Theological Misconceptions Part 4: Does God's love overrules His justice?

In America it is extremely popular today to speak of the love of God, or God is love, which is absolutely true (1 John 4:8). The question remains then, how is God's justice reconciled? The assumption is that God's love overrules or negates the justice of God. Or put in another way, if God was truly loving He would never allow anyone to spend eternity in the torments of hell. The theological misconception here is that God is under no obligation to show mercy and be gracious to man. Over and over in the Scriptures, God's glory is played out not only by His mercy and grace, but also His justice. In punishing the guilty God's righteousness is put on display.

We all understand this when a murderer or pedophile is brought to justice. However, we want God to stop evil, but where do we want this to stop? "The murder level? The lying level? or the thinking level? If we want Him to stop evil, we gotta be consistent, we can't just pick and choose. That means you and I would be eliminated right? Because we think evil stuff." - Lecrae. Jesus in multiple instances deals that sin and evil is not merely actions but flows from the heart and mind.

So how is God's love for sinners and His justice toward sin reconciled? Jesus, the God-man who lived in perfect obedience to the law was sent to suffer the condemnation of the law to bear the wrath of God against all sin. In other words, Jesus took your penalty and mine so that God's justice and His wrath would be satisfied (Romans 3:21-26). Shai Linne, who in His song, "Judge of All the Earth," inspired this series as well as the premise for this post. Finishes with this, "So now God is able to be just and the justifier of all who turn from their sin and place their trust in Messiah. The resurrected Lord is our infinite treasure truly, He gives us new eyes to see His justice in all its beauty!"