The Justice of God
Source: Extract from Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, Herder, 1954, § 27.
(Theological Review by the Most Illustrious Sr. D. JOSÉ M.ª CABALLERO CUESTA, Canon Lector of Burgos)
1. God’s love for Himself is His worthy assent to His infinite perfection; His love for creatures is His assent to extra-divine realities, accomplished in an intimate, powerful, and creative manner. God’s love for Himself is God’s self-affirmation and corresponds to His absolute divine perfection and dignity; His love for creatures is an act by which God freely communicates divine goodness to what is outside of God. As stated elsewhere, divine love is a simple act of infinite power and intimacy, yet it manifests itself in different effects, thereby constituting the foundation of being and, consequently, also the foundation of the various perfections of creatures. From this it follows that it is an objective love, proportioned to being — that is, realized in a just manner.
2. It is a truth of Revelation that God is infinitely just. When we affirm that God is just, we mean that He knows and rightly evaluates His own absolute being. It must be borne in mind that God does not discover His own value at a given moment, as if He were then to elevate it to the plane of consciousness, perceive it, and evaluate it rightly. Rather, His perfection and the due evaluation of it are one and the same reality: the divine personal Self. God exists in the form of justice insofar as He exists in the form of absolute personal value, affirming Himself with irrevocable force and intensity. There exists no norm or law that serves God as a standard for judging Himself. He is His own law and norm. He exists in the form of personal law.
3. In the sphere of what is extra-divine, God manifests Himself in the form of creative, legislative, and remunerative justice.
a) As creative justice, He manifests Himself insofar as God reveals His absolute value in a finite and varied manner through the creation of extra-divine things. The justice of God requires that God manifest Himself in creatures and that He manifest His absolute value, so that there is nothing that is not a manifestation of this absolute value. The fact that He communicates to things higher or lower degrees of existence is not contrary to the justice of God. Indeed, God determines with absolute freedom and sovereignty the degree of being of each of the creatures. Since all things have been created by God, by maintaining them in existence He esteems and values each one of them with a strict objective justice.
b) At the same time He introduces in things forces and inclinations by which they can develop in such a way that their innate essence attains the full and complete form willed by God. To rational creatures He has given laws which are the paths along which they can reach the state of consummation willed by God. These laws do not impose on creatures endowed with reason duties alien to their essence; rather, they are precepts whose fulfillment leads us to the natural or supernatural goal to which God has destined us by creating and redeeming us — that is, they lead to the final realization of human nature, or, what is the same, to the self-realization of man, determined and effected by God without prejudice to human freedom.
The one who submits obediently to them behaves in a manner consonant with his nature; the one who rejects them behaves in a manner contrary to his nature. It follows, then, that the precepts of God are revelations of His love — of that love which calls man in order to lead him to the fullness of life and existence. This is why the Old Testament, especially the Psalms, praises the divine law with joy. The laws given by God, Lord of Creation, to establish and maintain His sovereignty, are not a limitation and oppression of human life; on the contrary, they free it from narrowness and oppression. If man feels that this is not so, the reason is to be sought in human autocracy and pride, and the consequent blindness that prevents him from knowing his true life and existence, as well as the humility which these entail.
c) Retributive justice is an attitude by which God rewards good and punishes wickedness (iustitia remunerativa et vindicativa). By reason of His self-affirming and self-possessing perfection, God has decreed that moral value be rewarded and that sin be punished. Commutative justice, understood in the ordinary sense, cannot be attributed to God. Indeed, this justice implies a strict legal obligation of reciprocal services, whereas God has no obligation whatsoever to anyone (Rom 11:35; 1 Cor 4:7). God punishes wickedness by imposing not only penalties intended to improve and correct the wicked (as maintained by the Socinians, Stattler, and Hermes), but also vindicative punishments (Wis 11:17; Jer 32:18; Rom 12:19). Through punishment, the order disturbed by sin is restored. It is true, nevertheless, that God could forgive without imposing punishment (the contrary was maintained by Saint Anselm of Canterbury, Tournely, and Dieringer), though not without prior repentance. (Cf. the treatises on merit, the Redemption, and the Last Things. Regarding the concept of “merit,” see the treatise on Grace.)
