Greetings Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Today, we will learn about another one of God’s characteristics: God as the Judge.
But God is the Judge;
He puts down one and raises up another.
— Psalm 75:7
In this verse, we see the psalmist declaring that God is the Judge. It is important to define terms to be clear about their meaning: a judge is a public officer appointed to decide cases in a law court. This is how we would define this in human terms.
Having defined the term, let’s now explore the differences between our human judges and God as the Judge.
An Ultimately Authoritative Judge
While in human terms, a judge is appointed, God is not appointed. God’s authority as Judge comes directly from Him being the Creator of the universe. While an earthly judge answers to some other kind of authority, God is the highest authority there is and thus answers to no one.
The direct authority we see in God’s seat of judgment is the one that the psalmist mentions in this verse, where God puts down one and raises up another. In other words, God decides who is exalted and how one is exalted. Hannah knew this when she praised God regarding her son Samuel:
Yahweh puts to death and makes alive;
He brings down to Sheol and raises up.
Yahweh makes poor and rich;
He brings low; He also exalts.
He raises the poor from the dust;
He exalts the needy from the ash heap
To make them sit with nobles,
And inherit a seat of glory;
For the pillars of the earth are Yahweh’s,
And He set the world on them.
— 1 Samuel 2:6-8
In this prayer, we see the extent of God’s authority. He judges who lives, who goes down, and who is raised up; He judges the lowly and the high. His authority is above all creation.
For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
— Colossians 1:16
An Ultimately Fair Judge
Unlike human judges who are biased due to their fallen nature, the psalmist expresses how God is holy and righteous, and thus, as a Judge, He is ultimately fair.
“For I select an appointed time,
It is I who judge with equity.
— Psalm 75:2
Here we see God Himself stating that He is the one who judges with equity. The word “equity” here means “evenness, uprightness, straightness, fairness.”
It is very sad how, as human beings, we fail to recognize how fair God is. This is because we have redefined the term “fair.” As humans, we have decided that what is fair ought to be what works in our favor. Due to this, it is not uncommon to hear people utter dangerous blasphemous statements such as “God is not fair.”
Some sects have gone as far as separating the God of the Old Testament from the God of the New Testament, to say that the God of the Old Testament was harsh and unfair, while the God of the New Testament is gracious.
This line of thinking has ended up tampering with God’s other attributes. This is because the logical conclusion here leads to either of two very dangerous teachings which completely misrepresent our God.
One conclusion is that the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of the New Testament, which would lead to polytheism, meaning that there are not one but two living Gods. This is a gross heresy.
The other doctrine that gets attacked by such careless reasoning is the immutability of God, which means that God does not change.
When we entertain this line of reasoning—that the God of the Old Testament was unfair and the one of the New Testament becomes fair—the danger is that it suggests that God somehow changed during the intertestamental period to become more fair, and in doing so, we completely ignore when God Himself tells us through Holy Scripture that He does not change:
“For I, Yahweh, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
— Malachi 3:6
In this Psalm, God shows He is unlike human judges who judge while in their sinful, corrupted nature and hence biased to their definitions of what fair is. When God judges, He is completely and ultimately fair in His judgment. From reading King David’s psalm of repentance, we see that the king fully understood that God is an ultimately fair and just Judge:
Against You, You only, I have sinned
And done what is evil in Your sight,
So that You are justified when You speak
And pure when You judge.
— Psalm 51:4
The fact that God is a Judge is very terrifying for people. This is because our conscience tells us that we have rebelled against a holy and righteous God. God has written His law in our hearts. To the extent that we listen and pay attention to our conscience, we know the difference between right and wrong. To escape this, we have tried to “suppress this truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). We call good that which is evil and evil that which is good (Isaiah 5:20).
The idea that there is a righteous God who will judge the living and the dead according to all their deeds is one that terrifies us.
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:
— 2 Timothy 4:1
There is some good news, though. To those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, this is actually good news. Those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ are justified such that the righteousness of Christ is credited to them and their sins are atoned for on the cross.
Therefore it was also counted to him as righteousness. Now not for his sake only was it written that it was counted to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be counted, as those who believe upon Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered over on account of our transgressions, and was raised on account of our justification.
— Romans 4:22-25
For believers, knowing that God has ultimate authority to judge means that no one can undermine His decision to judge us in Christ; for there is no condemnation for us (Romans 8:1). Furthermore, as believers, we find peace in having a fair Judge because He will judge us according to Christ’s sinless life on earth as our substitute.
Let’s remember:
- God is not mocked: Changing the definition of fairness or reallocating the authority from God to some other authority, like our own works, does not do away with what is factually true. God is the ultimate Judge.
- God defines what is fair: Let’s be careful not to transgress by assigning our own definition of fairness to God.
- Let’s praise and worship our God with thanksgiving: Knowing that we have a substitute in Christ who atoned for our sins, such that He is both just and justifier.
I pray that as believers, we can find comfort in knowing that God is Judge.
Be blessed,
Paul
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