Justice is not punishment. When people think of God’s justice, they tend to equate it with God simply punishing people. I received this word that “Justice is restorative.” Justice brings things back into its proper order. Order brings function; but disorder yields disfunction. Justice says “I will bring things back into the way they are supposed to function such that there is perfect interaction of the things in existence". Does it hurt to make this happen? Will there be pain? The answer yes; this may feel like punishment. Childbirth is a perfect metaphor here; because people often equate labor with pain itself much like they equate justice with punishment, but the pain of labor is not actually “pain”; it is muscular contractions and hormonal influences on the body and the baby itself in motion with these that are working together to bring forth life. So what is actually healthy normal functions of the body can look like “pain” but it’s actually just “work”, the woman and baby’s body working very very hard (hence the term
”labor”). Justice very much takes on similar exterior attributes—its underpinning of restoration tends to look and feel like punishment.
Where could this perversion of Justice come from? One guess. Concupiscence.
This is also why you cannot have justice without mercy. Because God is Love. all things are taken into consideration upon His creation because He glories in His creation. His glorification is perfected in us when we are totally united in the Cross—this is suffering; the Cross is suffering. Our suffering united in Christ Jesus is like punishment to make us holy and to restore us for the Father’s glory because He will have His bride, pure and spotless, because He is Justice.