complete grace and justice

What will you do on the day of punishment,

in the ruin that will come from afar?

To whom will you flee for help,

and where will you leave your wealth?

Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners

or fall among the slain.

For all this his anger has not turned away,

and his hand is stretched out still.

Isaiah 10:3-4

God will judge sin on His timetable, in His way, with exactness and with perfect holiness. And it usually does not look as we imperfectly imagine. Longfellow’s poetry is quite observant: “Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all.” God is very patient in His mercy. He is also holy and has appointed His day and His means to bring His justice and judgment to bear.

The warning to errant Israel in Isaiah 10 is that when God does indeed bring Jerusalem down, it will be definitive. No sin will escape. No sinner will go unpunished. There will be two outcomes for all of the people: captivity as prisoners, or death. That is indeed a wheel grinding small and grinding all. God is as complete in judgment as He is in holiness. His justice goes to all just as His grace does. He is perfect in righteousness and perfect in punishment. We do well to remember both truths for a complete theology and a proper attitude of worship of God.

God is a God to be both loved and feared. He is to be respected, obeyed, worshiped, and adored. He is great in mercy and grace, forgiving all sin, providing redemption in Christ, and revealing His tender care for us. He is also holy and just and will not let us treat sin with less wrath than He does. And God will discipline His people who might slip into a diminished concept of Him with light views on the evil of sin. A relationship of balance believes and lives according to God grace and God’s justice.