1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Micah 7:18

Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity…?

That one word ‘just’ is so easily passed by with an over-familiarity. We know God is faithful to forgive, but what is it really saying that He is just? In Romans 8:33-34, Paul raises a rhetorical question: “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God Who justifies. Who is to condemn?…” God, as well as being steadfastly loving, is holy and righteous, as Oswald Chambers stated, “The background of God’s love is holiness.” God cannot just pass over and forgive sin; someone has to pay the price (Hebrews 9:22) otherwise, God denies His very attributes and character; God must execute His judgment on sin – and He already has! Romans 3:21-26 is one of the most glorious truths contained in all of scripture. Verse 24-25: “[We are] justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus when God put forward as a propitiation by His blood…” And then in verse 26: “It was to show His righteousness [justice]… so that He might be just and the Justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Paul already mentioned in Romans 8:1 that there is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, but he brings it out with more clarity and force – ‘Who is there left to accuse us; who is there to bring a charge against us when a just God has righteously justified us through the propitiation (appeasing and satisfying the wrath of God’s judgment against sin) of His own Son? There can be none else in all of creation – none whatsoever! Listen to the prophet Micah’s poignancy when he said, “Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity?” and echoed by the hymnist, Samuel Davies: “Who is a pardoning God like Thee? Or who has grace so rich and free?”

He is faithful and just.

Great God of wonders! All Thy ways
Are matchless, Godlike and divine;
But the fair glories of Thy grace
More Godlike and unrivaled shine:

Who is a pardoning God like Thee?
Or who has grace so rich and free?

Crimes of such horror to forgive,
Such guilty, daring worms to spare;
This is Thy grand prerogative,
And in the honor none shall share:

Angels and men, resign your claim
To pity, mercy, love and grace:
These glories crown Jehovah’s Name
With an incomparable blaze:

In wonder lost, with trembling joy,
We take the pardon of our God:
Pardon for sins of deepest dye,
A pardon sealed with Jesus’ blood:

O may this strange, this matchless grace,
This Godlike miracle of love,
Fill the wide earth with grateful praise,
And all the angelic hosts above: