Revelation 19:11-16 – I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on His head are many crowns. He has a name written on Him that no one knows but He himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is the Word of God.14 The armies of heaven were following Him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Coming out of His mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On His robe and on His thigh He has this name written: KING OF KING AND LORD OF LORDS.
“With justice He judges and wages war.” In ESV and the NKJV it is translated “in righteousness He judges and makes war.” Using the translation “justice” is proper and is closely related to “righteousness.” We might define justice as giving out or receiving what is fair or impartial. Of a judge it is considering the facts and then making a decision that is made from the facts and circumspect consideration. There is not impartiality or bias in the decision, just a rendering of what is as equitable. Some consider justice to be a compromise, yet compromise is not always fair. Sometimes one person is one hundred percent right and another person one hundred percent correct. So compromise for the sake of compromise can be very unjust. There is not compromise for those who have rejected Jesus as their Messiah and Lord are fully guilty of rejecting the mercy and love of God to embrace the evil in and of the world. They are one hundred percent wrong and have no excuse (Romans 1:18-32, 10:31). Righteousness is only imputed to a person who has Jesus as Savior and Lord. Then the righteousness (sinless nature and life) of Jesus is imputed on to the His follower and the horrid sin that His disciple once had is imputed onto the believer. Outside of the Gospel there is no imputed righteousness. How can there be, there is none other than the Triune God who is sinless, who is righteous. No one can give what they do not have so none but God can impute righteousness to another. God has only made one way to receive His righteousness and that is through Jesus His Son.
So what is righteousness? God is the only one who has it, except for those to whom it has been imputed to. Righteousness is the innate purity of God. It is all the qualities of God that are all manifested as the result of His love. Since God loves all (John 3:16) He is just with all (Romans 2:11). His love demands that justice be rendered in every case. From God’s love flows His qualities. He provides, protects, heals, teaches, etc. all out of His love. Yes God is righteous, because it flows from His very nature. It is who He is and it all comes from His love. It all begins and ends with His love. The Word says that God is love. It is not that love controls God, but that God Himself is love and it flows from the essence of Him. God does not have a checklist of things to do to be loving, He is loving because He is love. It is His essence. A perpetual liar lies because that is what is within Him. In his heart is dishonesty and deception and so he lies. The action does not make the heart but from the heart flows the action (Luke 6:45). Acts of love from God does not make Him a loving God. Rather acts of love flow from Him because He is love. Love naturally flows from the fount that is Him.
Since God is love the judgement that comes from Him is not from anger or vengeance. Rather it what is fair and righteous. It come from His love. In love He gave men free will. However throughout the Word, even from the Garden of Eden, God has always warned that rebellion against God is sin and so there will be a penalty for sin (Genesis 2:15-17), which is not the righteousness of God. Any action that is contrary to the nature of God (is revealed by what He does and is who He is) is sin. And only those who have God within them are being transformed by Him to change from their sinful essence to a Godly essence. If God truly lives within us then we have His love within us and thusly we live in righteousness (the nature of God) and justice (which is a byproduct of the nature (love) of God. Righteousness and justice are a supernatural progression of all those who have yielded to Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Holy Spirit is love (1 John 4:8). If He is transforming us to be like Jesus, who is leading us to the Father, who both are love, then love is within us. Now it is not exactly that having love displayed from within us is the key. What is the key is that because God lives within us He is then assimilating every cell within us to be conformed to Him (and that we call out and plead for Him to do). He is love and so we are transformed from selfish sinners to unselfish conformers to God, not done by our will but by His love (1 Corinthians 1:8-9). Therefore, yes we yield to God, but it is He who chooses us and keeps us and transforms us because He loves us. He calls us to Him because He knows all and He knows that what is best for us is to be with Him. As we were made to be His children, to not be His child is an abomination against not only our Lord, but also against the very make up of how we were built.
When Jesus comes back to judge and make war, it is not out of hate or vengeance, but rather because of His very nature of love. He has been merciful and offered grace and a place at His dinner table to all. If they have refused Him then they have stated that who He essentially is, is not what they like, or prefer, but even hate (Matthew 12:30). They do not want to be what they were created to be. Those who reject Christ reject their creator, they reject the purpose of their creation, they, in fact, reject the essence of who they were made to be and have mutated and become a vile creature that ends up living a life that is hateful even to self. They refuse to live a life of subjection to God. Rather, they would be free of God. They may cry out “live and let live,” but actually, since they were created to love and fellowship with God, by rejecting God they have decided Him unworthy to be their Master. So they defame God and elevate themselves (Job 40:8). They are not listening to God, but to the enemy. He also attempted to elevate Himself as sovereign over his own life and deemed God unworthy to rule over Him (Isaiah 14:12-15). Therefore God is just and He is righteous in waging war against those who have utterly rejected Him. He loves His disciples and the world has rejected and scorned His disciples. They have scorned the Gospel message they shared with the world. God judges and He discerns what the fruit of the unbelievers plainly reveals. It reveals that they reject God’s presence in their lives and so God gives them what they want, and what they want is separation from Him. He is just with the unbeliever and gives them what they want, separation from Him and that means spending eternity in the Lake of Fire. He is in the same action just with the believer who has been martyred and, or, persecuted, because the unbeliever who persecuted or killed them has received a just sentence.
Family, remembering the martyrs under the Altar form Revelation 6:9-11, they cried out for justice, for justice to be done for their blood spilt by unbelievers. God is bringing justice for all those who have harmed His beloved children. Every cruel word will be accounted for. Jesus loves us and woe to the one who harms or attempts to derail one of His children (Luke 17:1-3a). In His absolute righteous judgement of the rebellious, His love for us is in open display. Family, indeed God is love. His justice is a fruit of His love. It is all about love, His love. He is always good and He always loves us. Woe to those who hurt the children of God. Pray for them. Praise our God who loves us so! Praise God!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.