Justice to give another their due. We on our own are insufficient to give God His due; quite the opposite all of us have failed in giving Him His due. We have all sinned, and God will not clear the guilty. Thankfully this is not the end of the story though.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1807
1807 Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor. Justice toward God is called the “virtue of religion.”
God being the Creator of all things deserves the love, honor and fidelity of every human. This is what is due to Him.
Romans 3:19, 23 Revised Standard Version
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 23 since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
All of us fall short of giving God what is due Him. Notice, the apostle Paul, softly links to Exodus 34:7.
7 ‘keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
God is good and merciful, but He will also not be mocked, nor will He clear the guilty. The whole world is held accountable to Him.
What is sin. Sin is the rejection of God’s rightful authority over our lives. God gives us the free will to choose. He created us for love and community with Him. Sin is transgression of the law.[2] If we break one of His commands it is charged against us for breaking the whole of the law.[3] The chief commandment that God has given us is to love Him.[4]
We have all failed to do this.
Beauty begats beauty. God is so beautiful. Look at what He has created. Think of the love and thought that was put into creating all that He has. He created us and deserves the love of every human being.
Instead, we have turned from Him. We have all gone astray. We have all gone our own way.[5] We have all sinned and deserve the consequences.
What are the consequences for sin? Death.
23 For the wages of sin is death…
We all deserve death. Separation from life. God who gave us life and gives us life. Ultimately every person alive right now is alive by the pleasure or will of God. The fact that we can breathe right now and read this should cause us to be thankful. Death is the penalty for us not giving God His due.
This is not the end of the story though!
In first century Judea, there was a voice. A prophet sent by God to baptize Israel for the forgiveness of sin. Crowds from all over the region came to be baptized by John the Baptizer. One day Jesus of Nazareth, God in the flesh came to be baptized.
John recognized Him, and said to Him, I must be baptized by You and you come to me? And Jesus replied to Him, permit it for the fulfillment of righteousness or in the Doauy-Rheims Version, to fulfill all justice.[6]
Righteousness and justice can be used interchangeably. Jesus came to make all things right. He came to fulfill all righteousness. He came to give God what He deserves on behalf of man. Through Jesus’ life and death, He brought salvation to us and continues to bring it every day.
God is good and merciful but will not be mocked. He deserves to be honored and loved. He created us for fellowship with Him. We have all sinned, and God will not clear the guilty. Jesus Christ came to fulfill the justice for us. In the next blog, we will discuss how He accomplished this
Live repentance. Be zealous. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen
May 1, 2025, St Joseph the Worker
Be Zealous 
Leave a comment