The Law of Justice

President Michael J. Preece

#Introduction

There’s a great deal in scripture about justice — I have several scriptural references here that we won’t stop to look up individually, but it’s very clear that God is a God of justice, that justice is a core part of His system, and that it matters enormously. If we understand something about how that system of justice works, we can articulate it as what we’ll call the law of justice.

#The Law of Justice, Stated

The law of justice states this: if a person breaks the law of God — if they sin, even in a single commandment — that person is no longer worthy to enter the celestial kingdom. Break one commandment, and you are, in that sense, out of luck. The corollary is that this unworthiness isn’t limited to the celestial kingdom; it applies to any degree of glory.

And the sobering fact is that all of us have sinned. As Paul writes in Romans 3:23, all have sinned. So all of us, by this measure, are lost. We have already lost the battle, in a sense.

#Justified and Reconciled

There’s a scriptural term I want you to learn well: it describes a person whose sins have been completely overcome — removed, resolved, no longer plaguing him. Such a person is said to be justified. To be justified means to stand without sin. A second scriptural term used in the same sense is reconciled to God. Both terms describe someone whose sins have been fully overcome.

#Three Corollaries of the Law of Justice

1. A person is punished only for the sins they themselves are guilty of — no one is punished for another person’s sins.
2. A person must be capable of understanding the law before they can be held accountable to it — that is, they must be accountable before they can meaningfully sin against the law.
3. Ignorance of the law is no excuse — but a person will not be judged by a law until they have had a genuine chance to understand it. The underlying assumption is that everyone will eventually come to understand the law well enough to be justly judged against it.

#A Hypothetical Man

Let’s take a hypothetical case: a mortal man who has just arrived on earth, standing right here, having done nothing yet — he hasn’t broken any law at all. He will live out roughly seventy years of mortal life before he leaves this world, and ideally, we would like him to leave this life justified — that is, with no sin remaining.

There are three theoretical ways he might achieve that.

#1. Justified by the Law

The first is to live the law so perfectly, from beginning to end, that he simply never sins — becoming justified by the law. This is, in fact, impossible. But it’s worth understanding, because certain groups have historically tried exactly this — most notably the Jews of Christ’s day. They had taken the Law of Moses and embellished it heavily with detailed, rigorous Pharisaic additions — precise rules governing behavior in almost every circumstance, including elaborate Sabbath restrictions. Their underlying theory was that if they kept these difficult, highly specific laws well enough, they could become justified by the law itself.

This is the context for Paul’s teaching to the Jews of his day: that they could not be justified by their own works, that trying to earn justification through the law was impossible, and that justification instead comes through faith in Christ. Paul understood the gospel more fully than perhaps any of us do — he knew precisely what he meant. But his writings, addressed specifically to Jews attempting to be justified by the law, were later reinterpreted more broadly by evangelical Christianity to mean that faith alone — simply confessing Christ — is all that’s required, with works considered unnecessary. That reading is a misunderstanding of the context Paul was actually addressing.

In any case, being justified by the law alone is not a viable path — it’s impossible.

#2. Suffering for One’s Own Sins

The second theoretical path is for the man to suffer for his own sins directly — through some process of remorse, regret, and suffering that begins to “pay” for what he’s done. We don’t know a great deal about the details of this principle, but it does appear to be part of the law of justice that some suffering of this kind is possible. The question, though, is whether a person could fully pay for their own sins this way. We are told this is not possible — a person can make partial payment for their sins through their own suffering, but complete payment is beyond anyone’s capacity.

So: justified by the law — impossible. Suffering fully for one’s own sins — also not possible.

#3. Receiving Help

That leaves only one remaining path: receiving help. And because this is the only viable path, we are blessed with a subsidiary law tied to the law of justice, called the law of mercy.

#The Law of Mercy

The law of mercy may be summarized as follows: when the gospel is transgressed, the transgressor becomes unjustified and unqualified to be saved in a kingdom of glory. Even so, that transgressor still has a chance to gain the presence of God — the demands of justice can still be satisfied, provided that an appeal is made on the sinner’s behalf by someone qualified to make it: an advocate, a redeemer, a rescuer. The sinner, in turn, must agree to abide by the terms set by that redeemer for the appeal to be made.

The only individual qualified to serve as this Redeemer is the Savior, Jesus Christ, and the terms He requires are acceptance of Him, obedience to the laws of the gospel, and repentance.

In essence: every one of us is lost under the strict law of justice, but we are greatly blessed that a mediator — an advocate, a redeemer — can appeal on our behalf to those who administer and enforce the demands of justice. Because of that appeal, we may be admitted in spite of our sins, provided we agree to abide by His conditions. That redeemer is Jesus Christ, and only He is able to make this appeal on our behalf and have it accepted.

#What Happens to Those Who Reject Help

Consider our hypothetical man again, but suppose he does not accept help from the Savior — he has the opportunity to receive it and declines, reaching the end of his life unjustified. What happens to him?

He will go to the spirit world — not to some undefined state, but to an actual place. Within the spirit world, there is a condition or state referred to in scripture as prison — the most common scriptural use of the term “hell.” This is the place where the unrepentant sinner goes, and there he will begin the process — whatever its exact nature — of suffering for his sins. Scripture describes this graphically as “weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth,” though we don’t know the precise details beyond the fact that it involves genuine remorse and emotional suffering. There he begins to pay, at least partially, for his own sins.

He will also be offered the opportunity, even there, to repent and accept help from the Savior. And how many of the sons and daughters of Adam will ultimately accept the Redeemer’s help under those circumstances? Scripture tells us that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ — so virtually everyone will eventually accept Christ’s help, though only after having paid some part of the price themselves. His effort and sincerity in that suffering will be judged, and he will then have the opportunity to repent, accept Christ, and be justified — placed in an appropriate degree of glory where he can be comfortable for eternity.

Are there exceptions — people who never accept Christ, even then? Yes, a few remain “filthy still.” We’re aware of that possibility, though it applies to very few.

#Discussion and Questions

What about those who never received the gospel in this life — do they go to Paradise or Prison? This connects to what was discussed earlier regarding the spirit world, and it’s a good question, though it goes beyond what we can fully cover here. Broadly, everyone may be assigned by gatekeepers at death to either Paradise or Prison. Those who go to Paradise are generally understood to be those who received the gospel — see Doctrine and Covenants 137:6–9 — though there’s some nuance around those who would have received it, had they had the chance.

Does a person who reaches the terrestrial kingdom via spirit prison need to be baptized? This is a question worth holding for later discussion, since it connects to whether a person can be forgiven of sin without the ordinance of baptism — a topic we’ll get into later. My honest sense is probably not, but I’m not fully certain.

If no one is punished for anyone else’s sins, how does Christ’s suffering for our sins fit under the law of justice — is the law of mercy actually exclusive to, or separate from, the law of justice? Christ did suffer on our behalf, but the underlying corollary of the law of justice still holds: no one is required to suffer for someone else’s sins as a consequence of that other person’s sin — each person remains directly responsible only for their own. Christ’s atoning suffering operates through the law of mercy, which is the mechanism by which the demands of the law of justice can be satisfied on our behalf, rather than a suspension of the principle that no one owes payment for another’s sin.