Good Friday: Justice or Judgmental?

It’s easy for our children to have a warped view of God’s Justice. They see judgmental Christians and mistake it for the justice of God. They see “tolerance” worshipped on every street corner and confuse “loving their neighbor” with accepting and embracing their neighbor’s sin.

God has no tolerance for judgmental Christians. He knows the damage they can do. God has no tolerance for sin; He knows the damage it’s already done. Actually, our culture doesn’t have any tolerance for sin either… that is—if it’s a sin we don’t like.
Josh McDowell produced a t‐shirt that illustrates this well. It says:

Intolerance is a Beautiful Thing…
Mother Theresa was intolerant of Poverty
Bono was intolerant of Aids
Nelson Mandela was intolerant of Apartheid
Martin Luther King was intolerant of Racism
Jesus was intolerant of Bigotry

We’re hypocritical about sin. We judge those that sin in a way we find offensive, but ignore those sins we have a personal affection for. Our Just God, however, is not hypocritical about sin. Because He is Holy He finds all sin offensive– from using His name in vain to murder, from stealing a pack of gum to stealing a child’s innocence. His justice requires a penalty be paid for each and every sin. Overwhelming isn’t it?

Fortunately God knew a way to forgive our sin penalty without compromising His Justice! Because He is Merciful, Loving, All-Powerful, Unchanging, Faithful and Eternal, Jesus satisfied God’s justice when He died on the cross for our sins, paying the penalty in our place. It is the humbling reality of Good Friday and the inexpressible joy, and relief, of Easter Sunday!

God won’t force us to accept Jesus’ payment for our sin. Each of us has a decision to make: pay for our sin on our own and be forever guilty and separated from God, or accept Jesus’ payment and be forever set free—living in eternal relationship with God!

Understanding God’s Justice will not only encourage your children to begin a relationship with Jesus, it will also motivate them to stand up for what is right, empower them to fight for the weak and abused, and give them a message of hope for the hopeless.

Teaching your children that God is Just will pave the way for a humble heart…one that truly loves the sinner but hates the sin.

He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Romans 4:25 (NIV)

Who was betrayed and put to death because of our misdeeds and was raised to secure our justification (our [a] acquittal), [making our account balance and absolving us from all guilt before God]. Romans 4:25  (Amplified Bible)