The Justice of God

Sometimes the virtue of justice is one that we find hard to love. We tend to picture a courtroom, where a stern judge decides someone’s fate. But justice, properly understood, is not primarily about punishment; it is about right relationship. Justice means giving to each person what is due to them, including giving to God what is due to him.

Human justice is often imperfect. Judges and juries can be swayed by emotion, by wealth, or by public opinion. A judge might favor the rich who can afford the best lawyer or harbor biases that color his reasoning. We know this because we have all done it ourselves, in smaller ways, showing favoritism, judging by appearances, or excusing in ourselves what we condemn in others. Human beings are inconsistent, but God is not.

God’s justice is pure. He is never swayed by wealth, power, or reputation. “He hears the cry of the poor,” Scripture tells us. He listens to every soul who turns toward him, regardless of status or stature. Yet he is not partial either. He does not excuse sin because he feels sorry for us. He is perfectly just and perfectly merciful: two qualities that in him are not in tension but in harmony.

Jesus illustrated this beautifully in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Both men went up to the temple to pray. The Pharisee stood tall and thanked God that he was not like other men, sinners, adulterers, or tax collectors. The tax collector, meanwhile, could not even lift his eyes to heaven. He beat his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Jesus tells us that it was this humble man, not the proud one, who went home justified.

Justice, in God’s eyes, begins with truth. The tax collector was justified not because he earned mercy, but because he acknowledged reality: that he was a sinner in need of grace. The Pharisee refused to see that truth and therefore could not receive mercy.

If God treated us by justice alone, we would all be lost. We know the good and fail to do it far more often than we care to admit. But God’s justice includes justice toward himself. Since he is perfectly good, he must act in accord with his own goodness. That means his justice demands mercy, not because we deserve it, but because his nature is love. Mercy does not contradict justice; it fulfills it.

Saint Paul understood this. Near the end of his life, he wrote, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” He was confident that a crown awaited him, not because of his own worth, but because “the Lord stood by me and gave me strength.” Paul’s hope was not in his own deeds, but in the God who worked through him. That is true justice: when we allow God to make us righteous by grace, rather than pretending to be righteous on our own.

We should be like Paul and like the tax collector. We will stumble, fall, and fail. But God does not leave us in the dust. He waits to lift us up, to wash us clean, and to restore our dignity as his sons and daughters. Still, he does not force this upon us. Justice requires freedom. Love must be chosen.

When we turn back to God in humility, acknowledging the truth about ourselves, we meet a Father who is both just and merciful, who punishes only to heal, and who forgives so that we may be transformed. His justice is not about evening the scales; it is about setting the world, and our hearts, right again.

That is why true justice always leads to mercy, and why mercy, rightly understood, is the highest expression of justice.

If God’s justice is the setting right of all things, what part of my life still needs to be set right by his mercy?

• [Sirach 35:12–18] — “The Lord is a God of justice, who knows no favorites.”

• [Psalm 34:18–19] — “The Lord hears the cry of the poor.”

• [Luke 18:9–14] — The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

• [2 Timothy 4:6–8, 16–18] — “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race.”

• [James 2:13] — “Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

• [Romans 3:23–26] — God’s righteousness revealed through mercy in Christ.