Eric:
Thanks for your post. I wanted comment on your item #2. You seem to be basically assuming something that I don’t necessarily take as a given. You are assuming that “necessary justice” = “punishment”.

But can “justice” just mean “making wrongs right, even if that doesn’t involve punishment”?

For example: Jon murders sally. Sally’s mother is mad. The punishment theory of justice is that Jon must go to prison to pay. But what if God’s justice had nothing to do with Jon—and everything to do with restoring Sally and her mother?

Can justice be done without punishment?