Here’s a question recently posted by a Reconnect listener: What is justice?
When God said we are to live a life of goodness, kindness, and justice (Micah 6:8), what does He mean by justice and how does that word differ from being good and kind?
You have heard that the justice of God is going to roll down like waters (Amos 5:24), but a lot of unjust things happen. We suffer injustices. We perpetuate injustices against others. And so what does the Word of God have to say on the topic of justice and how do we engage in the conversations of the day related to it? There are a variety of ways people (even Christians) approach the conversation about justice. But when we are talking about justice— we’re actually talking about God because God is just, and God defines the parameters of justice and therefore what injustice looks like.
And so ultimately, this is going to come down to a relationship with God. How do we know that? Well, let’s dig in.
But first, there are a few things we need to take into consideration about words and definitions:
Not everybody is using words in the same way
People redefine words according to their own needs or their own experiences, redefine things to fit themselves. We might call it the interpretive lens or the worldview.
But also, we escape the fact that we— ourselves— have presuppositions. We are wired to see and hear things in a certain way. That’s why, there are even different factions among Christians who have different definitions of what justice is.
And so part of the journey of discipleship with one another is that you and I say we ask each other questions like along the discipleship journey, and I say, are you sure that that’s what that word means?
Words matter, and no word matters more than the word of God.
And so we want to seek to understand what God has said in his word about a particular word. If if you want to understand what love is, go explore what God’s word says about love. If you want to know what justice is, in this case, go explore what God has said in his word about justice.
We need to allow God to speak to us today through that which he has already spoken. It is His unchanging eternal Word. It’s also His living Word and it is active.
And so God’s Word on this subject, my guess is going to be both a balm and a two-edged sword. Because although we have a natural operating sense of what justice is and who deserves it and how it should be doled out— through the study of God’s Word we may need to receive a correction and clarity on our presuppositions and perspective.
Let’s look at the word justice in the Bible.
Justice is an attribute of God and therefore godliness.
God is just, and justice is an attribute of God and his kingdom, his character and his ways. And therefore justice is an attribute of people who are godly. So in the same way that Peter says be holy because God is holy, we might say be just act in justice because God is just, and God defines justice. That’s the most critical part of this. God is just whatever God is, is just whatever God does, is just God defines the parameters of justice. He defines what justice is and he defines therefore to the negative what injustice is.
God’s justice is ultimate— it is final. It’s going, God is going to justify it all in the end. These might be some words that you line up on a sheet of paper and consider the word just the word justice, the word justify the word justification, the word judgment, the word judge.
All of these are related words and terms when we’re talking about God, who is just God’s justice, which is ultimate and final, and then who we are and how we live as people seeking to be just and to bring justice in the world in which we live. So in the end, it’s all going to be set right? It will all be justified, it will all be lined up. No one and nothing is going to escape the complete and final justice of God. But my guess is that what Jane is talking about and what provokes us to conversation in the world today is justice in the here and now.
There is going to be a judgement day.
But we see a lot of injustice, don’t we? What can we make of so much injustice against the reality of a just God.
Well, one of the things that God reveals about justice is that every human being, every human being, all human beings stand on equal footing before him. We stand on equal footing at creation as image bearers of the living God. We stand on equal footing at the cross as sinners, every single one of us equally in need of God’s redeeming grace. And we will stand on equal footing in judgment on judgment day.
You cannot understand justice in the here and now nor justice as from God’s view in eternity unless you understand and recognize there’s going to be a judgment day, there is going to be a judgment day. Ultimately, every single person is going to stand before the judgment seat of God.
And so even if you don’t experience justice in this world, trust me when I tell you, not only are you going to experience justice in the world to come, but so will that person who has been unjust towards you.
Justice is violated when people take advantage of others, when people belittle others, when people treat other people as less than the full image bearers of the living God, when you use another person or misuse another person, when you mistreat another person, it’s a violation of the justice of God. It is unjust. And that unjust action or behavior leads to a wider scale kind of injustice.
And that’s that systemic injustice, the kind of injustice that it then occurs in a group of people or even in an entire nation or globally for that matter, when God’s justice is violated because people are treated as less than they really are image bearers of the living God.
Ultimately, our understanding of justice is going to come down to a relationship with God.
In Genesis 11 and 12, we read that God set apart for himself a people, one family, Abraham and his descendants. Into that conversation comes his nephew, Lot. Well Lot is in Sodom. We learn in Genesis 18 and 19 that things in Sodom and Gomorrah have become so unjust, God is going to just wipe these cities off the map.
After God reveals this plan to Abraham, he actually pleads for God’s justice to be tempered by mercy, but God can’t find 50 righteous people or even 10. In fact, there’s only one— Abraham’s nephew Lot. And so, we read that God did, in fact, destroy the cities.
But it’s an interesting conversation to consider because you recognize that in Sodom and Gomorrah, there are people who are being treated unjustly. There are victims and lots of them, there are marginalized and oppressed people. But God does not see them as righteous. That’s not what happens.
God doesn’t say, there are people perpetrating injustice and then there are all the people who they are hurting, that they’re being treated unjustly. That’s apparently not what God sees when he looks at it— instead, the whole thing is a mess.
So I find it noteworthy that Jesus refers to Sodom and Gomorrah when he’s talking about the coming Day of Judgment (Matthew 10). That is worthy of our consideration because it wasn’t justice and injustice that God used to sift the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. It wasn’t the perpetrators of injustice nor the people who were being treated unjustly. That is not how it was sifted— what was sifted was righteousness.
Jesus is our only justification.
And, so how are you going to be found righteous? That is the question. And there is only one way you’re going to be found righteous— and that is if you are in Jesus Christ, if Christ is your covering, if the one who has justified you on the cross is your justification.
Read what Jesus has to say about this in Matthew 10, where he talks about Sodom and Gomorrah, where he says It’s going to be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for the town that does not receive the gospel of Jesus Christ when he sends his disciples out two by.
So I want you to read Matthew 10 today— you read what is going to happen to the disciples of Jesus, the ones who went out first and the ones who go out today, and the judgment of God upon those who do not receive the message of the gospel—that is ultimately the question of justice and judgment in God’s view.
Ultimately, judgment is a question of righteousness, and you and I, we’re not righteous on our own, but we can be justified by faith in Christ alone. So on that day, God’s judgment is going to be comprehensive. If you have not already, repent of your sins and receive the righteousness of Christ. Literally be justified in Christ because judgment day is coming.
Therefore, we are a people of righteousness and justice.
Therefore, we are people of righteousness and justice because we are made righteous and therefore justified in Jesus Christ and Him alone. And so, as the people of Christ in the world today, we walk in humility, goodness, kindness, and yes— justice.
Seeking justice, desiring it, rectifying it when we can, but also recognizing that in this world, as Jesus has promised, we’re going to have troubles of every kind.
You and I see all kinds of injustice in the world today, and I recognize that well, on the day of judgment, justice is going to be meted out and it’s going to be perfect and it’s going to be comprehensive, and everyone who has ever lived is going to be judged by God.
We live as grateful people because Jesus offers himself in a way that justifies individual sinners and only through a relationship with Him are we going to stand justified before the judgment seat of God.
