The Justice of God

MALACHI 2.17-3.5

Introduction 

Why do bad things happen to good people? If God is sovereign and God is good then why does evil exist? This question is what philosophers and theologians call “the problem of evil.” Some Christians have asked this question in the midst of suffering or injustice. 

Maybe some of you right now who are battling cancer are asking if God is sovereign and God is good why does evil exist? Maybe you’re a young couple trying to get pregnant but it isn’t working. Or you’re single or a widow or widower fighting loneliness. Maybe you’ve experienced the pain of divorce or you’re enduring chronic pain. Whatever the sin or the suffering many throughout the history of the world have asked the question, if God is sovereign and God is good then why does evil exist? Where is the God of justice?

This is the question the people of God are asking in this pericope. Remember the people of Israel have come back from Exile but they’re still under Persian rule. They have rebuilt the temple but there is no king on the throne. You can read in Haggai, Zechariah, Ezra and Nehemiah about some of the trouble that the people have been facing with other nations during this time. We also read earlier in Malachi about the priest abusing people by taking animals from them through violence.

Because of all this the people charge YHWH with being unjust. But the prophet Malachi turns their indictment on its head. Even though this prophecy was written 2,500 years ago in the ancient Near East, Israel was asking the same questions we ask today. They were struggling with the same issues of sin, suffering, and justice. And the answer to them is the same answer for us: the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Is God Just?

In this text we hear another dialogue between God and the people. The people, like many do even today, misunderstood the justice of God. Then God promises to send a messenger. This messenger will prepare the way for God himself to come and make everything sad untrue.

The Misunderstanding of God’s Justice

In Chapter 2 verse 17 Malachi tells God’s old covenant people that they have wearied God with their words. The people ask how. And Malachi quotes them back. The people are charging YHWH with being unjust. They say, “everyone who does evil is good in the sight of YHWH and he delights in them.” The people have also asked, “Where is the God of justice?”

They’re basically saying “God must think that evil people are good because not only is he allowing them to carry on with evil, but he seems to be blessing them. God must not care about justice.” It’s not just that bad things happen to good people but good things were happening to bad people. This isn’t the only place in the Bible where questions like these are asked. The books of Job, Ecclesiastes, and the Psalms ask similar questions.

It can be frustrating that Scripture doesn’t always tell us why God does what he does. The Bible tells us that God is sovereign and that God is good. But the reasons behind his plan and his purposes aren’t always plain.  Deuteronomy 29.29 says, the secret things belong to YHWH our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. The people of Israel were not trusting in God’s sovereignty and his goodness and for that YHWH warns them once again that unbelief and disobedience yield judgment.

The Messenger of God’s Justice

In chapter 3 verses 1-5 YHWH tells the people how he will accomplish justice. God will send his messenger and then God himself will come to his temple. There are two instances of literary irony in verse 1. The first is the word messenger. You may remember from our first sermon on the book of Malachi that the name Malachi means, “my messenger.” The Hebrew word for messenger in verse 1 is the word מַלְאָכִ֔י. God’s messenger, Malachi, is predicting a final messenger in the future.

The New Testament clearly reveals John the Baptist as the messenger predicted here in the book of Malachi. In Malachi 4.5 the prophet predicts that YHWH will send Elijah before the day of the LORD. At his transfiguration Jesus Christ reveals that John the Baptist was this Elijah:

But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist (Matt 17.12-13).

John the Baptist was the final messenger before the advent of the Messiah. John prepared the way for Jesus Christ. He rebuked Israel for their unfaithfulness to the covenant. He called people to repent and baptized them. John is the final Elijah; the final old covenant prophet declaring the word of YHWH.

But John is not an end in and of himself. Verse 1 goes on to say that the Lord will suddenly come into his temple. When God comes to the temple he will cleanse and he will judge. His cleansing will be like a refiner’s fire or a fuller’s soap. He will cleanse all injustice. He will purify them. Malachi uses the image of a refiners fire. What is a refiners fire? It was used to purify metals like gold and silver. Metals were liquefied and the impurities would float to the top where refiners could scoop them out so the metal would be pure.[1]

This is the second point of literary irony. In Malachi 2.17 the people charged God with delighting in evil people. In chapter 3 verse 1 Malachi says that the messiah in whom they delight will come but his coming will mean judgment. He will purify them. He will cleanse them. He will judge the sorcerers, adulterers, liars, and those who oppress the hired worker.

