The Justice of God. 4

True, blessedly true, that every volition of His, is both a holy and a wise one—yet God alone decided what is holy and what is wise. He is under no law, and tied by no rules—but ever acts according to His own good pleasure and that alone—and very frequently He does that which is flatly contrary to our ideas both of wisdom and justice.

It is this very fact which infidels and agnostics have sought to make captive out of. In the face of what confronts them both in creation and in providence, they have drawn the conclusion that either the Almighty is a capricious or cruel Tyrant—or that having brought the world into existence He has withdrawn and left it to work out its own destiny. They ask, Why are there such glaring inequalities in nature: one child being born normal—and another cripple; one enjoying health—and the other being a sufferer all its days? Why are some born under a government which gives them freedom—while others are doomed to abject slavery? Why have some men more enlarged understanding than others—and some stronger passions than their neighbors? Why is it that virtue so often passes unrewarded—and the wicked flourish and prosper? If it be replied, All of this is the consequence of sin, then the infidel asks, Why is there untold suffering among innocent animals?

And what is the answer to these expressions of unbelief, these outbursts of rebellion? How shall we silence those who wickedly affirm that the works and ways of the Most High God, are stamped with injustice? Or, what is far more to the point, how are young Christians to be dealt with, who are disturbed by such troublers of their peace? The blatant enemies of the Lord we can well afford to treat with silent contempt, for the great Jehovah needs no efforts of ours to vindicate His character—in due time He will Himself close their mouths. But as to removing such stumbling stones from the path of our fellow pilgrims, there is but one satisfactory and sufficient way, and that is by maintaining the sovereign rights of Him with whom we have to do—by insisting that He is the Potter—and we but clay in His hands to be molded just as He pleases.

Why has God given light to the sun, grass to the fields, heat to fire, and cold to ice? Why, in short, has He done any of those things which we see He has done—when He could easily have done otherwise? There is only one adequate answer: in the varied manifestations of His attributes and in the communication of good or evil to His creatures, God has acted according to the sovereignty of His own will. Nor is it to the slightest degree unfitting that God should act thus. Sovereignty is the most godlike of all the perfections of the Divine character, for it is that on which the solemn supremacy of the great Jehovah chiefly rests. Our concept of "the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity" would not be raised but lowered, if we discovered that He was hampered in His actions. The display of His own glory as the King of kings and Lord of lords, must take precedence over everything else.

"The Lord is upright . . . there is no unrighteousness in Him" (Psalm 92:15). Yet this is patent not to carnal sight—but to the vision of faith alone. The eyes of the naturally blind, cannot discern the light of the sun, nevertheless it is full of light. In like manner, the eyes of the spiritually blind are incapable of perceiving the equity of God's ways—yet they are all righteous. But we repeat, they are righteous not because they are conformed to some external standard of excellence, nor even because they are in harmony with one of the Divine attributes—but solely because they are the ways of Him who "works all things after the counsel of His own will." God's commanding Abimelech to deliver Sarah to Abraham—or else He would destroy both him and his household" (Gen. 20:7), may seem unjust in man's estimation—but has not the great God the right to do as He pleases?

Take the most extreme example of all: God's choosing one unto eternal life—and another unto eternal death. Yet none who, by grace, bow to the authority of Holy Writ, find any stumbling block therein. Though they do not profess to understand the reason for God so acting—yet they unhesitatingly acknowledge His right so to do. Distrusting their conceptions of justice and injustice, they submit to the high sovereignty of Him who is Lord over all. And it is this very submission which brings to their hearts a peace which passes all understanding. Amid the profound mysteries of life, the perplexities of their own lot, though God's judgments are a "great deep" and His ways often "past finding out," they have the unshakable assurance that the Judge of all the earth has done, is doing, and shall do, "right."

And why is it that the believer is so confident that simply because God does a thing, that it is necessarily right and good? Because he has learned this very lesson from the lips of Christ, "I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, because this was Your good pleasure" (Matt. 11:25, 26). Observe the character in which the Father is here viewed: "Lord of Heaven and earth," that is, as Sovereign supreme with indisputable right. Note the basis of action which the Redeemer attributes unto Him: "because this was Your good pleasure." No other explanation is given, none other is needed—that is all-sufficient. Finally, mark well His "Yes, Father": however strange it may seem to us, that closes the door to all impious inquiry and speculation. We are not to be the judges of God's actions—but the doers of His will. His own "good pleasure" is His only rule.

Moreover, let it not be forgotten, that Christ conducted Himself in perfect consonance with His public declarations. In Gethsemane we find that He resolved His sufferings into the sovereign pleasure of the Father. How striking and how blessed to hear Him say, "May Your will be done." This is the more remarkable and most pertinent to the point before us, when we note that He immediately prefaced His acquiescence by affirming, "Abba, Father! All things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will" (Mark 14:36). How plainly do such words expose the error of those who contend there was an absolute necessity why God must punish sin, and why if His people were to be pardoned a Substitute must suffer in their stead. Christ knew God had willed that He should drink this dreadful cup, and He meekly submitted thereto—but He made it crystal clear that God had willed this, not because His nature demanded the same—but simply because this was the way His own good pleasure had selected.

Those words, "All things are possible for You," in such a connection, prove beyond all shadow of doubt that the Father acted freely, and without any compulsion from His holiness or justice in appointing Christ to make satisfaction for the sins of His people. Scripture nowhere says that He can by no means clear the guilty—but rather that He "will by no means clear the guilty" (Exo. 34:7). In like manner the Apostle Paul was moved to write, "What if God willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction" (Romans 9:22). It was not that any necessity of His nature demanded He should do so—but because it was the pleasure of His own imperial will so to do.

As it has been pointed out above, we must distinguish sharply between the absolute freedom possessed by God as Lord over all—and that which His perfections require from Him under the economy He was pleased to institute. His fidelity requires Him to make good His Promises, and His veracity to fulfill His threatenings—but He was under no constraint whatever to make any promises or threatenings. His justice requires Him to impartially administer the law He has given—but He was under no absolute necessity of framing any law at all. Sin is a disease—could He not have sovereignly healed it had He so pleased? Sins are "debts"—was He unable to cancel them had He so desired? Perish such a thought! It is argued that God is "a consuming fire" and that fire cannot but burn when it comes into contact with that which is combustible. Have such foolish objectors forgotten that fire burns only as God orders it so to do? It did not consume the bush, nor the three Hebrews in Babylon's furnace! God "works all things after the counsel of His own WILL" (Eph. 1:11).

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