For the LORD is our judge, our lawgiver, and our king. He will care for us and save us.

Isaiah 33:22

God is our judge because he rightly sees when we do what’s wrong and because he pronounces a guilty verdict on our sin. God is our lawgiver because he establishes right and wrong, showing how and how not to live. God is our king because he has rightful claim to authority over all things, including us.

Yet God is not just our judge. He is also the one who took divine judgment upon himself. Through Christ, God the judge is also the one who justifies. And God is not just the lawgiver, but also the grace giver, who helps us to do what’s right and forgives us when we fail to follow the law. And God is not just our king, but also the King of kings who humbled himself for our sake, becoming human and even dying on a cross. Thus, as Isaiah reveals, God is the judge, lawgiver, and king who “will care for us and save us.”

One of the great challenges and delights of the Christian life is learning to know God truly, and to relate to him in fullness of his multifaceted character. We live to please the judge, though free in the gift of his justification. We seek to obey his law, but only in his strength and in response to his forgiveness. We offer our whole selves to the King of kings, yet remember that he gave himself for us first.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: Which of these three identities—judge, lawgiver, or king—do you most often associate with God? What helps you to keep in balance the diverse aspects of God’s character?

PRAYER: I praise you, O God, because you are the judge, the one who sees all things clearly and perfectly determines right and wrong.

I praise you, O God, because you are the lawgiver, the one who has revealed to us how to live and how not to live.

I praise you, O God, because you are the king, the one who rules over all things and who is worthy of all our worship.

I thank you, O Judge, because you took my guilty verdict upon yourself, justifying me through Christ.

I thank you, O Lawgiver, because you have put your Spirit within me to help me do what is right and because you forgive me when I fail.

I thank you, O King, because you humbled yourself, taking the form of a slave so that I might be saved and even so that I might rule with you and share in your glory.

All praise be to you, O God, our Judge, our Lawgiver, our King, and our Savior. Amen.