The Mediator of God’s Justice

And he did. John was the forerunner of Jesus the messiah. Jesus is how God showed up in his temple. Jesus not only cleansed the temple on Monday of Holy Week, but Jesus declared himself to be the true and final temple of God. He is the place where God and man meet. Verse 3 says that the Messiah will purify his people and he will bring offerings in righteousness to God. Jesus purified his people through his sinless life. Jesus offered his sinless life to God as the righteousness of his people.

Not only does the Messiah bring cleansing but he also brings judgment. God judged the sin of his people through Jesus’ death on the cross. Christ is the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus bore the justice of God for all of the sorcerers, adulterers, liars, bullies, abusers, and any other sin that his people would ever commit. The justice of God was executed for all of the elect on Calvary.

You see God is just. In his holy righteousness God could not leave sin without it’s rightful punishment. God could not sweep sin under the rug. If he did then he would be unjust. If God were unjust he would cease to be God. The debt had to be paid. And as he hung on the cross in darkness Jesus of Nazareth exhausted the justice of God for the sin of the elect. God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us (Rom 5.8). 

The justice of God is seen clearly in 2nd Corinthians 5.21: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Notice first that God does this for our sake. This verse is not Universalism. It does not say that God does this for all humans indiscriminately. No he does it for those who believe.

What does he do for those who believe? He made him who knew no sin – Jesus never sinned (Heb 4.15; 1st Pet 2.22). God made the sinless one to be sin. Jesus became sin to God on the cross. He bore the guilt, the shame, and the responsibility for our sin. Because Jesus was pure he could stand in the place of the defiled. When God looked at Christ on the cross he saw our sin and he poured his wrath out on him. Whatever hell is, Jesus experienced it on the cross.

God did this so that in him – in Christ alone – we might become the righteousness of God. This is what theologians call the great exchange. Jesus takes our sin and gives us his righteousness. He takes our bad and gives us his good. The sinless righteousness of Christ is imputed to us and we are declared, “not guilty” before God.

What we must do is repent of our sin and trust in Christ. We must know what Jesus Christ did for us. We must assent that it is true. And we must place our full trust in who Jesus is and what Jesus did. So that when we stand before God on the last day and he asks us if we are perfectly righteous, we can say, “yes. Not because of what I have done, but because of what Jesus did in my place. And my faith is in him.”

God’s People Must Love Justice

When we trust in Christ alone to save us God the Father gives us the Holy Spirit and he makes us people who love justice. Because we know that Christ bore the justice of God to pay for our guilt, we long to be just people. Christians should be people who love justice. In our call to worship we read from Romans 12 where Paul commands Christians to treat all people justly even specifically saying, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all(Rom 12.18). Christians should treat all people justly and should long for a just society.

That is all true by implication but this text is speaking specifically about the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God under the old covenant was Israel. The kingdom of God under the New Covenant is the church. We are the people of God. And so this text is most urgently calling us to be just first and foremost to each other here in the local church.

The local church is an embassy of the new creation. We are an outpost of the kingdom of Christ. We should be the most just people on the face of the earth. We shouldn’t mimic society. We should be salt and light to this dark world as we treat each other rightly. Jesus said that the world would know that we are his disciples by our love for one another (John 13.35). 

Because Jesus has paid the penalty for our sin and has given us his Spirit we are free to treat each other justly. Spouses don’t have to act like the world and live in adultery or pornography; we can live in faithfulness. We don’t have to mistreat or overlook those who are mentally handicapped, but we can treat them like the royalty that they are for they are sons and daughters of the King. We don’t have to steal from each other or rip each other off. We abhor racism. We don’t value politics over our blood-bought brothers and sisters. We don’t have to divide over a vaccine. This is what the world does. But we’re not the world; we’re the kingdom of Christ. We are a people who love justice.

Conclusion

Why do bad things happen to good people? RC Sproul said, “It only happened once and he volunteered.” Jesus is the only truly good human being who ever lived. He is the only person who never sinned and he bore the justice of God for our sin. The answer to the problem of evil is not why but who. Jesus took our wrath and gives us his righteousness. And that’s why if we confess our sin he is faithful andjustto forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1stJohn 1.9)

[1]Robby Gallaty, Exalting Jesus in Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, 245.