God of JusticeSample

God is consistent

In The LEGO Movie, there’s a bad guy with two faces. On one side is Good Cop, your friendly (if slightly unhinged) neighbourhood police officer. On the other is Bad Cop – the mean-spirited embodiment of the letter of the law. The gag is that his scenes flip back and forth between the two personas, creating manic yet hilarious interactions.

This might sound crazy – stay with me here – but I think sometimes we believe God is a bit like Good Cop/Bad Cop. On one side is His love, grace, and mercy. On the other is His justice and hatred of sin. It can seem sometimes like He flips between the two and we never know which side we’ll get.

At the beginning of Luke 18 Jesus tells a parable about a persistent widow. She repeatedly fronts up to an unjust judge who eventually acquiesces to her request for justice against an adversary. The point is that if even an unjust judge will grant her persistent request, how much more will God do for those He has chosen? Luke says this parable is about persistence in prayer, which it is. Yet I think it teaches us something important about God’s justice too: it’s something we should earnestly seek.

Justice is not God wielding ‘the stick.' It’s His desire to restore, redeem, reconcile, and mend all that’s broken in the world. God is not Good Cop/Bad Cop – He’s completely consistent. For those who follow Him, His justice is good news indeed!

Written by CHRIS GRESHAM-BRITT