should not be questioned but praised. Because if there were no justice in the world, the world would not make sense. It would be a place of absolute chaos and anarchy.4

We see God’s justice from the first story in the Bible. Adam and Eve were commanded not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17; 3:2–3), and they were threatened with death if they violated God’s instructions (Gen. 2:17; 3:3). We are not given any reason why eating from the particular tree is forbidden. We can say that God as the Creator and Lord defines good and evil, determining what is right and wrong. This is not to say that good and evil are arbitrary, since moral norms reflect God’s character and nature, but as the sovereign Lord of all, God may also give commands that aren’t in and of themselves moral norms. Adam and Eve transgressed God’s command, rejecting his lordship over their lives, and consequently they were separated from God (Gen. 3:7–19), expelled from paradise (Gen. 3:23–24), and destined to die physically. Judgment for evil manifests itself in the earliest pages of the biblical story, showing that evil has consequences.

The flood story represents another shocking account of judgment, and once again it occurs at the outset of history, or at least the history that is recorded and written down. Human beings were indicted for being corrupt (Gen. 6:3, 11). Wickedness multiplied on earth like weeds spring up in a green lawn, and “every intention of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). Two features of the account are rather striking.

First, the descriptions of human wickedness are vague. We are told that human beings were corrupt and wicked, that their thoughts were always evil. But a specific portrait or description of the evil they engaged in is lacking. We might expect a lurid account of what human beings were doing, given the horrific deluge that destroyed virtually the entire human race. Instead of their evil being detailed, we are invited to use our imaginations to sketch in the evils perpetrated by human beings.

Second, all except eight people in the world were swept away in the cataclysm that snuffed out their lives. If we ask ourselves why such a drastic measure was needed, the answer is that human beings were corrupt and wicked, that they practiced what was evil. In fact, we are told that every thought and motive was evil (Gen. 6:5). The judgment was drastic and overwhelming because the evil being perpetrated was comprehensive, devastating, and horrific.

The reason for such a judgment isn’t obvious to many people in our own world, and thus I will attempt to chase down in this chapter the reasons for judgment in the Old Testament witness. There is no attempt to be complete here; instead I will take soundings of some Old Testament texts.5 In addition, I am treating the Old Testament as a canonical unity, and thus the answer we are seeking must be discerned by reading the Old Testament witness as a whole. Furthermore, it is important to recognize that the judgment of the flood is a preview of the final judgment. In the New Testament, the flood has a typological relationship to the final judgment, pointing to and anticipating it. The judgment that will come at Jesus’s return is compared to the judgment that devastated the world in the flood (Matt. 24:38–39; Luke 17:26–27; 2 Pet. 2:5, 9; 3:6). Thus, Old Testament accounts of judgment have an organic relationship to the final judgment, and they point to that judgment.

God Is Holy

One answer—a fundamental and important answer—as to why God judges evil is that he is holy. Often in the Old Testament, especially in Isaiah, Yahweh is called “the Holy One of Israel” (Ps. 78:41; Isa. 1:4; 5:19, 24; 10:20; 12:6; 17:7; 29:19; 30:11, 12, 15; 31:1; 37:23; 41:14, 16, 20; 43:3, 14; 45:11; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7; 54:5; 55:5; 60:9, 14; Jer. 50:29; 51:5). We often read about Yahweh’s “holy name” (e.g., 1 Chron. 16:10, 35; Pss. 30:4; 33:21; 111:9; Ezek. 36:20, 21, 22; 39:7, 25; 43:7, 8; Amos 2:7), which means that holiness is the Lord’s very nature and being.

Holiness is often defined as being separated from evil, though others have said that it signifies what is consecrated and devoted.6 These two definitions may not be as far apart as we might think since what is consecrated and devoted is also separated from common use. For instance, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place are devoted to the sacrificial cult, but we could say that both places are separated from common use as well. So, too, the Sabbath is a consecrated day, a holy day (Ex. 20:8), but it is also separated from other days and, thus, special. We could say the same thing about holy garments (Ex. 28:2), holy offerings (Ex. 28:38), holy anointing oil (Ex. 30:25), and so on. They are separated from ordinary life and consecrated for special use.

We also receive further help by investigating other words associated with holiness. For instance, priests are to distinguish “between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean” (Lev. 10:10; cf. Ezek. 22:26; 44:23). The holy is in the same category as that which is clean, while the unholy is unclean and defiled. Those from Aaron’s house can’t eat holy offerings until they are clean (Lev. 22:4). These texts refer to ritual defilement, which is not necessarily equated with sinfulness. Still, it seems that the reason uncleanness exists is because of the presence of sin in the world. Uncleanness, then, doesn’t necessarily point to personal sin, but it signifies a sickness in a world that is deformed and bent due to human evil. God stands apart from the world because of his holiness. “There is none holy like the Lord” (1 Sam. 2:2). Since the Lord is the “Holy One,” no one can be compared to him or is equal to him (Isa. 40:25).

The Lord is uniquely holy, and there is clearly a moral dimension to holiness. When the ark was returned from the Philistines to Israel in Beth-shemesh, some looked inside the ark and seventy people were struck dead (1 Sam. 6:19). They immediately responded, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?” (1 Sam. 6:20). The author is clearly telling us that the sin of Israel is such that they were unable to live in God’s presence, since he is the Holy One—that is, he is beautiful and full of goodness in contrast to the sinfulness of human beings.

Nor is this an isolated thought. The psalmist asks,

O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?

Who shall dwell on your holy hill? (Ps. 15:1)

The answer reveals that holiness has to do with the Lord’s moral perfection and his blazing goodness, since those who can live on his holy mountain are those who live righteously, who refrain from slander, who do not injure their neighbors, who esteem the godly, who are true to their word, and who don’t take interest and deprive the poor of their income (Ps. 15:2–5). A similar question is asked in Psalm 24:

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?

And who shall stand in his holy place? (Ps. 24:3)

The answer again has to do with goodness, since access to God...