GOD IS LOVING AND JUST
The Bible tells us “the Lord is a God of justice”—“yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you…to show you compassion” (Isaiah 30:18).
GOD’S LOVE AND JUSTICE IS SHOWN IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
We see God’s love and justice in the Old Testament. Because of God’s love and compassion, he delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt. And he miraculously took them through the Red Sea, and many difficulties in the desert wilderness to a promised land “flowing with milk and honey.” (Exodus 14; Numbers 14).
However, after entering the promised land the people of Israel repeatedly sinned and disobeyed the Lord. The Lord repeatedly warned them by his prophets that they would be taken in to captivity if did not repent of their sins. But they chose to believe false prophets who told them what they wanted to hear. Eventually they were taken into captivity by their Babylonian enemies; but the Lord promised to bring them back after seventy years of captivity, when they had repented (Jeremiah 29). After being in captivity for seventy years they had a repentant heart; God delivered them as he promised. God put it in the heart of King Cyrus of Persia to deliver Israel from captivity (Ezra 1:1-4).
The scriptures say: “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love…he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:8-10). “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son… God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:6-11; Proverbs 3:11-12).
GOD’S LOVE AND JUSTICE IS SEEN CLEARER IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
The New Testament says: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3: 23). “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16)–“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18).
- God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). “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” (1 Peter 3:18). “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8).
- Because of God’s great love, he is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9); and be saved from death and eternal separation by believing in his Son Jesus Christ (John 3:16). And he instructs us whom he has saved and love God to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16).
The Bible shows God is loving and just. We experience his love and justice when we repent and believe in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who died on a cross for our sins.
