God's love does not erase His justice!

God has lovingly offered us a way to be reconciled to Him and enter into an eternal love relationship with Him. However, outside of His one and only offer of reconciliation through Jesus Christ, "The Sun of Righteousness" in the passage below, we have no access to a loving eternal relationship with Him. Outside of reconciliation to God by faith in the promised Savior, justice demands we experience the full weight of the punishment we deserve for sin. God's love does not erase His justice!

Malachi prophesies about God's love and justice:

Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the day is coming,
Burning like an oven,
And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble.
And the day which is coming shall burn them up,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“That will leave them neither root nor branch.
² But to you who fear My name
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings;
And you shall go out
And grow fat like stall-fed calves.
³ You shall trample the wicked,
For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet
On the day that I do this,”
Says the Lord of hosts.

⁴ “Remember the Law of Moses, My servant,
Which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel,
With the statutes and judgments.
⁵ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
⁶ And he will turn
The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

 

"Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."