God Judges With Equity

"Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together before the LORD, ⁹ for He is coming to judge the earth. with righteousness He shall judge the world, and the peoples with equity."

Psalm 98:8-9

When I heard this verse recently, it illustrated how changes in modern English can hijack the meaning of a text.  In this passage, the psalmist exhorted the earth and everything in it to rejoice in God coming to judge the world in righteousness.  Since man's fall into sin, creation groans to be delivered from the oppression of pride, wickedness, greed, selfishness and violence.

Lately "equity" has taken on a new meaning in modern vernacular, in fact almost the opposite of what it historically has meant.  The first definition in the Webster 1828 Dictionary says, "Justice; right. In practice, equity is the impartial distribution of justice, or the doing that to another which the laws of God and man, and of reason, give him a right to claim. It is the treating of a person according to justice and reason."  Based upon the logic employed by Webster, reason includes the testimony of scripture that reveals the living, loving, almighty God to mankind.  The modern idea of equity does not consider God and is anything but impartial.  This new concept of equity is to be partial towards those who are seen as marginalised and to provide different amounts of resources to provide an equal outcome.

The Bible teaches Jesus Christ is coming to judge the earth in righteousness, and the world ought to be joyful and celebrate the sinful wrongs to be justly put right.  God has provided the Law of Moses and the 10 Commandments so we might know without a doubt we have failed to measure up to His perfect standard.  Those ignorant of His laws are still without excuse, for He has given each of us a conscience.  Out of our own mouths He will judge us, and even if that was our only standard of righteousness to measure up to we could not justify ourselves.  The difficulty of our childhood, the lack of godly counsel or the allure of the deceptions we swallowed down cannot exonerate us from guilt.  God's justice is impartial, just and equitable.

In a parable Jesus told in Luke 14, He appealed to the reason of His hearers:  if a king only had 10,000 soldiers and knew the advancing enemy had 20,000 soldiers, wouldn't he be wise to quickly send a delegation to propose conditions of peace rather than trying to fight a losing battle?  Following this logic, it would be wise to accept God's offer of forgiveness and peace through the Gospel when we lack righteousness in ourselves, knowing we are guilty of wickedness before God and He will judge with equity.  Through the Gospel, God has provided a way for us to be forgiven of our sin and to have righteousness imputed (credited) to us by faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God who offers eternal life to all who trust in Him.  Christians can rejoice in the justice of God, for 1 John 1:9 affirms, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

On the basis of God's justice those who place their faith in Jesus Christ are born again.  God is impartial, for He extends this offer to every sinner so we might trust in Him, repent of our sin and live.