The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Joshua E. during the 2007-2008 League.
SSI BIBLE STUDY #3: JUSTICE
In our vocabulary, the term justice is equated with fairness. Justice assumes that there is a universal definition of what is right. The role of justice is to show what went wrong, and illuminate the path back to the original standard of perfection. From a Biblical standpoint, sin is what went wrong, and justice is what makes it right again. The Bible often mentions the centrality of justice to God's nature, as in Psalm 9:7-8: "But the Lord reigns forever, executing judgment from his throne. He will judge the world with justice and rule the nations with fairness." In Isaiah 61:8a we read: "'For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity.'"
The story of the Bible would be incomprehensible without a basic understanding of what justice is and why it is so critical to God's message of salvation. Looking at the original creation, God created people after everything else, the crowning jewel of creation: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27) And overall, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." (Genesis 1:31a) We know from the text that the original creation was good and unpolluted. If anything, Adam was made more perfect than anything in the universe because he was made in the image of God. He bore the stamp of the creator like nothing else, and for a brief period of time lived in direct communion with God.
But then disaster struck. Adam broke the one rule that God had given him in Genesis 2:16-17: "And the Lord God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.'" As the familiar story goes, Adam disobeyed God and received his curse in Genesis 3:17-19: "To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." Romans 5:12 tells us that "When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned." Adam's curse is not as ancient as we might think; its implications echo in our hearts and permeate our everyday lives. It shows us that we will always toil against our own sinful nature. The very ground we walk on is cursed.
What does Adam have to do with justice? When we sin and break the rules as Adam did, we reap the consequences of our actions - and justice is all about consequences. What is justice from a Biblical perspective? It is the wall between our sin and God's holiness. What does justice mean for us? It is summed up in a single word: death. As Paul says in Romans 6:23a, ". [T]he wages of sin is death." Of our own volition, it is literally impossible for us to fix our relationship with God because we reap the death that we deserve. The whole Old Testament following the third chapter of Genesis is filled with Israel's cries for justice against their enemies. They sought their own justification by following the law (which was God's interim plan); but the truth is that the hammer falls on everyone in the end. Or at least that's how things were headed.
Providentially, Christ came to save us from the justice that we deserved. Romans 3:22-26 says: "We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus."
In Hebrews 9:14 we read, "Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins." All of the Old Testament sacrifices were only a Band-aid for our sin; a perfect sacrifice was required to bring us back to perfection in God's eyes. Later, in Hebrews 10:9-10, we read "Then [Jesus] said, 'Look, I have come to do your will.' He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect. For God's will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time." God could not have a relationship with us while we were still sinful because he would have to deny his own holiness. Somebody had to pay so that God's perfect justice would be satisfied. Jesus did not come to earth to bring us to justice - he came to pay the price that justice demanded due to God's perfect nature. Jesus himself said, "God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him." (John 3:17).
Throughout the Bible, God constantly makes a way for us to be made right. He has sympathy for us in our sin. He even appeased the perfect moral law himself! God, speaking of Jesus to the prophet Isaiah, said "Look at my Servant, whom I have chosen. He is my Beloved, who pleases me. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not fight or shout or raise his voice in public. He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. Finally he will cause justice to be victorious. And his name will be the hope of all the world." (Isaiah 42:1-4) Jesus did come to proclaim justice, but in an unexpected way. He did not crush us under the burden of our sin and bring us to justice, but rather took the burden upon himself and in doing so caused justice to be victorious. God has made a way for us, as he says in Isaiah 1:18: "'Come now, let's settle this,' says the LORD. 'Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.'"
David often wrote of God's justice in the Psalms. David's proximity to God reveals key facets of God's nature, and justice was definitely on the list, as in Psalm 9:16: "The Lord is known for his justice. The wicked are trapped by their own deeds." We as followers of God are required to act justly. God, speaking to the prophet Micah, said, "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8) Justice is very dear to God's heart, as we read in James 5:4: "For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The wages you held back cry out against you. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven's Armies." And in Psalm 10:17-18: "Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them. You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so mere people can no longer terrify them." At the end of time, the martyrs will cry out for justice: "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, 'How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?'" (Revelation 6:9-10)
The problem with the modern justice system is that it is void of God. The Bible is not silent on matters of civil justice. "When a crime is not punished, people feel it is safe to do wrong." (Ecclesiastes 8:11) "The wicked accept secret bribes to pervert justice." (Proverbs 17:23) "Can unjust leaders claim that God is on their side - leaders whose decrees permit injustice?" (Psalm 94:20) "Many seek the ruler's favor, but justice comes from the LORD." (Proverbs 29:26) Paul was clear on the limits of governmental justice: "I say this as bluntly as I can to wake you up to the stupidity of what you're doing. Is it possible that there isn't one levelheaded person among you who can make fair decisions when disagreements and disputes come up? I don't believe it. And here you are taking each other to court before people who don't even believe in God! How can they render justice if they don't believe in the God of justice?" (1 Corinthians 6:5) The main points of these passages are that corruption is realistic and that we have to keep in mind that the only real justice will come from God. "Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, 'I will take revenge; I will pay them back,' says the Lord." (Romans 12:19)
Skeptics of Christianity point to the genocides in the Old Testament and question the justice of God's actions. When considering the Bible in its entirety, we see God's mercy as the primary theme; when there are genocidal instances, it is usually because of human disobedience. However, some still ask was it just when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? Though these questions are important, it is not man who determines what is just. Are we to say that God should have put up with Sodom and Gomorrah's defiant ungodliness? It is wrong for us to assume that we know best. We don't have God's perspective. In actuality, all men deserve death, but there is a curveball in the equation: God's mercy. Nineveh was nearly obliterated, but with repentance came forgiveness; mercy comes when we least expect it. Paul writes: "When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners." (Romans 5:6)
God created us in his image, but it is our choice whether to follow him. Was it just of him to give us such freedom, knowing that many would choose the wrong path, go astray and be eternally damned? This is the wrong question. God's justice is not the same as ours - and his justice will be satisfied in the end. We may not understand it, we may not agree with it, but the Bible tells us that we can trust the one who administers it. "Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding." (Proverbs 3:5) "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'" (Isaiah 55:8)
