The Attributes of God; part 5

ATTRIBUTES of GOD- Part 5 - God's Justice

a worship devotional for musicians

inspired by A.W. Tozer: The Attributes of God: Vol. 1, A Journey Into the Father's Heart

 We had devotion tonight before WT practice covering chapter 4 in the Tozer book, Attributes of God.

The question Tozer asked was quoting Anselm's question, "How can God be just and still spare the wicked?"  We discussed this question a bit.

Tozer answered it with a combination of three points:

1. God's unity within Himself – God's mercy and His justice are not at war with one another.  They are not opposites pulling on Him trying to get Him to go one way or the other.  They are synonymous within his nature.  He is one hundred percent just and, at the same time, he is one hundred percent merciful.  They function together as one.  As humans we have to reconcile these two dynamics within ourselves but God does not have to reconcile them.  He is. (Deut. 6:4)
2. The Sufferings of Christ – aka. the substitutionary atonement – Christ suffered and died on the cross in our place.  Because he was perfect he was the perfect sacrifice.  He was without sin and he took on our sin and paid our penalty that we should have paid (Rom. 3:19-26, 2 Cor. 5:21).
3. God's Immutability – God never changes.  He is the same now, yesterday and forevermore (Heb. 13:7, James 1:17).

"But if [a sinner] beats his brest and says, "God be merciful to me a sinner" (luke 18:13), and takes the benefits of the infinite agony of God on a cross, God looks on that moral situation and says, 'life!' And all of hell can't drag that man down.  Oh, the wonder and the mystery and the glory and the being of God!" (Tozer, 74)