Correct me, LORD, but only with justice – not in your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing.

Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the peoples who do not call on your name. (Jeremiah 10:24-25)

God is a God of justice. This is who he is, and he is never void of justice. Thus he never regards good as evil, or evil as good. He never despises righteousness, and he never overlooks transgression. But he has shown mercy to those whom he has chosen for salvation, and he has exacted on Jesus Christ the punishment that we deserved, so that he may remain just and the justifier of those whom he would call to believe in his Son.

Even as he deals with his people, his justice is not nullified, but it is fulfilled in Jesus Christ instead of in our damnation. He does not relax his holy standards, but he declares to us his righteous precepts and corrects us when we transgress them. He deals with his beloved children according to his justice, but he does not deal with us according to his wrath, because Jesus Christ has suffered his wrath in order to save us from it.

Therefore, we are bold in the face of God’s justice, and even as we continue to fall short, instead of running away from it, we desire to conform to the image of Christ so that we may live up to its demands. Lord, teach us and correct us according to your justice, but we come before you in the name of Jesus, so that you would not strike us in your wrath and reduce us to nothing.

Those who cannot believe in Jesus Christ, and who are destined for damnation, do not have this protection. They do not have Christ as their righteous champion, their atoning savior, their perfect high priest. For God to deal with them in his justice is also to deal with them in his wrath. See, the full measure of God’s anger is about to unleash upon them, and even now we witness the foretastes of their damnation.

If you have been chosen by God for salvation, then surely you can hear the voice of the Shepherd and perceive the truth of the gospel. Do not circulate among the damned any longer. Come out, and separate yourself from them. Come, stand behind the righteousness of Christ. Trust in his love and perfection. God will uphold his holy standards and correct you in his justice, with fairness and fatherly sternness, but he will not deal with you in his hot anger, lest he reduces you to nothing.