Latest / Reformed Thinking / Divine Justice Explained: God’s Righteous Judgment | John Owen

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Divine Justice Explained: God’s Righteous Judgment | John Owen · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. We are thrilled you've decided
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to pull up a chair and join us for this deep dive.
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Absolutely. Go ahead and get comfortable.
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Yeah. Just imagine you're sitting
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right here at the table with us. We have a well, a rather
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rigorous but highly accessible theological examination ahead of
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us today. We really do.
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Our mission today focuses on excerpts from the great Puritan
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theologian John Owen. We are looking specifically at
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his classic work, A Dissertation on Divine Justice.
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Such an incredible piece of writing.
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It really is. Our goal is to unpack the
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specific nature of God's justice.
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We want to look very closely at his sin punishing justice, and
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to understand why grasping this concept is a crucial bedrock for
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Reformed theology. Right.
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And before we jump in, we should probably establish our own
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theological stance right off the bat, just so you know where
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we're coming from. Yes, good point.
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Both of us adhere to the Westminster Confession of Faith.
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We bring that specific Protestant Reformed lens to the
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table. Which means we approach Owens
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text not just as an interesting piece of historical theology to
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be, you know, picked apart academically.
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We view it as vital truth about God's character.
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Truth that shapes how we view everything else in the Christian
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faith. The insights Owen lays out are
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massive. They change the way you read the
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Bible, and they change the way you understand your own
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salvation. They really do, and we are going
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to take our time working through these arguments methodically.
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We want to make sure we extract every bit of value from the
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text. It's a joy to be sitting down to
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examine this with you. John Owen is often considered
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one of the sharpest theological minds ever produced.
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Oh, for sure, when you read him, you realize very quickly that
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this particular dissertation requires us to think carefully,
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to slow down. He actually begins this work
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with a striking, humbling caveat, but the sheer difficulty
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of the task before him. He does.
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He writes that the human mind is blind to divine light, and that
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our understandings and our tongues are completely
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inadequate to conceive of God correctly, let alone to declare
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Him accurately to others. He calls it an arduous thing to
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speak of God, a right. That is a crucial starting
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point. It forces us to recognize our
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absolute dependence on divine aid.
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We cannot simply reason our way up to the heavens using our
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natural intellect. No, we definitely can't.
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Owen actually sites First Corinthians chapter one verse 30
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and 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21.
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He points out that Christ was made the righteousness of God
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for us. Which brings in a major
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theological concept right away. Yes, Implicit in this opening
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section is the Reformed doctrine of total depravity.
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Because of the Fall, sin has affected every part of our
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being, and that absolutely includes our intellect.
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It's what theologians call the noetic effects of sin.
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Spot on. Our minds are clouded.
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We are prone to error, prone to making idols, and prone to
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misunderstanding the Creator. Without God's specific
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revelation and the aid of the Holy Spirit, our minds simply
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cannot grasp His perfection. We need him to reveal himself to
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us. And we need the righteousness of
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Christ applied to us to even begin to speak truly about His
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holy nature. OK, let's unpack this because I
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think it is fascinating how Owen brings an outside voices to
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prove this point about human blindness.
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He quotes the ancient Greek playwright Euripides.
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Oh. Right, the quote about darkness.
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Yeah, Euripides notes the observation that much darkness
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rests upon divine things. Which is such a striking
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admission from a Pagan writer. It really is.
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Even ancient Pagan writers who did not have the light of
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special biblical revelation recognize that the divine realm
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is shrouded in mystery. They knew the human mind hits a
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wall when trying to comprehend the infinite.
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This isn't just a Christian idea, it is a universal human
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reality. We are finite creatures trying
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to describe an infinite creator. And when you combine our natural
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finitude with the blindness caused by sin that you just
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mentioned, the task of theology truly does become arduous.
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You start to realize that every time we open our mouths to talk
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about God, we are stepping onto holy ground.
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We run the risk of speaking foolishly if we rely entirely on
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our own brain power, but Owen does not let this difficulty
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stop him. No, he doesn't.
