Sect. 86The Justice of GodThe Justice of God

I. Taken in its widest sense, justice may be defined as the rectitude of the will; that is, the disposition of the will and its acts in accordance with truth. In this sense, justice expresses the moral character of all the Divine virtues, including goodness. It differs from justice in creatures in that it is not a conformity with a higher rule, but a conformity or agreement with the Essence and Wisdom of God Himself, or, as the Theologians express it: “condecentia divinæ bonitatis et sapientiæ.” Taken in a narrower sense, as distinct from goodness, justice designates in God and creatures a virtue which observes or introduces a certain order in external actions, and especially adapts the actions to the exigencies of the beings to which they refer. Created justice supposes an existing order, and the beings to which it adapts its actions are always more or less independent of the agent; whereas Divine Justice deals with an order established by God, and with beings entirely dependent on Him. Hence Divine Justice can have no other object than to dispose the works of God in a manner befitting His excellence and leading to His glory. This character is best expressed by the term “Architectonic Justice,” which implies that it is not ruled or bound by any claim existing in its object, but that it consists in the conformity of determinate Divine actions with the archetypes of the Divine works existing in the Divine Mind. Thus the human artist works out his plans, not in order to satisfy the exigencies of the work of art, but to reproduce and realize his own conceptions. If the Divine Artist, unlike the human, deals with personal beings, this does not destroy the architectonic character of His Justice, for personal dignity has a claim on the Divine Justice only in as far as the Divine Wisdom effects the beauty and perfection of His works by treating each being according to its own nature, and by giving each of them exactly that place in the general order of things which its intrinsic value demands. The only real right which stands in the presence of the Divine Will, and determines the whole order of its action, is the right of Divine Majesty: to the Divine Majesty all external works of God must be subjected, to it all the beings coming within the sphere of the Divine Justice must be directed.

II. Human justice and goodness differ in this, that justice is prompted to act by a duty towards another being, whereas goodness acts freely on its own impulse. The Architectonic Justice of God, on the contrary, involves no moral necessity of satisfying the claims of any other being; whatever moral necessity it involves originates in God Himself, Who is bound to act in accordance with His Wisdom, His Will, and His Excellence. In this sense Holy Scripture often calls the Divine Justice “truth,” viz. God is just, because He is true to Himself. His Wisdom requires Him to make all things good and beautiful, and consequently to give each being what its nature demands, and to assign to each that position in the universal order which corresponds with the ultimate object of creation and with the dignity of the Divine Wisdom; His sovereign Will requires that the ends intended should be always attained in one way or another, and consequently that the means necessary to these ends be forthcoming; His excellence and dignity require Him to dispose all His works in a manner tending to the manifestation and glorification of His own goodness; above all, His truthfulness and fidelity demand that He should not deny Himself in those acts by which He invites His creatures to expect with confidence a communication of His truth and of His possessions, for if creatures were deceived in their confidence, God would appear contemptible to them. God can bind Himself to actions which in every respect are free and remain free even after they are promised. Such obligation, however, is not in opposition to perfect freedom and independence, because it is always founded upon an act of the Divine goodness. Nor does this latter circumstance interfere with the strictness of the obligation, because the respect which God owes to Himself is infinitely more inviolable than any title arising from anything outside Him. Hence, although creatures have no formal claims on God, they have a greater certainty that justice will be done to them than if they really possessed such claims. “For My name’s sake I will remove My wrath afar off, and for My praise I will bridle thee, lest thou shouldst perish.… For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it, that I may not be blasphemed” (Isai. 48:9, 11; cf. Deut. 7:9 and 32:4; 1 John 1:9).

III. Another consequence of the architectonic character of the Divine Justice is its very intimate connection with the Divine goodness. God’s Justice crowns and perfects His goodness, which would be essentially imperfect if the beings called into existence by it were not disposed and maintained in the order upheld by the Divine Justice. Sometimes certain acts of the Justice of God are attributed to His Justice alone, as distinguished from His goodness; for instance, the punishment of sinners and the permission of sin. But these acts are also acts of goodness, not so much towards the individual as towards the universe as a whole, the beauty and perfection of which require that at least incorrigible sinners should be reduced to order by punishment. As to the permission of sin, it is quite compatible with the perfection of the universe that free scope should be given to the failings of creatures and to their liberty of choice between good and evil; it is in harmony with the nature of reasonable creatures, and affords the Creator manifold opportunities for manifesting His power, wisdom, and goodness.

