Justice. We all strive for it, constantly fueled by a sense of entitlement. We strive to obtain what the Constitution of the United States deems ours by right. I focus on justice the world promises so often that my vision of God is obscured and I forget that He offers a perfect justice. Praise be to the one who will make all things right (and that is not the sinner living in the White House).
It is an absolutely beautiful and encouraging notion to see the Church’s heart yearning for justice and attempting to conceptualize justice in God’s terms. I commend the people who have a heart that seeks what God’s heart. Justice comes from the Lord. Jesus died on the cross so that we may escape what would justly happen as a result of our foulness and partake in salvation through Him. The belief that God will bring us justice should not be a bitter sentiment that we fall back on when the world fails to deliver. It is designed to free us of dependence on the world as the bearer of justice, and empower us to react with mercy and forgiveness. This is not to say that we should abandon the legal system, for we are called to observe the law as long as it is aligned with the Kingdom of God.
The judgement that we encounter in Yahweh lives for redemptive purposes and so should ours exist. Just as our God is not indifferent to the wrongfulness of His creation, we should have eyes that see what He sees. We, as His creation, are prone to overlook this and take justice into our own hands, too quickly turning to violence and war because we are nearsighted. Our violence stems from the belief that God refuses to pick up a sword. This is a oversight on our part, and as Steve Hart articulated, “if God were to not judge the world, if he were to not exert judgement and bring justice to His creation, He would be morally indifferent and therefore unworthy of our praise.” When we believe this, and only when we see God as merciful as well as just, our hearts as well as our intellect are opened up to see a world where violence is not necessary, a world where living as Jesus did is possible, a world where nonviolence works.
Emilie O
Thank you all for your responses. It is great to see discussion going on. I would love to respond fully but I’ll try to keep it short and focused on one predominate thought I had.
I mostly agree with you all but I’m going to push back a little. I would write out some verses but don’t want the post to be too long. Here are some you all can look up: Ezekiel 18:4b, Ezekiel 18:30, Matthew 25:31-46, and there are many others. These verses have to do with God’s ultimate judgment of our sin. So while the cross has freed us from sin and justified us before God, we are still held accountable for our actions. If our justice is based on the justice shown at the cross, shouldn’t this aspect of judgment factor in our thinking about it? I do not pretend to understand God’s justice fully or even well but I would have to say that there is something of a punishment-reward system despite or in conjunction with the cross’ atonement. How does this inform our view of justice? It seems justice based purely on mercy and forgiveness does not fully take God as Judge into account.
Emilie, I’d love to discuss this further. If you have some extra time we should meet up. Let me know.
Thank you for the post Emilie. I really love the idea of non-violence and living like Christ did. This is obviously such a hard thing to do in todays violent world and I appreciate you taking the time to think through and consider how and why we should take that approach as Christians. It would be really interesting to talk to people in the government that claim Jesus as Lord and ask them why they approve wars and other violent things in the world. That would be a thrilling conversation. Again, thank you.
Jeremiah, thank you for bothering to ask questions, they help develop what could otherwise be incomplete thoughts. The cross and its divine unjustness enables us to let the world’s justice go in pursuit of forgiveness. My thoughts largely stemmed from Deuteronomy 24:17-18, “True justice must be given to foreigners living among you and to orphans… Always remember that your God redeemed you from your slavery. That is why I have given you this command.” Just as Yahweh called His people out of slavery in Egypt, Jesus has called us out of our slavery to sin, and by this, we are liberated and able to consider reacting to injustice with a revolutionary (yet timeless) justice. I am exploring the theme of justice in the Bible further and would love to discuss this with you more.
It’s beautiful to think that the transforming of the cross is so powerful that it even changes some of our natural inclinations such as survival and justice. Most of the time it does seem like we jump into survival mode and demand equal punishment for what has been done to us. But Christ reminds us the brokenness of this world through his revelation of the next. Justice is something I think I’ll continue to struggle with, praise God for his patience :]
I would say if mercy and forgiveness have not taken the place of justice for Christians then they should. Christ’s death on our behalf was by no means just and yet it is around this fact our faith and lives should be centered. As a result I think it is or would be right to be focused not on what we think is just at all but on showing mercy and showing forgiveness.
Jeremiah, good questions! They were quite thought provoking for me…I would say that, yes, Christ’s death does not seem just to our natural inclinations or ideas about what justice should be. But through this atonement, God actually shows us what His justice looks like and provides a way for it to be established in his Kingdom(because Christ’s death opens the way for right relationships, if you take McKnight’s view)…it doesn’t have to make automatic sense to us. Maybe this is an example of the “foolishness of God [which is] wiser than man’s wisdom” (1 Cor 1:25)
Can you further your thoughts about how the cross changes our worldly view of justice? Like in my mind somebody else dying for what I did wrong is not justice. I would actually say it is one of the farthest things from my notion of justice. Have mercy and forgiveness taken the place of justice for Christians? If so, is there a time for punishment? Great blog Emilie thanks a lot.
-Jeremiah
Some very good thoughts. I look forward to seeing how our wrestling with Biblical Justice begins to bear beautiful fruit in our city and the world.