Lord's Day 4

9. Q. But doesn't God do us an injustice by requiring in His law what we are unable to do?

A. No, God created humans with the ability to keep the law. They, however, tempted by the devil, in reckless disobedience, robbed themselves and all their descendants of these gifts.

10. Q. Will God permit such disobedience and rebelling to go unpunished?

A. Certainly not. He is terribly angry about the sin we are born with as well as the sins we personally commit. As a just judge He punishes them now and in eternity. He has declared: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."

11. Q. But isn't God also merciful?

A. God is certainly merciful, but He is also just. His justice demands that sin committed against His supreme majesty be punished with the supreme penalty - eternal punishment of body and soul.

"To summarize, then: God has the right to judge us, now and in eternity for two reasons: (1) we have broken the law that originally we had the ability to keep, and (2) we sinned in Adam and deserve death for that sin just as Adam did.

"With all this talk of guilt and judgment, Question 11 anticipates a reasonable objection: 'But isn't God merciful?' ... 'Sinners in the hands of an angry God?', they scoff. 'We're past that fire-and-brimstone, puritanical stuff. The God I believe in is a God of love.'

"But divine love without divine wrath is meaningless. When we minimize God's justice, we do not exalt His mercy, we undermine it. God's mercy exhibits its full power and sweetness when we see it not merely as a general goodwill to all people, but as the means by which God's people are rescued, in Christ, from their just wrath and condemnation.

"God's justice demands that sin and rebellion and idolatry not go unpunished. We often struggle to embrace God's right to execute justice, but when the referee blows a call against our team, we'll stand up and yell at the television. When our insurance company refuses to pay what the policy says they should, we'll get downright indignant. We all have a sense of justice. But somehow we don't think God can be concerned for justice when he is wronged.

"We need a God who makes moral judgments. If He loves everyone in exactly the same way, what does His love really mean, and what does it mean to be loved by God? Our universe would make no sense and the pain of injustice would be even greater if we did not have a God who recognizes right from wrong and judges the wicked. Be glad; though: Just as we love justice, so does God.

The Good News We Almost Forgot, Kevin DeYoung, Moody Publishers, pp.  34-35.