Think of the 8 year old girl eyeing up the slices of cake on the kitchen table. She looks at her siblings, worried about who’s going to get the biggest slice. There’s one question on her mind.

Or think of the world leaders looking over the war-torn region. The diplomacy is delicate, they worry about how it might all pan out and there’s one question on their minds.

That question is the same each time. Will the outcome be fair? Will it be just?

We hate it when life isn’t fair don’t we? In one sense there’s something right about a response like that. God is just and good and we’re made in his image and so a concern for justice is good and right. But of course, we can get the justice thing wrong sometimes. The child can worry about others taking the biggest slice, but happily take it themselves. The world leaders can talk about a just peace, but all have different ideas of what that means for them.

Sure, we can be concerned for justice, but perhaps if we’re honest, we can be a little too quick to justify ourselves.

If we’re honest, we can be a little too quick to justify ourselves.

God’s people in Malachi’s day summed up that tension. God had told them (Malachi 2) that he wouldn’t accept the offerings from their hands. Their worship was half-hearted, their giving a sham, their teaching false, their offerings cheap.

And yet, they looked at the ruling Persian empire and what did they see? A people who took advantage of the poor, weak and stranger (3:5). And things seemed to be going OK for them! Why was God not going after them? God, that’s not fair!

And so they said (2:17), ‘All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, or where is the God of justice?’

Don’t we find ourselves asking the same question at times, when God allows things we don’t understand. Yet, as we’ve been thinking already, our own understanding of justice is pretty flawed isn’t it?

And so, as foolish, sinful people cry out, ‘Where is the God of justice?’ The Father points to the cross, where Jesus was nailed to die and says, ‘There he is!’

‘You think I don’t know the difference between good and evil? You think I can’t distinguish between right and wrong? My concern for justice is so fierce and true, I’ve taken my beautiful, eternal, perfect, sinless Son and I’ve poured out my wrath and anger and judgement on him, so that justice might be satisfied and your sin might be forgiven.’

Where is the God of justice? The God of justice came, nailed to a cross to die so that justice could be done.

And just as certainly as Jesus came, so the God of justice will come again, to judge the world in righteousness. And in the face of his coming Malachi asks, ‘But who can endure the day of his coming, who can stand when he appears?’1

The God of justice came, nailed to a cross to die so that justice could be done.

The evangelistic task is sobering, isn’t it? Despite outstanding achievements and best efforts, people cannot justify themselves. And without the Lord, without his forgiveness, people cannot, will not, stand on that day.

Our hearts are to be moved that 81.7% of the people in the world do not know a Christian and 3 billion have little or no access to the gospel.2

What a joy therefore, to see God continue to move the hearts of his people to make sacrifices that others might hear, believe and one day stand before the God of justice, clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

Will you go on praying for God to send workers where the gospel is yet to go? Pray that each of us might have hearts that are moved for the lost.

Why not show this short film (Experts in Pleasure, Infants in Joy) by UFM worker, Jonathan Gilmore for Desiring God, in your church or small group.

And you can read more about Jonathan Gilmore’s ministry here and here.

 

Michael Prest, Director, UFM Worldwide

 

1. Malachi 3:2. 2. https://www.gordonconwell.edu/center-forglobal-christianity/resources/status-of-global-christianity/
Main photo courtesy of Desiring God.