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Rather, it drives him to rely entirely on Christ as he sets
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out to define the most specific, awe inspiring attribute he wants
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to address. God's vindicatory justice.
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Yes, he transitions from the general inadequacy of the human
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mind to laying out his central thesis.
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His core argument is that sin punishing justice is natural to
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God, and in its exercise it is absolutely necessary to God.
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That brings up a really critical distinction regarding the word
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vindicatory. What's fascinating here is the
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precise language the translator uses and the specific note
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attached to that word. We have to clear up a massive
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linguistic and cultural confusion right here at the
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start. Because it sounds a lot like
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vindictive. But it is not.
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The translator explicitly notes that vindicatory means to claim
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an assume right or to punish the violation of that right.
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It absolutely does not mean vindictive or revengeful.
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In our modern culture, we frequently conflate justice with
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petty revenge. We do think about the way
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justice is portrayed in movies or on social media.
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When a human being is wronged, their desire for justice is
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often laced with malice, spite, and a desire to see the other
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persons suffer for personal satisfaction.
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We want the person who hurt us to feel the pain they caused.
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That is being vindictive. It is emotional, it is volatile,
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and it is tied up in our own ego.
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But God's vindicatory justice is the pure, flawless, righteous
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upholding of His own holy standard.
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It is utterly devoid of human malice or emotional volatility.
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God does not fly off the handle. He does not hold petty grudges.
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He is completely holy, and His justice is simply him
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vindicating or defending and upholding the rightness of his
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own perfect nature. That distinction changes
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everything, and Owen divides his work into two parts to address
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this right. He does.
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The first part lays out this true opinion that justice is
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natural and necessary to God. The second part defends it
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against opposition. Who was opposing him on this?
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Specifically, he mentions defending it against the
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Sicilians. They were a group who bitterly
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opposed this view of God's justice, and he also mentioned
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in some of his own countrymen who were supporting that same
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scheme under a specious pretext. What did the Sicinians actually
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believe? They essentially taught that God
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could just forgive sin without requiring a penalty.
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They entirely denied the necessity of the atonement.
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They viewed God as a divine grandfather who could simply
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wave away the rules whenever he felt like.
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It precisely Owen saw this as a lethal threat to the Christian
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faith, because if God does not have to punish sin, the entire
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structure of the gospel collapses.
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That distinction between vindicatory and vindictive is a
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total paradigm shift. Is so easy to project our own
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flawed emotional reactions onto God?
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It's our default setting sadly. But if God's justice is this
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incredibly pure, unyielding standard, completely separate
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from our vindictive human nature, it creates a massive
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friction point for humanity. Well, how does a flawed,
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suffering human being process the reality of a perfectly just
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God? It makes you wonder how humans
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historically react to the reality of this righteous judge
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when things go wrong in their lives.
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Yes, that leads us right into Owens observations on atheism
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and human misery. Owen argue something quite
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striking here. He says that throughout almost
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all ages, there have been very few true atheists, and those who
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did exist were the most abandoned of characters.
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He makes the bold claim that no one has ever formally preferred
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an indictment of injustice against God or truly argue that
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He is not infinitely just. Now, as a listener, you might
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immediately think of people in the Bible or in history who
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complained bitterly against God. Sure.
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Owen anticipates that exact objection.
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He brings in vivid historical examples, people complaining in
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the midst of extreme misery. Right.
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He points to Job's despairing question in Job chapter 10,
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verse 3. Job asks, Is it good unto thee
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that thou shootest to press? And he mentions Brutus, who at
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his death cried out, O wretched virtue, how mere and nothing art
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thou but a name. He also references the Roman
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emperor Titus. While dying of a fever at the
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height of his power, Titus pulled aside his curtains to
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complain to the heavens that his life was being taken from him
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undeservedly. Such a dramatic historical
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moment. He even includes A terrifying
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exclamation from a despairing Italian, referenced by Mercedes,
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who shouted in his final moments.
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Let the strongest take me. We must analyze those quotes
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carefully because they perfectly illustrate Owens point about
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human nature. They sound like indictments
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against God's justice. On the surface.
