Understanding God's Love and Justice in Scriptures

Gods Love and Justice Lesson 6 God s Love of Justice

Memory Text Jeremiah 9:24 NKJV But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD. What does it mean to glory in something? If you want to boast about something, what should you boast about? What three things does the Lord delight in according to this text?

Overview God reveals Himself to us in nature and in Scripture, and it is clear we serve a mighty God, a good God, a loving God. He is not a static God but reacts dynamically to the decisions we make and always does what is right. Love and Justice Static Concept of God Dynamic concept of God Summary

Love and Justice What does God reveal to us about what He loves? (Ps 33:5; Ps 89:14) What is the justice that God loves? How would you define justice? How would God deal with us if He gave us only what we deserve?

A Static God? What texts of scripture point to the idea that God does not change? (Mal 3:6; Hebrews 13:8; James 1:17) What is the classical argument presented for the immutability of God? [Link] How can we understand the texts presented above without accepting the idea of the immutability of God?

A Dynamic God How did prayer affect Hezekiah s prospects as he faced death? (Isa 38:1-5) What happened to Nineveh when the whole city repented? (Jonah 3:10) How does God explicitly explain His dynamic response to our choices? (Jer 18:7-10) How do the Bible writers describe the emotions of God? Are they static or dynamic?

Summary While there is still much for us to learn about God, we can know from His word what He loves and what He hates: He loves justice and righteousness: He hates injustice and wickedness. Righteousness is doing what is right, and God alone determines what is right and wrong. Justice is getting what you deserve, mercy is not getting the punishment you deserve, and grace is getting the blessing you don t deserve. As sinners, what we deserve is eternal death, but God, in love gives us mercy and grace, by laying our sins on His Son and His Son s righteousness on us, allowing Him to be just and the justifier of those in Christ.

Summary Several texts in Scripture claim that God does not change. Using Greek philosophical thought, these texts have been imbued with the idea that God is unchangeable and unemotional. This leads to a static view of God in which He has no thought progression, and a future in which every detail is fixed by His infallible foreknowledge of it. These texts are better understood to indicate only that God s character does not change. The Bible pictures God as having a dynamic relationship with His creatures in which God enters into genuine give-and-take relationship with them.

Summary As seen in the prayer of Hezekiah, prayer indeed changes things, as God dynamically responded to his prayer. The preaching of Jonah is only one of several examples where God relented when the people repented. These dynamic changes in God s plans are consistent with His description of conditional prophecy through Jeremiah. The dynamic view of God seems to be in better agreement with biblical descriptions of God that allow Him to be responsive and emotional in real time, and it allows us to make choices which have a real effect on our future. Will you pray this week that God may see more of the things He loves in your life?

Righteousness and Justice Psalm 33:5 ESV - He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD. Isaiah 61:8 ESV - For I the LORD love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; Psalm 89:14 ESV - Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. [R]

Changelessness of God Malachi 3:6 ESV - "For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. Hebrews 13:8 ESV - Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. James 1:17 ESV - Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. [R]

Snapshots of God Richard W. Coffen 2010 Devotional, p 215 Aristotle, one of the most brilliant of Greek philosophers, reasoned that God must be perfect. Perfection entailed changelessness because to change for the worse meant losing perfection and to change for the better implied not having perfection originally. God was the only perfect being which necessitated being static. (Note that the word being is extremely significant in Aristotle s argument. It was the opposite of the word becoming. God never was becoming but always was being motionless.)

Immutability Richard Rice, The Openness of God, p 12 The traditional understanding of God s relation to the world is closely related to a particular concept of divine perfection. In this view, a perfect being enjoys every positive quality to the maximum degree. Hence God s holiness, faithfulness, and love could not possible be increased. And His wisdom and power are likewise incapable of improvement. In short, a perfect being simply cannot change. In the language of classical theology, God is immutable. [R]

Isaiah 38:1-5 (NIV) 38 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover. the LORD, 3 Remember, LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah wept bitterly. tell Hezekiah, This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. [R] 2Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to 4Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: 5 Go and

Jonah 3:10 ESV When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. [R]

Jeremiah 18:7-10 ESV If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. [R]