Theological Commonplaces: On the Nature of God and on the Trinity: 2 by Gerhard Johann

Author:Gerhard, Johann [Gerhard, Johann]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Concordia Publishing House
Published: 2009-11-01T04:00:00+00:00

The justice of God is proved.

§ 230. The justice of God is proved by: (I) Scripture: (1) Affirmatively, when it calls God just, avenging, holy, upright, and when it declares His justice (Exod. 9:27; Ps. 11:7; Jer. 12:1). (2) Negatively, when it removes from Him injustice, iniquity, partiality [], the acceptance of bribes, and thus all the causes, adjuncts, and effects of injustice (Deut. 32:4; Dan. 9:14; Deut. 10:17; etc.) Job 8:3: “Does God corrupt justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?” (3) Affectively, when it attributes to Him zeal, wrath, fury (Exod. 20:5; 32:10; Num. 11:10), which in God are not the sort of passions that they are in us but are acts of His immutable justice. (4) Symbolically, when it calls Him “a consuming fire” (Deut. 4:24) and compares Him to an angry “lion” and an armed “soldier” (Isa. 38:13). (5) Effectively, when it asserts that He renders to each according to His work (1 Sam. 26:23; Job 34:11) and when it describes His severe threats and examples of His wrath and punishments established against the wicked, for all these are the effects and tokens of God’s justice.

We shall consider later whether one can understand the justice of God from reason. We have cited the statements of the more sound philosophers in our Commonplaces [1610 Loci Theologici, locus 3 (On the Nature of God)], § 151, to which we should add that of Philemon in Justin: “He is the eye of judgment that sees all things” (De mon. Dei, p. 82), and also that of Euripides, also in Justin (p. 83): “If anyone who is wicked by nature does what is wicked, let him redeem the time, for with time this one will later give judgment.”

§ 231. (II) The fathers have beautiful statements about divine justice. Lactantius, Instit., bk. 1, c. 1: “Therefore as God is a very forgiving Father toward the devout, so He is a very upright judge against the wicked.” Augustine, De lib. arbit., bk. 2, c. 1: “God not only is very kind in His doing but also very just in His avenging.” De civ. Dei, bk. 2, c. 23: “No one fully comprehends, and no one justly reprehends, the judgments of God.” De civ. Dei, bk. 18, c. 18: “There are many secret judgments of God but no unjust ones.” Enarr. Psalm. 32, conc. 1: “Do not think that mercy and judgment can in some way be separated from each other in God. For at times they do appear to be contrary to each other, as: ‘He who is merciful does not preserve judgment’ and ‘He who holds fast to judgment forgets mercy.’ God is omnipotent and does not lose His judgment in mercy nor His mercy in judgment.” Gerson: “When He wants to have mercy, nothing is more clement than God; when He wants to mete out justice, nothing is more terrible than He,” etc.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.