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They. Do.
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But when Joe cries out from the ash heap, or when Emperor Titus
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pulls back the curtains to complain to the heavens about
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his early death, these do not represent a reasoned, formal
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theological stance that God is fundamentally unjust.
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Titus is not writing a philosophical treatise proving
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that the Creator lacks justice. Right.
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Rather, these are the frantic, unhallowed cries of human
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misery. They are the expressions of
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creatures in agony, overwhelmed by their circumstances,
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thrashing against pain they do not understand.
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This brings us to a brilliant concept Owen utilizes.
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The prolepsis. Yes, the prolepsis, which the
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translator defines as a natural or innate conception.
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Mankind has an inescapable, hardwired sense that God is by
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definition, just. It is written into our very
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nature. Even the pagans understood this.
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People would much rather claim that God does not exist at all
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then attempt to build a coherent philosophy claiming that the
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creator of the universe exists but is unjust.
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To say God exists but he is fundamentally unjust is a
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logical contradiction to the human mind.
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The innate conception of a Supreme Being demands that this
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being possesses perfect rectitude.
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Because if a being is unjust, that being is flawed.
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And if a being is flawed, that being cannot be the supreme
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creator. Therefore, an unjust God is an
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oxymoron. When faced with the terrifying
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reality of a perfectly just God and their own sin, abandoned
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triflers, as Owen calls them, choose the madness of atheism
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over the folly of ascribing disgraceful attributes to God.
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They run to the denial of his existence entirely.
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They use atheism as a shield against his inevitable justice,
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because admitting he is there means admitting they are
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accountable to his perfect standard.
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I love how Owen brings in classical literature to back
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this up. He shows that this innate sense
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of justice isn't just a Hebrew or Christian phenomenon.
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It is universally human. He shares that ancient couplet
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about Lacinas, Cato and Pompeii, right?
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It essentially says that looseness, a wicked and corrupt
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man, lies in a beautiful marble tomb.
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Cato, a relatively noble man, lies in a mean, humble tomb, and
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Pompeii, the great general, has no tomb at all because his body
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was lost. And the couplet concludes with
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the question. It asks, Can we believe that
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there are gods? The poet looks at the unfairness
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of the world, the wicked resting in luxury and the noble resting
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in nothing, and questions the existence of the divine.
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He also mentions Ulysses in Euripides play.
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Ulysses expresses sheer horror at the man devouring Cyclops who
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is violating every law of hospitality and decency.
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Ulysses complaints to Jupiter that if Jupiter ignores such
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blatant violations of moral order, he is in vain account of
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Jupiter and could be no God at all.
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All of these examples prove the prolapses you were just talking
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about. The human mind demands that God
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be just. If people look at the world and
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see perceived injustice, like bad men getting rich or monsters
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eating guests, their instinct is to question the existence of the
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gods altogether rather than accept a deity who sanctions
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evil. So since humanity universally
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agrees that God must be just, we have to ask how philosophers and
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theologians have categorized this justice over the centuries.
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How do we put language to this massive concept?
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This takes us past the ancient Greeks and straight into the
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Middle Ages. Owen looks at the philosopher
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Aristotle, who famously divided justice into two main
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categories. Universal justice, which
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summarily comprehends all virtue.
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And particular justice which is a part of the universal under
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the same name. Particular justice is then
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further divided into distributive and commutative
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justice. Commutative relates to fair
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exchange, like making sure the scales are balanced when you buy
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a loaf of bread. Distributive relates to fair
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allocation, like a ruler handing out rewards or punishments based
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on merit. The historical progression here
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is vital for our understanding. It shows the limits of human
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reasoning. The school man, which is the
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term used for the medieval scholastic theologians like
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Thomas Aquinas, took Aristotle's divisions of human justice and
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adapted them, applying them to God.
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But they had to do this via analogy.
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That is a crucial theological tool that we must comprehend.