4. In the Old Testament, the justice of God is described above all as remunerative and vindicative justice. Cf. Ps 1; 11(10); 50(49); 75(74); 78(77); 94(93):20-23; Nah 9; Is 15, 16; Zeph 1:14-18; Jer 32:17-19. It is true that God is said to be a severe judge, but arbitrariness or caprice are never attributed to Him. The norm of His judgments is His perfection, affirmed with decisiveness and unconditionality. In the New Testament, see, among other passages: Jn 17:25; Acts 17:31; Rom 2:2; 1 Cor 4:5; 2 Cor 5:10; 2 Tim 4:8.
If in the Old Testament the rigid severity of God is emphasized more than divine love, the reason is to be sought in a special divine pedagogy of salvation. This does not mean that God has gradually become more benign over time, as though in Him love had little by little come to predominate over justice. It should also be observed that even in the Old Testament the revelation of love is not lacking. This revelation comes through so clearly that the faithful perceive it with absolute evidence, so that their hearts overflow with joy. It is true, nonetheless, that it does not yet attain the clarity and power with which the revelation of love presents itself in the New Testament.
5. In God, love and justice are not in a state of opposition and conflict. In the manifestations of love, justice is not weakened or relegated to second place. Love and justice thoroughly interpenetrate each other (Ps 25:10). Love and justice are not two parallel and independent attitudes, but one and the same reality. The justice of God is revealed insofar as He causes us to participate in His glory and perfection in a manner corresponding to His goodness — that is, by way of love. Love manifests itself by valuing and treating creatures according to the measure of their participation in divine goodness, manifesting itself in the form of justice. In the extra-divine sphere, love and justice often appear separated because we do not possess ourselves with sufficient force to communicate ourselves properly, and because we are not capable of estimating the value of a thing or person accurately enough to give them our love in the right way.
God embraces all creatures with infinite and just love, with infinite force and intimacy, with loving justice. God loves all that exists, acting justly; and loving all that exists, God acts justly. Love manifests itself by maintaining due respect for the free human person. God does not compel him to accept His love. He does not strip man of his free will, by which he can flee from the love of God. This flight — that is, rebellion against God — has fatal consequences for the individual, the community, and the entire world. The sinner destroys himself and destroys the world. God allows the sinner to remain in the state of perdition that overwhelms him; He causes him to experience the absurdity of sin and of rebellion against love. In this way God adopts a just attitude toward the sinner. Love and justice in God go together. Love is a reward for those who accept it freely; it becomes condemning justice for those who close the doors of their soul to it. Love is the form of justice, and justice is the form of love.
The union of love and justice appears with full clarity in the death of Christ on the Cross. (Cf. the treatise on the Redemption.)
The existence of hell does not contradict the assertion that in God love and justice are formally identical. This vital form is grounded also in a love that is at the same time justice. God does not violate human will; he does not treat man as if he were a machine but deals with him as a being responsible for his actions. God has an exalted conception of man, and for this very reason he does not impose a life of love and adoration upon one who rejects it through selfishness and self-will. Insofar as man turns away from God, rejecting the absolute personal Value, he rebels against the communications of divine love. If love were to impose itself against man’s will, compelling him to a life of love and adoration, it would produce in the man hardened by selfishness unimaginable torments. God grants man what he desires: a life of absolute autonomy. It is therefore just that he experience the absence of God in the form of desperate anguish and sorrowful solitude. Nevertheless, the damned does not repent; he cannot repent. He therefore prefers a life of rebellion to a life of adoration and bears the consequences. If, in order to attain the fullness of life, he must submit to God, he prefers to renounce that fullness.
