To behave fairly means to act in a proper or legal manner without bias or distortion. While humanity’s capacity for fairness is limited , the Bible teaches that God is perfectly fair in everything, including His dealings with human beings . God is the only perfect and righteous judge of all (Psalm 9:7-8; Deuteronomy 32:4). The Lord in His righteousness judges and rules over the world with fairness (2 Timothy 4:8; Psalm 96:10). The Bible contains many examples of God’s impartiality and love for even those who outside of His chosen people. Ruth, Rahab, the Ninevites whom Jonah warned, and the vision God gave to the apostle Peter (Acts 10:9-16) are biblical examples that demonstrate God’s impartiality. Everyone will be held accountable and face judgment before God based upon their works whether good or bad (Romans 14:10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:10). God’s fairness is perfect, but His love goes beyond fairness. In His mercy, He offers what we don’t deserve: forgiveness, grace, and eternal life through Jesus Christ (John 3:16). This is the astounding truth of the gospel—God isn’t just fair; He is extravagantly good.
God is not only perfectly fair and just, but He is also merciful and gracious. All human beings deserve God’s justice: to die and be separated from Him for all eternity because of our sin (Romans 3:23, 6:23). However, God chose to reconcile an unjust and sinful humanity to Himself through the sacrifice of His own Son, Jesus Christ: “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Paul wrote in Romans, ”For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus” (Romans 3:25-26). Jesus paid the price for our sins with His sacrificial death on the cross and resurrection from the dead.
Because God is fair, just, and loves humanity, He sent Jesus to save the world from the penalty of sin: eternal death and separation from God. The Bible says that Jesus became sin for us, bore our sins in His body, and paid the full penalty for us through His death on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 John 2:2). By faith in Jesus Christ, a person is freed from the penalty of death and receives the gift of eternal life (Ephesians 2:8-9).
In a world of injustice, Christians are called to be the salt and light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16). Like God, we should be fair in all of our dealings . Jesus taught that we should not judge others prematurely and that the standard of judgment we use will be used against us (Matthew 7:1-5). But Christians must remember that our judgments are not perfect. As such, we should err on the side of mercy: “There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you” (James 2:13). God is the only perfect judge, and all vengeance belongs to Him (Romans 12:19). So what are we to do when people persecute us and treat us unfairly? Romans 12 provides the answer: “Instead, if your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.” Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good” (vv. 20-21). In other words, we are to take on the character of God by loving and praying for those who hate us, being merciful and leaving vengeance and judgment to God at the date of time of His choosing, knowing that He is perfectly fair.
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