God's Justice

But God's justice shines most brightly in the Lord Christ. In Christ God has shown his righteousness. He showed that ti was impossible for his justice to be turned away from sinners without propitiation, a victim who would suffer in the place of sinners, so satisfying divine justice and so turning away God;s wrath on sinners. God did not spare his only Son, but made his soul an offering for sin, and would be satisfied with no atonement but that which he purchased by his blood, It has been abundantly shown that God;s righteousness and holiness required such an atonement to show God's wrath against sin and his determination to punish sin. To know that it was necessary for God's justice to be carried out on sin is the only true and useful knowledge of God's justice. To think that God can exercise justice as he pleases does not make justice a property of his nature, but a free act of his will. To condemn and punish where justice does not condemn nor require punishment is not justice, but an act of ill-will.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 81-82