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Without absolutes, we would have no personal boundaries or moral structure for life. We would have no way to tell our children what is right or wrong. Did you beat up your sister? That's your "truth." Did you have sex with your brother, your child, your dog? That's your "truth." The absence of absolutes leads logically to insanity and suicide. It is undisguised insanity.

Without an absolute standard of justice, democracy would be impossible. Truth, accountability and public trust would all go down the drain. There would be no basis for moral outrage over Third World debt, poverty or the AIDS pandemic. Growing opium in Afghanistan or cocaine in Columbia? No problem! That's your "truth." Building reactors for nuclear bombs? No problem. That's an internal matter, not a matter for the United Nations or the community of nations. Polluting the atmosphere? Increasing global warming? No big deal. No absolutes means no commitment to the next generation or to the preservation of the earth.

C. S. Lewis argued in Mere Christianity that our innate sense of right and wrong is reflected by our offense at someone breaking into line at the drinking fountain or our refusal to give a medal to a soldier for running away from battle. God's moral law is written on our hearts, despite how relative our cultural morals have become. God is completely just, and not only do his laws reveal his just character, but also living by them makes life possible in a sick and fallen world.

The second reason why we are asleep to the reality of God's justice and judgment is because we've been told that if God exists, he is merely a benign spirit who would never judge anyone or send him or her to hell. He is the Great Therapist, committed to rebuilding our low self-esteem. But however this reassuring image may be, the life and death question is not, "Is our concept of God pleasant, agreeable or comforting?" but, "Is it true?"

It has often been said that we expect more justice from the sheriff than we do from God. We are offended when criminals go free because we believe that crimes must be punished and justice must be served. When the police officers accused of assaulting Rodney King were acquitted by a mostly white jury in 1992, many people felt justice had not been done, especially since the brutal beating of King was captured on videotape for the world to see. Likewise, many people found it hard to believe that O. J. Simpson walked on a double-murder charge. It is hard to forget the TV images of him fleeing the law in the back of a Ford Bronco with his passport, thousands of dollars in cash, and a false beard.

If we demand human justice in this life, how much more should we demand divine justice? Will history's mass murderers escape God's justice? The answer is no. Even if they commit suicide like Hitler in his bunker or die of old age like Stalin, they must face the bar of God. There is a Day of Judgment coming in which divine justice and the human cry for justice will meet and be satisfied.

While most of us are not murderous tyrants like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot or Osama bin Laden, we are all sinners. Despite all our rationalizations and excuses, we too deserve God's judgment, his divine wrath. Not only have we failed to measure up to his absolute standard—in intention if not in action (see Matt. 5)—we have failed to measure up to our own standard. Every time we lie, gossip, withhold the truth, shade the facts or tell people what they want to hear rather than what we know or believe to be the truth, we violate our own conscience. We violate the law of God written on our hearts.