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Analogy means there is a resemblance between things
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regarding certain qualities, but they are not identical in all
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respects. Because God is infinite and we
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are finite, human justice and divine justice are not exactly
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the same species of things. When we say a human judge is
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just, we mean he follows the law of the land impartially.
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When we say God is just, we are using human language to point to
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a divine reality that infinitely exceeds our comprehension,
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because God is the law. The schoolman understood that
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these categories of universal, distributive, and commutative
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justice could only be spoken of God analogously.
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For instance, God does not engage in fair exchange with
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humans as if we have anything to offer him that He needs.
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We cannot barter with the Almighty, so commutative justice
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falls incredibly short when applied to Him.
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He is the first being the standard of all perfection.
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The categories Aristotle created were built for organizing human
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societies, for keeping the marketplace fair and the courts
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functioning. They were not designed for fully
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capturing the terrifying, brilliant purity of the
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Creator's eternal nature. Trying to force God's justice in
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the Aristotle's categories is like trying to measure the ocean
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with a ruler. You might get some accurate
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data, but you are entirely missing the scale of the thing
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you are measuring. That is a perfect way to put it.
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I have to say my absolute favorite part of this entire
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section is the bizarre but brilliant analogy Owen pulls
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from Homer's Iliad to illustrate this specific point about human
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language versus divine reality. The bird analogy, yes.
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Owen references a bird mentioned by Homer that goes by a double
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name. The gods call it Cheltus, but
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Mencomindus? I love this detail.
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It is such a striking way to explain that the heavenly
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reality of God's justice operates on a completely
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different plane than our earthly vocabulary.
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Think about how we try to explain modern concepts to
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someone who lacks the context. If you try to explain the
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Internet to a medieval peasant, you might call it a magic
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library that fits in your hand. It gets the basic idea across,
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but it falls entirely short of the reality of fiber optic
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cables and global servers. We call God's justice cumindis.
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We use words like distributive or commutative.
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We try to fit God into our Aristotelian boxes, but the gods
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call it Cheltis. The reality in heaven is
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something altogether higher, purer and more unified.
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We use analogical language because that is all we have.
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We are constrained by our vocabulary, but we must never
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make the mistake of thinking our human categories perfectly
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contain the divine essence. While these historical divisions
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from Aristotle and medieval school men are helpful for
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tracing the history of human thought, Owen decides they are
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not quite adequate for his specific goal of defending the
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Gospel against the Sasanians. He decides to carve a new path,
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stepping off the beaten track to better explain God's true nature
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in a way that safeguards the necessity of the atonement.
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Here's where it gets really interesting though, because Owen
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breaks from the traditional structure.
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Here is where the genius of John Owen truly shines.
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He realizes that trying to wedge God's attributes into Aristotle
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sociological categories is insufficient for doing rigorous
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theology. It leaves too many loopholes for
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those who want to diminish the cross.
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So he divides God's justice into two completely different
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considerations. First, justice considered
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absolutely in itself. Second.
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Justice considered in respect to its egress or its exercise.
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Let us break down the first category, absolute justice.
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Owen defines this as the universal rectitude and
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perfection of the divine nature. This exists completely
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antecedent or prior to any acts of God's will and prior to any
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objects toward which it might operate.
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I. Want you to really think about
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the weight of that. If you rewind the clock to
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eternity past, before the foundation of the world, before
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a single Angel or human was ever spoken into existence, God was
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still perfectly just. He did not need a universe to be
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just. He did not need a courtroom or a
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law breaker to possess the attribute of justice.
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It is his very nature. It is the absolute flawless
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rectitude of his being. This ties directly into the
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Reformed high view of God's acidity.
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Yes, acidity is the doctrine that God is entirely
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self-sufficient. Completely independent of his
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creation and possess his life in and of himself, He needs
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absolutely nothing. His absolute justice is part of
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that perfect, self-contained existence.
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He is a perfectly balanced, infinitely holy, being
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completely satisfied within the fellowship of the Trinity, long
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before the phrase Let there be light was ever uttered.
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But DAW did not remain in eternity past alone he created.
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And when he acts outside of himself, we move from the first
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category, absolute justice, to the second category.
