The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Emily M. during the 2007-2008 League.
Bible Study: Justice
Modern Christians don't like to talk about God's justice as much as some of His other attributes. Take mercy for example, we love to talk about mercy, and rightly so. We need God's mercy desperately, we need mercy shown to us by others; humanity would be lost without mercy. However, we sometimes tend to think God's grace and mercy have overridden his justice. The Old Testament seems to dwell on the subject of justice, and the New Testament seems to have changed the focus to mercy. We subconsciously begin to believe that God has changed during the time between the Old and New Testament; that He was all for justice until He changed His mind and gave us grace instead. That, however, is not true, "He is the same yesterday, today, and forever," (Hebrews 13:8 NIV). He is a God of justice and mercy, and always has been.
We usually think of justice only in the sense of getting what we deserve. Romans
3:23 (NIV) tells us that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." We don't want what we have coming to us, we want mercy. Why then do the Psalmists seem so happy about judgment? "Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth," (Psalm 96: 12-13 NIV). They even ask for it, "Judge me, O Lord my God, according to thy righteousness," says Psalm 35: 24 (KJV). If you are like me, you are completely mystified. Are they crazy? Why in the world would they ask for judgment instead of mercy? C. S. Lewis, in his book, "Reflections on the Psalms" offers an answer. ".the Christian pictures the case to be tried as a criminal case with himself in the dock [on trial]; the Jew pictures it as a civil case with himself as the plaintiff. The one hopes for acquittal, or rather for pardon; the other hopes for resounding triumph with heavy damages. " he says.
Now we begin to understand a different aspect of justice. When we only think of justice, as being punished for what we have done wrong, we only understand part of justice. We miss a part that the Jews understood, that when someone has done you wrong, you want a judge who will hear your case and be fair, and in most times and places that has not been a guarantee. If you could not afford to bribe the judge, your case may never be heard. Our God is not like that; He hears. Psalm 34:17 (NIV) says, "The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles." We can be assured that when we bring our case before God, we come before a fair and just judge. Deuteronomy 10: 17-18 (HCSB) says, "For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and taking no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreign resident, giving him food and clothing." The Lord will deal fairly with those who bring their case to Him.
"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8 NASB).The Lord requires us to do justice. Why? Because justice is an attribute of God, doing justice is a part of becoming more like Christ. 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NLV) says, "All of us, with no covering on our faces, show the shining-greatness of the Lord as in a mirror. All the time we are being changed to look like Him, with more and more of His shining-greatness." Justice is a part of the Lord's "shining-greatness," having a God who deals fairly with us is a marvelous thing. Therefore, the Lord tells us in Deuteronomy 16:19-20 (HCSB), "Do not deny justice or show partiality [to anyone.] Do not accept a bribe, for it blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. Pursue justice and justice alone, so that you will live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you." We want to reflect our God's "shining-greatness," and as the Lord told the Israelites "Be holy because I, God, your God, am holy (Leviticus 19:2 The Message). We ought to be just because our God is just. There are also blessings the Lord bestows on those who do justice. God told the Israelites that if they pursued justice that they would "live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you." God will bless those who obey His word.
So, where does grace come in to this picture? Now that I have spent some time on this bible study about justice, I wish I had done this one before the study about God's mercy. Having a better understanding of justice has given me a better understanding of grace. While having a judge who is just is good for all of us who have been wronged, it is very different for those who have done wrong. All of us have sinned. Even though, the Lord loves us dearly, he cannot let an unclean, unholy being into His presence, it wouldn't be right, it wouldn't be just. This is where grace enters. Because the Lord loves us so much, he made a way for us to cleansed, a way for us to be free from the clutches of sin, and to shake off the unholy things that cling to us. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life," (John 3:16 NIV). There was absolutely no bending of rules, no exceptions were made, and justice was never for a moment pushed to the side to make way for grace. I have never liked to hear anyone say, "grace is free!" It's not; it's only free for you and me. What we call grace, is the cleansing that was bought at a very dear price, Jesus's life. Now we can appear before the Lord as new and clean creatures. We can't use grace to justify our wrong actions though, the idea that "whatever I do is fine, I'm covered in the blood of Jesus," is based on a complete misconception of grace. We are supposed to be holy, and become more like Christ, and devote our lives to serving Him, not live just as carelessly as we did before; if we do that we are still not holy and still unacceptable in God's sight.
We are living right now in what many theologians call the church age. We are still waiting for Christ's return, the gospel is still being spread around the world, and grace is still available to everyone. But, there will be a day when every person on earth will have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and had their chance to accept him as savior. Isaiah 42:3 (HCSB) says that, "He will not break a bruised reed, and he will not put out a smoldering wick, until He has led justice to victory." He will lead justice to victory. On the last day, Revelation 20:11-12 (NIV) says, "Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books." Justice will prevail, but we, who have received God's mercy, have nothing to fear.
