Title: God's Justice (Acts 17:30-31)
Justice is never a difficult word. God has two dispositions. One is love and the other is justice.
However, this disposition of love and justice is shared by being wary of human death. The God we meet before we die, and the God we meet in this world is the God of love. He is a good God who forgives infinitely, is generous, and has the grace to give us our daily bread.
On the other hand, meeting God after death is not absolute love. At that time, he is a God of justice, who judges very coldly, very frightfully, and accurately, sends wrath from time to time, and grants the blessings of heaven at different times.
Many people want to apply this divine justice in this world. "God is fair, so he blessed me like this when I tithe," he says. However, such justice does not apply universally to all people. There should be no error in justice. Therefore, the true justice of God is when we meet God after we die, and then the sinner will only discover what God's justice is.
Then, we should be fearful and think deeply about the justice of God that we will meet.
If you listen to Christian broadcasts or Far East broadcasts, your hopes for life in the world, positive visions and hopes, these things are pouring down in waterfalls. If you look at the book in the bookstore, such words are enormous.
But these dreadful truths about God's justice are hard to come by. As a result, there are many distortions in the perception of God's justice among modern people.
Everyone! Have you ever had this feeling while evangelizing? When people say that when a person dies, God pays for their sins and throws them into the lake of eternal torment, it is bewildering because they usually have good feelings for God. It means that we have nothing to do with the God of love, mercy, and forgiveness. Hell where even maggots do not die, hell where they are tormented in fire forever, I do not understand why God has provided such a cruel place. They all complain that they cannot understand God.
In modern people, the concept of God is deeply rooted in the God of blessing and love rather than justice. In other words, since He is a gentle-hearted God who does not break a bruised reed, I want to believe only in the God of blessing who will always help me by closing my eyes on my sins and remembering only my good deeds, merits, and devotion. On the other hand, God is like a good-natured Santa Claus, a God who cannot refuse even if we work hard or beg for it. If you give yourselves an ethical heart and fervent devotion, it will be easier and easier to meet in the chapel. As a God who always opened the warehouse door and was tired of not giving blessings, he was fixed in this world. In human hearts, the God of justice has become a dead God, and only the God of strength and the God of blessing remain.
So, in Job 8:5-7, Job's friend Bildad introduces God to Job like this. “Your beginning was small, but your end will be very great.” This is not God's word, but despite the sweet voice of the man who argued with Job. People are constantly holding on to this word and are just aware of God who gives full blessings.
God's justice revealed in Deuteronomy is manifested in tremendous blessings and terrible curses. No, Israel has received nothing but curses. How is it that today, instead of justice, only a God of blessing, a God of comfort, and a positive God is being established as the true God?
Many people today believe in God. Heretics also believe in God, and they believe in God because they are Jews. Believing in God is the same, but the problem is which God to believe in is different.
No five people should starve equally. The result is one, but the motives for doing so may be different. Some people fast to lose weight, some people fast because of political protests, some people fast because of a religious decision, and some people go hungry because they don't have enough food.
The same goes for believing in God. It seems that many people are serving God in the same way, in the same chapel, with the same Bible. Although the appearance is the same, the motive and purpose are different. Some people only believe in the God of creation, some believe only in the God who blesses and protects, some believe in God for some reason, and some people worship God instead of Buddha.
The kind of God we believe in determines the purpose of our faith and determines the way we believe. What kind of God should we believe in today? When the Bible was given in the first place, its clear purpose is to show what kind of deity God is.
How does the Old Testament judge human sin? In other words, it shows God who judges. The judgment of Noah, the judgment of Lot, the people of Israel, the judgment of Babylon, and the stern judgment of the disappearance of Israel in AD 7 prove it.
On the other hand, the New Testament reaches the climax of showing his love through the death of his son on the cross, how he forgives human sins. That is, the New Testament shows the God of love.
The forgiveness of the robber on the cross and the forgiveness of the murderer Paul, in this way, the Old and New Testaments were harmonized and revealed as a God of justice. Justice is the coexistence of wrath and forgiveness. Heaven and hell coexist.
Even in the Old Testament, we face the constant justice of God. An example of this is the ark of the covenant, which contains the ten commandments. The modifiers following the ark are divided into two types. The first things that come to mind are punishment, judgment, and curse. At Besemez, 50,070 people were punished for looking into the ark and died. Uzzah dies for touching the ark. The ark, on the other hand, is a symbol of salvation and power. Where the ark was going, the wall of Jericho fell, the waters of the Jordan River were divided, and in the Most Holy, where the ark was, sacrifices were made to take away the sins of all the people. As we can see from the ark, God clearly maintains justice equally. The God who is in charge of eternal life and eternal punishment in heaven and hell may be seen double, but that is the justice of God.
Today, if God's justice is distorted, in the Old Testament, he removes curses and proclaims only blessings, transforming him into a God who satisfies the needs of worldly humans. By perverting the God of Righteousness, it will become a terrifying sin of humanitarianism that makes man fit for man.
God declares that they should be thrown into hell as the measure of justice, but false prophets are trying to present only an optimistic vision that they will be in peace in the world, that they will be greatly exalted, and that God will shake and bless them abundantly.
Today we need to remember God's justice again. If we look to his coming justice, shouldn't we, who have nothing but sin, fear and tremble right now, and prepare for the judgment of justice?
If you have sin in your heart and have no fear of hell, you are a person who has been burned with your conscience. If you are zealous in the church life and have no interest in having to go through the judgment of justice, then you are a person with a burnt conscience. Traditionally, the church's misunderstanding of God's justice cannot be overlooked either. In the meantime, the tradition has been called God's self-righteousness, God's convenience, that is, God's justice at His will. In other words, before the foundation of the world, God has pre-selected who will be sent to hell. Then, in the question of what basis did you choose and predestinate a soul into the eternal lake of fire, it is God's will. They claim that that is God's authority and that it is God's justice to send them to hell at the will of God.
Is that really the right justice? Here, today's text directly refutes. Let's look at the text again.
Acts 17:30-31 "The days of ignorance God did not fail, but now he has commanded all people everywhere to repent, because he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by a man whom he has appointed, and then he will die. for he has given reliable evidence to all by raising him from the dead.”
He said that he gave reliable evidence to everyone before the judgment of justice. For example, in a school, if a teacher gives a student an hour without teaching and without a test, if the teacher decides the grades according to the teacher's will, that cannot be the case, and it cannot even be called justice. However, if you are faithful to the class, teach the test range and expected problems, take the test, and judge by rank, wouldn't that be true justice?
It is that God did not send them to hell unconditionally, but showed reliable evidence through the death and resurrection of the cross. Therefore, going to hell because we do not believe in the redemption of the cross is purely human responsibility and choice. Even though they are falling into hell as a price for their sins, it is their own choice to refuse God's forgiveness and ignore God's salvation, and that will be true justice. Would it be an unfair judgment if we applied Adam's sin without the forgiveness of the cross and sent everyone to hell? Before we face the judgment of death, He passed on the price of our sins to His Only Begotten Son.
Acts 13:46 "And Paul and Barnabas spoke boldly, saying, "The word of God should be preached to you first, but since you have rejected it, and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we turn to the Gentiles."
Judgment is where justice is revealed. Those who love the world and see the world rightly, and follow the riches, powers, and glory of the world, follow the god of this world, that is, hell where the devil is. Isn't that sane? Now, let's open our spiritual eyes and look at the God of justice.
Let's put God's justice, which has faded from our values, at the center of our faith. Let's keep the two letters of justice in our hearts until the moment we stand before the Lord. I pray that the God of justice will become a Dasarang church that boldly proclaims in this fading land.