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It's egress or it's exercise. The word egress just means a
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going out, a moving outward. It is the exit point.
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So we are looking at how this internal absolute justice moves
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outward toward objects. Owen points out that this egress
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is consequent to the acts of the divine will.
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God had to will to create rational creatures.
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He had to decide to make angels and humans.
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He had to will to appoint proper objects for his justice to
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interact with. If he'd never created us, he
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would still be perfectly just, but there would be no outward
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exercise of that justice toward a creation.
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This means the egress of justice depends on the mere good
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pleasure of God. It is a relative and conditional
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attribute in its exercise having a certain habitude or relation
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to its proper objects. So we have the absolute
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perfection resting in God, and then we have the outward flow,
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that perfection into the created order.
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Now, if you're listening to this, you might be wondering why
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this distinction matters so much.
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It matters because it sets up the framework for understanding
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sin and salvation. This naturally leads to the
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biggest question of the entire text How does this egress
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actually function when it comes to human beings, the giving of
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the moral law and the tragic entrance of sin into the world.
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If we connect this to the bigger picture, we arrive at the
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theological climax of Owens argument.
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He divides the egresses of God's justice into two specific types,
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absolute and free egresses and necessary egresses.
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Let's start with the free egresses.
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The free egresses happen in words.
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God was absolutely free to speak creation into existence.
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He was completely free to legislate, to give a moral law
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to his rational creatures. This is called equity.
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He was also free to give words of declaration and truth.
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God did not have to create a universe.
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There was no internal lack in God that forced him to build the
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cosmos, and he did not have to give mankind a law accompanied
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by threats and promises that was an act of his sovereign free
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will. He chose to set up a moral
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framework. But the second type of egress is
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in deeds, in actions specifically in government, and
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in judgments rewarding or punishing.
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This is where Owen drops the hammer against the Sicinians.
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In respect to these actions, the egresses of divine justice are
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necessary. They could not possibly be
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otherwise. Once God freely chose to create
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a moral universe, and once he freely gave a righteous law, and
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once the creature broke that law through sin, God's vinegary
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justice in punishing that sin becomes an absolute necessity.
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He cannot simply ignore the sin, He cannot wave a hand and
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dismiss the violation of his law, because to do so would
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violate the rule of his own right, wisdom and truth.
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He would be acting against his own absolute nature, which is an
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impossibility. For God to clear the guilty
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without a penalty would mean God ceases to be just.
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It would mean the prolepsis is wrong.
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It would mean the universe is governed by arbitrary whim
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rather than perfect righteousness.
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But I really want to press in on this because this specific point
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is the total bedrock of our faith as Protestants.
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I want to talk directly to you, the person listening right now.
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Why does this theological distinction from a 17th century
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Puritan matter for your life today?
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It matters because if God's punishment of sin is merely an
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optional choice, if he could have just forgiven humanity by
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ignoring the offense, as the Sicinians argued, then the cross
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of Jesus Christ was a tragic, unnecessary mistake.
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Think about the agony of the Garden of Gethsemane.
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If God could just forgive sin by Fiat, why would he crush his own
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Son? But if Owen is right, and if the
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Scriptures he quoted earlier are right, God's vindicatory justice
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in punishing sin is a natural, unavoidable necessity of his
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character. Sin must be punished, The
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penalty must be paid. The scales of divine justice
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must be balanced. This proves why the cross was
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the only possible way for salvation.
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Christ had to absorb that necessary punishment on our
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behalf. Going back to 2nd Corinthians
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521, Christ was made sin for us so that we might become the
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righteousness of God. He stepped into the path of that
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necessary egress of divine justice.
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The blow of judgement that was aimed at us hit him instead.
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The justice of God was fully satisfied, not set aside.
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This elevates our view of the atonement to the highest
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possible level. It wasn't just a demonstration
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of love, though. It was that it was a cosmic
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necessity to satisfy the unyielding demands of a holy God
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while simultaneously saving his people.
