The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Luke W. during the 2009-2010 League.
Mission: Research on Justice
"Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you."
Deuteronomy 16:18-20
Justice gives people what they deserve. Deuteronomy says her eyes are blind and she shows no partiality. Scripture is clear that the hand of justice is hard:
"But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise." (Exodus 21-23-26).
Justice's reward brings us into the Promised Land; her punishment destroys us. She does not gloss over sins. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says hate is akin to murder and lust is related to fornication.
That truth, combined with the principle of "an eye for an eye" and "a tooth for tooth," means that mankind is in serious trouble. As Romans explains, "there is no one righteous – not even one." The depravity of man does not practice justice. Despite all efforts, man cannot possess or live in the land of the Lord because justice is too great a taskmaster.
The same Jesus who teaches us the greatness of our sin also teaches us that His burden is light and His yoke is easy. This seeming contradiction finds its answer in the paradoxical story of the cross.
From the beginning, when Adam and Eve sinned they were "dead men." Justice lifted her sword and needed a neck. In exchange for the life each of them lost they needed someone who had NOT sinned to give his life – thus a "life for a life." Subsequent generations inherited the same sin and needed a savior.
So, God became man, word wrapped itself in flesh, and then He died for men. In the greatest act of injustice ever witnessed, a sinless man died the death of the greatest criminals and the single most fantastic act of justification thrust itself upon the world.
The heavy burden of sin that would condemn a man before a just God fell away and in its place rested an easy yoke of a loving savior.
Where we owed a debt to justice, Christ exchanges His life for ours if we will only give our life to Him.
Justice gives what people deserve; Christ gives them what they need.
