God is loving, but a major part of what He loves is His own perfect character, with a major aspect being the importance of maintaining justice and righteousness. Though God pardons sinners and makes great provision for expressing His mercy, He will never negotiate His justice. If we fail to understand that, the cross of Christ will be utterly meaningless to us. What do we mean when we speak of God’s justice? In the ancient Jewish mind, justice was never abstract. That’s why, in the Old Testament,