In an Unjust World, Where Is God?

More than 400 years before Christ, people were asking, "Where is the God of justice?" (Malachi 2:17). Many today are asking the same question.

• A drunk driver swerves his vehicle across the road into the path of another car. He walks away unharmed; a young mother and her children are killed in the crash.

• A faithful employee works long hours, sacrificing precious personal time. But when it's time for a promotion, she's bypassed in favor of a less qualified employee who's skilled at office politics.

• Thugs attack an old woman as she walks home with a bag of groceries in her arms. They beat her up and steal her purse.

• A middle-aged man jogs every morning and eats healthy foods, skipping the French fries and rich desserts enjoyed by his friends. One day while jogging, he has a heart attack and dies.

• Classmates make fun of a second grader because his skin color is different than theirs.

• A couple with a strong marriage want to be parents but discover they are infertile. A 14-year-old girl gets pregnant after one sexual encounter with a 16-year-old boy she'll never see again.

• A white-collar criminal who has bilked victims out of millions of dollars emerges from court smiling as he prepares to serve a light sentence that amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist.

Life is filled with injustice. Solomon observed, "The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all" (Ecclesiastes 9:11). Why does God allow so much unfairness? When will he correct what is wrong?

In the apostle John's vision of Heaven, he saw "the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained." They suffered martyrdom for doing the right thing? How unfair! "They called out in a loud voice, 'How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?'" (Revelation 6:9, 10). Notice, though: the saints still referred to God as the "Sovereign Lord." They still affirmed their faith that God is "holy and true."

In Disappointment with God (Zondervan, 1997) Philip Yancey quotes a friend named Douglas who observed, "We come to think, 'Life should be fair because God is fair.' But God is not life. And if I confuse God with the physical reality of life—by expecting constant good health, for example—then I set myself up for a crashing disappointment."

Jesus was (and is) the champion of justice. He treated people fairly whether they were rich or poor, powerful or weak, well-known or unknown. He came to "proclaim justice to the nations . . . and lead justice to victory" (Isaiah 42:1-4; Matthew 12:18-20). He called justice one of the "more important matters of the law" (Matthew 23:23). Jesus also made it clear that the Day of Judgment is coming (John 5:24-30), and on that great day it will be very clear that God is "a faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he" (Deuteronomy 32:4). Jesus himself suffered injustice: an unfair trial, insulting accusations, an undeserved death sentence. But when he died on the cross, he gave us something far better than "fair." He gave us grace.

Where is God in an unjust world? In Christ, reconciling the world to himself. And in us, giving us grace to persevere.