IV. If we compare the Divine Justice, as extended to mankind, with the several forms and functions of human justice, it evidently appears as a royal, that is a governing and Providential, Justice. It embraces all the functions necessary for the establishment, enforcement, and maintenance of order in a community, viz. legislative, distributive, administrative, and judicial. Commutative justice, however, has no place in God, because it can only be exercised between beings more or less independent of each other. “Who hath first given Him and recompense shall be made him?” (Rom. 11:35). Nevertheless, certain functions of the Divine Justice, notably those which belong to justice as distinguished from goodness, bear an analogy with commutative justice, and are spoken of in this sense by Holy Scripture. The analogy consists in the fact that God and every rational creature stand to each other as personal beings, and that, on the ground of this mutual relation, a certain interchange of gifts and services, and a certain recognition of “mine and thine” are conceivable. There are three functions of the Divine Justice which are better understood if considered from this point of view than from that of providential Justice alone.

I. In rewarding good actions, God treats them as services done to Himself, and gives the reward as a corresponding remuneration on His side. If He has promised it in a determinate form, creatures possess a sort of title to it, and He cannot withhold it without depriving them of what is their due. But this right and property are themselves free gifts of God, because He makes the promise freely and He freely co-operates with the creature performing the good action, which, moreover, He can claim as His own in virtue of His sovereign dominion over all things. As St. Leo beautifully observes, “God rewards us for what He Himself has given us” (Sua in nobis Dens dona coronat). Thus He is in no way a debtor to creatures, because He is in no way dependent upon them.

2. The punishment of evil is, likewise, more than a reaction of Providential Justice against the disturbance of order. God treats sin as an offence against His dignity, an injustice by which the sinner incurs the duty of satisfaction, a debt which he is bound to pay even when he repents of his sin. Hence the Vindictive Justice of God is more than, the guardian of the moral order in general; it is particularly an “Exacting” Justice by which God guards His own rights. This distinction is important, because the vindictive action of God against incorrigible sinners is a necessary consequence of His wisdom, whereas the exaction of satisfaction is a free exercise of His right, and, as such, is subject to the most varied modifications.

3. Lastly the permission of sin might be brought under the head of analogical commutative justice, inasmuch as it is a “leaving to each one what is his own.” Evil and sin have their origin in the fact that creatures are nothing by themselves, and possess nothing but what is freely given them by God; whence the permission of evil and sin is, on the part of God, a leaving the creature to what is its own, and may therefore be considered as an act of “Permissive” Justice. When God allows the nothingness and the defectibility of the creature to come, so to speak, into play, He manifests His own primary right as much as when He punishes sin; for He manifests Himself as alone essentially good, owing no man anything and needing nothing from any man.

V. From these explanations it follows that the Divine Justice in all its functions, but especially in the three last-named, presupposes, and is based upon, the exercise of the Divine goodness. The Divine goodness, therefore, pervades and influences the whole working of the Divine Justice. God always gives greater rewards than justice requires; He always exacts less and punishes less than He justly could exact and punish; and He permits fewer evils than He could justly permit. Theologians commonly ascribe this influence of God’s goodness on His justice more to His Mercy or merciful bounty, not only because it manifests itself even in favour of those who make themselves unworthy of it, but also because it is chiefly determined by God’s pity on the natural misery of the creatures. In fact, God rewards beyond merit, and punishes or exacts satisfaction below what is due, on account of the limited capabilities of creatures; He softens His vindictive justice in view of the frailty of the sinner, and He restricts the permission of evil in view of the misery which evil entails upon creatures.

The intimate union of Justice and goodness in God prevents His permitting sin as a means of manifesting His vindictive Justice, just as He wills good in order to manifest His retributive justice. The manifestation of vindictive justice is the object of the punishment of sin; it is only the object of the permission of sin in as far as the permission of continuation or increase of sin is the punishment of a first fault. The first fault or sin can only be permitted by the Justice of God in as far as He thereby intends the maintenance of the order of the universe and of Divine and human liberty on the one hand, and on the other the manifestation of the nothingness of creatures and of the power of God, Who is able to make sin itself subservient to His glorification. With equal reason it might be said that God permits first sins in order to manifest His mercy, not only to those whom He preserves from sin, but especially that kind of mercy which can be shown to sinners only.