It's about God first, and Pharaoh second

In the story of the exodus of God's chosen people from the land of Egypt, one of the many startling aspects presented to us is the hardening of Pharaoh's heart and the use God makes of this for his own glory. Consider this passage from the book of Exodus:

    And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD.” And they did so. (Exodus 14:4 ESV)

Dr. Jim Hamilton comments on this in his book God's Glory in Salvation through Judgment:

But is what Yahweh does to Pharaoh just? From the perspective of the biblical authors, all human creatures owe their Creator thanks and praise (e.g., Rom. 1:21). No human creatures successfully give God the glory and thanks due him (3:23). Therefore all human creatures stand under God's condemnation. The severity of the judgment meted out matches the unspeakable evil of refusing to honor God as God and render him thanks. He does not owe mercy. The only thing he owes is justice, and the gravity of the heinousness of disregarding the infinite worth and beneficence of God calls for punishment that fits the crime. If God does not visit a just punishment, it shows that he has as little regard for himself as the creatures who have refused to honor him as God and give thanks to him. God shows his own great worth by visiting due justice against Egypt, and he shows his love by mercying Israel." (95)

What I found helpful in this excerpt was not only the reminder that God's justice is both warranted and necessary, but that this really isn't about Pharaoh. First and foremost, it is about God and only secondarily about Pharaoh. When our eyes and mind prioritize the wrong things in Scripture, we can be left with a skewed view of God and reality.

Is penal substitution just? Leon Morris thinks so.

How does the idea of Christ suffering and dying on our behalf, taking our place and becoming a sin for us, correspond with our perception of justice. Most would say that someone being punished on behalf of another is not just at all. Leon Morris addresses this issue in this excerpt from The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross.

It is objected to this interpretation that the bearing of penalty by one in the place of another is not really just, so that when Christ suffers for us it is not a matter of fulfilling legal requirements. There is some force in this objection, and there would be more if we were dealing with a human law. But the fact is that we are not. The law in question is the law of God's holy nature, and that nature is merciful as well as just. Thus God's justice, while it is not capricious but works by the method of law, is a justice which finds a large place for mercy and is not hard, bare, and legalistic. At any rate, whether our legal categories can find a place for mercy or not, those of the Bible can and do ... neither justice nor mercy must be whittled down; but neither must they be separated.

(Morris, Leon. The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965. Print. 280)

Righteous Love

How can a loving God send people to Hell? People that he even says himself he wants to be saved (1 Tim.2:4)??

Over the past couple of weeks it seems like you can't turn on the tv or computer without having some form of this question put in your face. A version of this question even made it onto Good Morning America! So how do we answer this? In Paul's first letter to Timothy that is what he writes. It's not a mistake, it's not a contextual issue, so what now? How can we wrap our minds around the fact that God is love but is also righteous and demands justice? In typical RC fashion, the great preacher/theologian breaks it down for us.