Why God Must Punish Sin: The Necessity of Divine Justice | John Owen

Deep Dive into A Dissertation on Divine Justice by John Owen - Another head of the first part of the dissertation — Arguments for the necessary egress of vindicatory justice from the supposition of sin — The first argument — God’s hatred of sin; what — Whether God by nature hates sin, or because he wills so to do — Testimonies from holy Scripture — Dr Twisse’s answer — The sum of it — The same obviated — The relation of obedience to reward and of sin to punishment not the same — Justice and mercy, in respect of their exercise, different — The second argument — The description of God in the Scriptures in respect of sin — In what sense he is called a “consuming fire” — Twisse’s answer refuted — The fallacies of the answerThe text presents an excerpt from John Owen's dissertation arguing that God's justice requires Him to punish sin necessarily, rather than merely by His free choice. Owen provides two primary arguments to support this position, both of which focus on the immutable nature of God.First, Owen argues that because God is perfectly pure and holy, He inherently hates all sin. This hatred is not a free act of will, which would imply God could theoretically choose to love sin, but rather a necessary response of His divine nature. Consequently, because God cannot but hate sin, He cannot but punish it, as hating sin equates to willing its punishment. Owen addresses a counterargument from Dr. Twisse, who suggests that God's natural displeasure toward sin does not obligate Him to punish every offense. Owen refutes this by explaining that God's eternal displeasure with sin makes it impossible for Him to simply pardon a sinner without exacting punishment. Twisse also attempts to parallel the punishment of sin with the rewarding of obedience. Owen dismantles this comparison by clarifying that humans owe total obedience to God as their Creator; therefore, obedience is merely a fulfilled duty that warrants no inherent reward, whereas sin inherently demands proportional punishment.Second, Owen relies on the scriptural description of God as a consuming fire. He argues that just as a natural fire inevitably consumes combustible material, God's vindicatory justice necessarily punishes sin. Twisse counters that God once burned something not consumable, namely His sinless Son. Owen rejects this assertion, explaining that Christ was not punished simply as the holy Son, but as our mediator bearing the guilt of our sins. Because God hated those substituted sins, His justice necessitated that Christ be punished.Reformed Theologian GPT: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-XXwzX1gnv-reformed-theologianYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@ReformedExplainerSpotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1t5dz4vEgvHqUknYQfwpRI?si=e-tDRFR2Qf6By1sAcMdkdwhttps://buymeacoffee.com/edi2730