The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Elizabeth D. during the 2008-2009 League.
Mission: Research - Justice
The word justice means acting to a proper standard. In Deuteronomy 32:4 it says that God is upright and just. What other standard is there to go by? A sin corrupted the world's sense of justice. Justice has been compromised and has changed ever so slightly each passing decade. God's justice is upright and unchanging. Jesus says in John 8:15-16, "My judgment is true, for I am not alone. I am with the Father who sent me."
When the Israelites sinned, God would rather have had another people take over Israel, even though they were His chosen people. (Nehemiah 9:32-36). In Matthew 18:23-35 there was a ruler, and one man begged and pleaded that the ruler would give him mercy. The gracious ruler granted him mercy. The beggar then went to town, and while there he saw a friend who owed him something. The beggar demanded that his friend pay what he owed. When the friend could not pay, the beggar had him thrown into jail. The ruler heard about this and called for the beggar, who he had granted mercy to. The ruler then had him thrown in jail.
Often when contemplating God's justice, one must ask, 'How can a just God allow such suffering?' Heb 12:6-8 says that "God disciplines those He loves and punishes those He accepts." We read in Romans 5:3, that God faithfully produces character through trials: "We must also glory in tribulations, for we know that tribulation produces perseverance." Our attitude should be that God will deliver us from evil (II Corinthians 1:8-10), though it may not be until we see Him in heaven (II Corinthians 4:8-10). We need not worry because, as it says in Revelation 16:5-7, "God is true and just in His judgments." The Bible states in I John 5:19b that "currently the whole world is under control of the evil one, but we have the hope that one day soon the 'day of the Lord' will come." II Peter 3:10 says "He will come like a thief in the night and the whole earth will be laid bare."
Don William sums this up when he says, "There is a day coming when divine judgment and our human cry for justice will meet and be satisfied. Justice satisfied, mercy granted."