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The precision of Owens thought here regarding God's attributes
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is truly a marvel, and it helps to guard our minds against
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sloppy theology. Notice how he compares justice
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to other divine perfections to prove his point.
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You points out that some attributes like power and wisdom
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create and constitute an object for themselves.
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God uses his infinite power and wisdom to build the universe out
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of nothing whose attributes generate their own canvas.
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Other attributes require an object that is peculiarly
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circumstanced in order to be exercised.
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For example, mercy, patience, and forbearance require a
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miserable or sinful object. You cannot show mercy to someone
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who is not in distress or under judgment.
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You cannot show patience to someone who has not provoked
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you. But Justice Owen argues,
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partakes of those concepts. It has a free egress in
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legislation constituting an object for itself by giving the
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law to a newly created humanity, but it also has a necessary
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egress in punishment, reacting to the specific circumstance of
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sin. The nuance here is breathtaking.
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Vindicatory justice is so natural to God, that sin being
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supposed, he cannot the punish it.
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He holds an arrest of judgement for a time, which is where we
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see his patience and his long-suffering in the world
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today. But the execution of that
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judgement against sin is an absolute certainty.
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It will either be borne by the Sinner and eternal misery,
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satisfying justice in hell, or it is borne by the substitute on
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the cross, satisfying justice at Calvary.
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There is no third option where justice is simply swept under
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the rug. Let us take a moment to briefly
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recap the incredible progression of thought we just walked
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through. We covered a massive amount of
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ground today. We really did.
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We started with the humbling reality of our own human
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limitations, the sheer blindness of our minds due to the fall,
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and the arduous task of speaking about a God who is infinite.
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We looked at the universal, innate knowledge planted in
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every human soul that God must be a just God.
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It is a truth so undeniable that men in agony would rather claim
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there is no God at all then face a deity who is unjust.
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We journeyed past the ancient categories of Aristotle and the
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adaptations of the medieval school men, recognizing that
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human language can only describe God by analogy, like calling the
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reality of heaven by earthly names.
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And then we arrived at John Owen's brilliant deduction
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separating God's absolute internal justice from the
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outward exercise of that justice.
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We saw that while God freely chose to create the moral law,
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His punishment of the broken law is an unavoidable expression of
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His perfect nature. So what does this all mean?
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Grasping this heavy theological reality acts as a massive
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guardrail for your faith. It totally demolishes any flimsy
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modern casual view of sin. It prevents us from thinking of
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God as a permissive grandfather in the sky who winks at our
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transgressions. At the same time, it elevates
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the awe inspiring reality of grace to heights you cannot
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reach without this framework. Grace is only amazing when you
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realize the absolute necessity of the wrath that was diverted
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from you. I'll leave you with a final
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thought to ponder long after we finished speaking today.
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Actually, I think you had a wonderful point on this
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regarding mercy. I do.
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This raises an important question that builds on
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everything we have discussed. If God's vindicatory justice is
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an absolute, unavoidable necessity dictated by His very
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nature, if He cannot simply excuse sin but must punish it to
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remain true to Himself, how does that completely reframe your
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view of His mercy? Justice is necessary, but mercy
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is not. God was under no obligation to
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provide a substitute. When the angels fell, no
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Redeemer was provided for them. Justice was simply executed.
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God was under no necessity of nature to save anyone who broke
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His law. His mercy, then, an even more
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shocking and distinct act of His sovereign will, precisely
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because it operates so differently from necessary
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judgement. The fact that he freely chose to
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send his son to satisfy the absolute necessity of his his
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justice, taking the blow himself so that he could freely pour out
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grace upon you, that is a reality that should leave us
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entirely speechless. That is a phenomenal question to
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chew on at a perfect place to land.
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We hope this deep dive into John Owen's thought has sharpened
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your mind, challenged your assumptions, and encouraged your
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faith. Keep reading the great texts of
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church history, keep seeking rigorous truth in the
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Scriptures, and keep marveling at the sheer perfection of God's
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character. We are so glad you decided to
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sit down at the table with us today for Reformed thinking, and
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we look forward to having you join us for our next deep dive.