When I was a young lad, I remember getting one of my worst spankings for a wrong that I did not commit. My sister wrongly accused me, and my mother would not listen to my pleas to explain the truth. Justice did not prevail. In many parts of the world today judges are subject to bribery and corruption. The result is terrible injustice. The poor, in particular, tend to be the victims.


We must realize and accept the fact that on this side of heaven we will never experience perfect justice. In Psalms 94 the psalmist cries out to God for justice, “Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud. Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?” (v.v.2-3). He further describes some of the wickedness that is still prevalent in the world today…. racial injustice, arrogance and boasting, people being crushed and oppressed, the suffering of the poor, widow, outsider and fatherless (v.v.4-6). Injustice is the cause of so much suffering in the world. God’s perfect judgment is an aspect of his love which he uses on behalf of the marginalized to judge their oppressors.


The general rule in the New Testament is that Christians should never take each other to court. In I Corinthians 6 Paul was shocked to learn that Corinthian believers were doing just that. In v.1 he emphatically states that doing so is a terrible witness for the church. Believers were fighting each other in front of the ungodly and it made no sense to go before a court that knows nothing of God’s ways instead of appointing judges from within the church to handle disputes. Paul reminds them (and us) in v.2 that one day Christians will judge the world: “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?”
All of us deserve to be condemned at the final judgment. We have no cause for self-righteousness or boasting. But, because of Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection, we can have great confidence about the future. Our physical death is not the end. As believers we have already been acquitted and are assured that we will someday appear before the judge of all the earth sanctified and justified to live eternally with Him.