Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

God’s judgement can seem difficult to reconcile with His goodness. But Scripture presents God’s perfect justice as something we can celebrate — and His present offer of mercy through Jesus as the good news.

Earlier this year, the prestigious Oxford Union (attached to the University of Oxford) debated the proposition, “This House Hopes that Hell Exists”.

It’s a curious way to phrase a debate about such a contentious topic, especially when most of us — even if we believe in hell — would much rather that it didn’t exist. But it got me thinking about how we conceptualise the Judgement of God — or about God’s role as the Judge of the world.

If you are like me, you’re probably more inclined to see ideas like wrath, condemnation, judgement, and punishment — alongside hell — as a regrettable thing that we reluctantly acknowledge, and less like something to be celebrated.

And, to be honest, there is some truth to this. I don’t think Scripture ever calls us to delight in destruction or death.

God certainly doesn’t. He asks Ezekiel a rather clearly rhetorical question in chapter 18:

“Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die and not that he should turn from his ways and live?” (18:23 NRSV)

And again a few chapters later:

“As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?” (33:11 NRSV)

So, in one sense, even God isn’t represented as taking pleasure in exercising wrath, condemnation, judgement, or punishment.

But today I want to focus on just one aspect of that suite of pleasant topics — namely, God’s judgement — and to challenge us to think a bit more Biblically about the goodness of that judgement.

I want to make four points, pertaining to conscience, goodness, celebration, and mercy, respectively.

So why does this matter?

In his profound book, The Knowledge of the Holy (1961), A. W. Tozer writes:

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

If what we think about God is false or makes God out to be evil or malicious, that is a problem — and it is one that we have to work to repair in our own attitudes and minds.

So that is the aim in this article.

1. Conscience: We Actually Agree With God About Judgement

In his classic work of Christian apologetics, Mere Christianity (1952), C. S. Lewis makes the point that we can learn a lot from listening to two people arguing. They say things like “How’d you like it if anyone did the same to you?”, “That’s my seat, I was there first” — “Leave him alone, he isn’t doing you any harm” — “Why should you shove in first?” — “Give me a bit of your orange, I gave you a bit of mine” — “Come on, you promised”.

As Lewis points out, we make these kinds of remarks because we expect one another to know what the right behaviour is in any given set of circumstances. And when someone violates this unwritten set of rules, we get outraged. We want justice.

Being created in God’s image has its benefits. One of these is that we have the ability to tell right from wrong, even without reference to the Bible.

Romans 2:14–15 (NRSV) explains:

“When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness…” (emphasis added)

We don’t need to have read the Bible to be held accountable for moral decisions. Knowledge of what is right and what is wrong is “written on [our] hearts”. It is something we expect everyone to know.

When a human sees an injustice — whether petty (someone pushing into line) or serious (murder, genocide, and the like) — we feel something.

Something like indignation. Like outrage. Like wrath.

Something in us longs for that wrong to be made right.

We rely on this ability to distinguish between what is good and what is not in our everyday life. When we judge one another as humans (which we must do for the healthy operation of society — for example, in our justice system), we are expected to be able to tell the difference between good and evil.

Okay, we we have established that humans have a moral conscience — we know goodness when we see it, and we can recognise evil when we see it. Moreover, we know that goodness is what we ought to do (even if we don’t always practice it), and we know that evil should be avoided (even if we rarely live up to that standard).

When we see injustice, evil, or oppression being committed by other people, something inside of us demands justice. We want to see that wrong made right.

In one sense, it is not different for God.

As the Judge of all the earth, God sees the injustices that are perpetrated on the earth and wants to make them right.

In this way, our conscience is a clue to how God sees good and evil — and helps us to recognise that we really agree with God when it comes to judgement.

Yet it goes without saying that there is a monumental difference between God and us.

2. Goodness: What Makes God Qualified to Execute Perfect Judgement

Not only do we humans not always do what our conscience tells us is right — we frequently sin — but Scripture makes clear that, if we try hard enough, we can even supress the truth about God and about what is right and wrong.

Romans 1 refers to this idea when it speaks of those who “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom 1:18 NKJV). Similarly, Isaiah 5:20 talks about people “who call evil good and good evil” — people who invert justice and actually call what is good evil.

