In many respects, justice is a communicable attribute because moral creatures, especially human beings, can be just and righteous. But while human righteousness and justice are limited, temporal and changing, God’s righteousness or justice is infinite, eternal and unchangeable.

The attribute of God’s justice is most often associated in Scripture with the judgments of his heavenly court. As 1 Peter 1:17 reads, we have a Father who "judges each person’s work impartially.” According to Romans 2:5-6, in “righteous judgment … God ‘will repay each person according to what they have done.’” And because God’s judgments are always true, in Romans 9:14, Paul asked, “Is God unjust?” And his reply was firm, “Not at all!”

Theologians have drawn attention to the justice of God by focusing on two main areas: God’s just rewards and his just punishments.

On the one side, God’s nature is to grant just rewards for righteousness. As Psalm 58:11 puts it, “the righteous still are rewarded [because] … there is a God who judges the earth.” It may seem at times as if there is no reward for righteousness. But, we can be assured of God’s just rewards because God remains infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his justice.

On the other side, it’s God’s nature to grant just punishments for evil. In 2 Thessalonians 1:6-8, Paul insisted that “God is just … He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” And in Acts 17:31, Paul called for repentance because “[God] has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed."

These and many other passages draw attention to how God’s infinite, eternal and unchangeable justice is displayed in his just punishments.