The Justice of God

If Christ is our advocate in a spiritual court of law, then who, or what, is our accuser? Although the devil is called “the accuser of our brethren” (Revelation 12:10), he is more of a false accuser. The word ‘devil’ actually comes from a Greek word meaning ‘false accuser’ or ‘slanderer’. The apostle John tells us that Christ is our “advocate with the Father” (1 John 2:1), meaning that the Father is, in some way, our accuser. Abinadi said that Christ stands between us and justice (Mosiah 15:9). Alma the Younger explained that this justice is “the justice of God in the punishment of the sinner” (Alma 42:1), which brings “remorse of conscience unto man” (Alma 42:18). The justice of God, which brings remorse of conscience to those who act contrary to the law of God, is actually a gift from God to let us know when we have sinned and that we need to return to the way of righteousness. Remorse of conscience is a fore-taste to the suffering that we will endure in the next life, if we do not return to the path of the Lord. In a revelation to Joseph Smith and Martin Harris, the Lord explained this concept:

20) Wherefore, I command you again to repent, lest I humble you with my almighty power; and that you confess your sins, lest you suffer these punishments of which I have spoken, of which in the smallest, yea, even in the least degree you have tasted at the time I withdrew my Spirit. (D&C 19:20)

If we do not repent after committing sin and feeling remorse of conscience through the gift of the justice of God, and remain in that state until the end of this life, then “the demands of divine justice do awaken his immortal soul to a lively sense of his own guilt, which doth cause him to shrink from the presence of the Lord, and doth fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like an unquenchable fire, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever.” (Mosiah 2:38).