The Intersection of Justice and Love

2022-01-08

There is tension between justice and love. These are both characteristics of God. We often emphasize one or the other when it comes to God, when we must emphasize both.

God demands justice. He must punish evil. Every sin must be punished. “For all have sinned...” (Romans 3:23).

God loves people. “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). He does not want to destroy His prized creation.

Justice and love intersect in the person of Jesus Christ. God punished our sin without punishing us. “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

There is no salvation in any other. Only Jesus bore our sins and rose from the dead. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).