So we can’t depend on the ability of humans to perfectly execute justice, as much as we frequently want to.

But this is not true of God.

Whereas our human ability to discern and practice what is good is fallible and limited, God’s is not.

Why? Well, because God is good.

This is kind of Theology 101.

To quote just one passage — the song that Moses sings to the assembled Israelites in Deuteronomy 32:

“…I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
ascribe greatness to our God!
The Rock, his work is perfect,
and all his ways are just.
A faithful God, without deceit,
just and upright is he.” (emphasis added)

None of these things can be said about any human (Jesus excepted, for obvious reasons).

Our work is not perfect. Not all of our ways are just. We are certainly not without deceit. And it would be difficult to say of any human “just and upright is he” — unless we mean this only in a limited sense.

These are the qualities of God that make him able to perfectly judge the world. God is perfectly and consistently good — and that applies to his judgements too.

God’s goodness is not something he possesses intermittently or imperfectly. He is consistently and perfectly good. Accordingly, when God judges, his judgement is perfectly consistent with his character.

Abraham articulated this beautifully when he reminded God of his own character:

“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Genesis 18:25 NRSV)

Isn’t it just in God’s very nature to do what is right?

God’s judgement and his goodness are inextricably linked. It is because God is the ultimate source of all moral goodness and perfection, unlike flawed humans, that he will judge the earth.

While we humans get a small taste of what God feels about injustice through our own moral consciences, only God can perfectly and consistently discern and judge wrongdoing. Only God has never sinned, never committed injustice, and because he is goodness itself, he is incapable of calling good evil and evil good. He is the perfect candidate for Judge of all the earth.

And that is why God — not us — is the Judge.

3. Celebration: Can We Praise God for His Judgements?

When we recognise that:

1. we actually agree with God about evil and injustice, and we don’t want people to get away with doing the wrong thing, and
2. only God is qualified to actually make sure that no one gets away with doing the wrong thing,

then we should be able to see God’s judgement as something to be celebrated, not just tolerated.

There is a hint of this in Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians, who were experiencing intense persecution.

In the first chapter of that letter, Paul writes that the church’s perseverance and steadfastness in the face of grave injustice and afflictions anticipates a future “righteous judgement of God”.

“For it is indeed just of God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to the afflicted as well as to us…” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-8, emphasis added)

For those facing injustice and oppression, the judgement of God — grounded in God’s good character — is an enormous relief and comfort. It is something to be celebrated.

We see this in many Old Testament passages as well.

In 1 Chronicles 16:31–33), we read a Psalm of David:

“Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice,
and let them say among the nations, ‘The Lord is king!’
Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it.
Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.” (emphasis added)

In the 96th Psalm, we similarly read:

“Say among the nations, ‘The Lord is king!
The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved.
He will judge the peoples with equity.’
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it.
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the Lord; for he is coming,
for he is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with his truth.” (10–13, emphasis added)

If we are honest with ourselves, can we celebrate and be comforted by the judgement of God in this way? Do we see God’s coming to judge the earth as something to be put into a song, something that we could sing as a celebration?

When we understand God’s judgement as aimed at rectifying injustice and oppression, rather than as vindictive and spiteful, this becomes a lot easier.

But there is still a big problem.

From everything that I have said so far, as much as we can agree with God in His judgement, this is not good news.

What do I mean by that?

In one sense, it is good news. It is great that the injustices of the world will be made right. It is amazing that oppression will cease, that every tear will be wiped away, that there is a morally perfect Judge who will rectify every wrong and reward every right.

But humans are not good. That’s the reality. And because we are not good, we will find ourselves on the receiving end of God’s righteous judgement.

And we can’t whinge about it either, because we have already agreed with God that His judgement is completely justified.

On the one hand, we want God to come and make all things right.

On the other, that doesn’t bode well for us.

In Romans 2, Paul presents a dilemma:

“Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgement on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.” (Rom 2:1)

We have already established that humans know right from wrong and we are pretty keen to point that out in other people. We want God to punish other people when they do the wrong thing — especially when it impacts us.

