Revelation 21:5–8 (ESV) — 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

I read it just this week in any number of places – this from the NewsMax website: Last month, Jennifer Araoz said he had raped her when she was a 15-year-old New York City high school student. On Saturday, she was angry that Epstein won’t have to face the survivors of his abuse in court. “We have to live with the scars of his actions for the rest of our lives, while he will never face the consequences of the crimes he committed,” or the “pain and trauma he caused so many people,” Araoz said in a statement. “Epstein is gone, but justice must still be served.”

Jeffrey Epstein was by all counts and convicted pedophile, serial abuser, and unrepentantly immoral on every level. And just as he was coming to trial, he died in jail. These are facts everyone familiar with the case know. But what the Believer knows, contrary to what many of Epstein’s victims repine – is that in his death he did anything but escape justice. Indeed, if they knew the terror that awaits all who refuse to repent and seek Christ for the forgiveness of sins and for the power to live holily before God, their sense of justice not being served by our judicial system would be wiped away.

It is never right to delight in the death and ultimate demise of the lost. Be it Jeffery Epstaien or any other unrepentant man or woman. But the Christian knows full well justice cannot be escaped by physical death. For the soul lives on. And each must stand before the judgment bar of God – either clothed in the filth of their sin, or in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And if any stand their apart from Christ, the Scripture is unequivocal: [They] “also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and…will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, d.and they have no rest, day or night.”

We take no delight in their lot. But we do delight that our God will bring to rights all things amiss, unaddressed and justice seemingly thwarted in this life. And it is why we with the Apostle Paul: knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. (2 Cor. 5:11)

Hence, the Believer rests in the justice and holiness, as well as in the grace and mercy of our God in Jesus Christ. He cannot (not just will not) He cannot, fail to be fully, perfectly and eternally  – just. What a miracle then salvation really is. For if Christ had not died in our place – we would face that same, eternal justice.