God Is Just

Last Sunday’s sermon was preached by Pastor Harry on “God Is Just” (Malachi 2:17 – 3:5; 4:1-2). The sermon and the whole service can be watched on our WIC YouTube Channel:

We’re working through the Book of Malachi, which looks at various aspects of being a good steward – or servant – for the Lord. In today’s part, the prophet Malachi deals with God’s justness, and the Israelites’ lack of it, and points out the consequences. Being a good steward of what God has entrusted us with, here on earth, means being as just as possible – especially with regard to our responsibilities towards others. It’s obvious that everybody wants to be treated justly – we are all very sensitive to injustice. But are we actually just towards others?

When we think of justice, we often imagine justice as a pair of weighing scales. That goes back to Greek mythology. Themis was the goddess of divine law and justice; and she is traditionally depicted as holding not only scales, but also a sword, to punish people with. Statues of her can be found outside many courthouses. So we also think of God as weighing us up on His scales: our thoughts, words and deeds. And so we get the idea that it’s vitally important for us to try to tip the scales in our favour – so that God will let us into heaven when we die. Hence our pre-occupation with good deeds, and our constant fear that we’re not doing enough to tip those scales in our favour. When our street activists evangelized all those teenagers in the summer, this thought was expressed again and again – the youngsters weren’t sure if they’d done enough good to be saved. They had an intellectual faith in Jesus – but no assurance of their own personal salvation. Maybe some of us here are in the same position.

But that’s not how God works! He’s not standing there with His scales, waiting for every good deed to drop into His “in tray”! Remember He created us to be good in the first place – so we were good. But somewhere along the way we turned against Him. We rebelled, and started to exalt ourselves over God. And we still do! The result is this mess we are in today, here in this earthly life. Everything we think and do is tainted by sin. And today’s reading shows us that people can get so carried away by sinning that they are no longer capable of even seeing God. “Where is the God of justice?”, they ask – even as they themselves are unjust to others! Many people today will tell you there’s no God – but they are totally blinded! They tell you they prefer to believe in science and the universe – and yet it is precisely scientific discoveries that reveal to us how amazingly great God is! Is it not strange that when heaven was just “up there” in the sky, everybody believed in God’s greatness? But now that we have trillions of stars and galaxies, all of a sudden His greatness has vanished. Totally illogical.

Unbelieving people do not realize that they’re actually sinning by not believing in God, and therefore by denying God’s justice. Unbelief is a sin, which came from turning deliberately away from a God that people originally did believe in. Like I said last week, the more you turn away from God, the more hard-hearted you become, in your own self-righteousness, your conviction that you are right, not God. And finally you cannot see God anywhere – and you make up your own ideas about what is just and unjust, and what is right and wrong. And actually you go a step further. You do a lot of things you know to be evil – and call them good. That’s what the Israelites did. It’s what we do today. There are leaders who say: “I had to invade that country and kill all those people – for the sake of peace!” Kill for peace. Also we ordinary folks – how many of us are living a double life?

Do you know how God weighs us up? Not by waiting for our good deeds to drop into His “in tray” – but by looking straight into our heart and seeing exactly who we are. That’s bad news for people who try to project a good impression of themselves – but good news for those who have good intentions but things never work out for them. It’s good news for the losers: “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God”. There will come a day when those who long for justice, but are not seeing it in their daily life, will be satisfied. Even now, God knows who they are; and He also knows those who reject Him and His justice. He looks at their heart, and sees the truth.

Malachi says the Lord whom the Israelites are seeking will come suddenly to His Temple. Malachi is prophesying the coming of Jesus Christ, who will be like a “blazing fire”. He will force people to choose for or against God. That’s exactly how it is – we either receive Jesus into our heart, or we reject Him. But one day we will all be judged by Him, and our final destiny will be determined: on the grounds of our love for the Lord, or our lack of it.

You know, we are so busy with our day-to-day life, that we don’t think much about the coming judgment. But actually, every day brings us closer to it, and to Christ our Judge. We desperately need His mercy! But He is already making His mercy available to us, because He died for us to take away our sins!

If we really want to turn to Christ, and come to Him with a heart of repentance and love, let us say to Him: “Lord, I know I’m a sinner. I’ve done many bad things in my life. I’m ashamed of them. I’ve let You down so often. I deserve the worst punishment You can give, because You are just. But at the same time, I love You, and ask Your forgiveness, and I want to be with You in heaven. I can’t bear to be separated from Your love. I can’t bear to be without Your love. Have mercy on me, a wretched sinner and a failure. Come into my heart in so powerful a way, through Your Holy Spirit, that I too will ‘leap with joy like calves let out to pasture’. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen”.