We can eagerly say, with Paul, “We know that God’s judgement on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.” (Rom 2:2) But as Paul points out, nine times out of ten, we are guilty of the exact same things that we condemn in others.

And this leaves us in a bit of a pickle (to use a technical, theological term):

“Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgement of God?” (Rom 2:3)

The reality is that God will judge the world — as we, in one sense, want him to. But when he does judge the world, we are not going to escape that judgement.

To again quote Paul:

“…by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgement will be revealed. For he will repay according to each one’s deeds…” (Rom 2:5)

And then again:

“There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honour and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.” (Rom 2:9–10)

That does not sound like good news.

4. Mercy: We Live in the Time of God’s Mercy

We have established that we are all in the same boat when it comes to the judgement of God.

We all want to celebrate and welcome God’s judgement, but this means condemnation on ourselves and punishment for our sins.

But this leads us to what really is the good news for us.

In chapter 3 of Romans, Paul writes:

“But now… the righteousness of God has been disclosed… through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Rom 3:21–26)

In this stunning passage, we find that before God’s judgement comes his mercy. While God will come to judge the earth (as he must), now is a time of mercy. When Christ returns, he will express his righteousness in his judgement. However, in the meantime, his righteousness is being “disclosed” through his gift of salvation to all who have faith in Jesus.

That is the good news.

God is Judge — the Messiah will one day come in power to judge the earth, setting everything right. We should be able to recognise, agree with, and celebrate that future reality. Why? Because it is grounded in God’s perfect character.

If you struggle to affirm that truth, I would encourage you to do two things.

Firstly, pray: ask God to give you an insight into just how wicked is the oppression, injustice, and evil in the world — and in our own years. Pray that your heart will be broken by the things that break God’s heart, and that you will learn to agree with God about these things and yearn to see justice executed in our world.

As our hearts are conformed to God’s way of seeing things, I think we will be more willing to celebrate the fact that God will make all things right.

Secondly, however, I would suggest that you meditatively reflect on some of the passages of Scripture that we have looked at today. Maybe Moses’s song in Deuteronomy 32 or David’s Psalms in 1 Chronicles 16 or Psalm 96.

As you reflect on the attitude of the writer in those texts, pray that God would give you that same attitude towards His judgement.

These are two practical ways we can conform our heart to God’s.

Yet I think for all of us, especially as Christians, there is another practical dimension here.

As we have seen, at the present time, God’s righteousness is shown not in his judgement, but in his offer of justification and reconciliation to all those who put their faith in Jesus the Messiah. So while Jesus will return as Judge, at his first coming he did not come as Judge, but as Saviour.

He himself reminded us of this in John 12:

“I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak.” (John 12:46–49, emphasis added)

And, of course, in that well-known passage in the third chapter of John:

“…just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believe in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:14–17, emphasis added)

That is God’s heart for humanity.

We live in a time when God is patiently extending His mercy towards us — passing over the sins previously committed — and we are awaiting his final return, when he will ultimately set all things aright.

Conclusion

The early church father Tertullian records that the early Christians would frequently meet together to pray. Among other things, they would pray “for emperors, for their ministers, and those in authority, for the state of the world, for general quietude, and for the delay of the end.” (emphasis added)

Why did the early church pray for Christ’s return to be delayed? I think it is because they recognised that we now live in a time of grace, with God withholding his judgement and offering redemption in Christ.

When that time ends, he will come in judgement.

But in the meantime, we have an opportunity to work for the salvation of those who are lost — and to spread the good news.

I suspect this is what Peter had in mind when he reflected on the delay of the Lord’s Second Coming:

“The Lord is not slow about his promise [to come again], as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9 NRSV)

And he says just a few verses later to “regard the patience of our Lord as salvation” (15).

This window of time is our opportunity to regard the patience of our Lord in returning as an opportunity to spread the good news of salvation and new life available in the Messiah to those around us, and to lead those who have been born again into the fullness of the abundant life that Jesus offers — being transformed into his likeness.

May that be our desire.

“…I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (2 Tim 4:1–5 NRSV)

Note: this article is based on the notes of a sermon delivered at the Moree Baptist Church on 13 September 2026.