The Peace of Heaven’s Justice

Justice is a hard thing to both comprehend and explain. But, either way, it’s in our human nature to desire justice, not just for ourselves, but for others as well. We want people to be caught in their lies, we want people to be punished for what they do wrong and we want to be rewarded or recognized when we do something right and good. The truth is though, our world has a distorted view on justice and it is hard for people to see true justice when there is so much injustice surrounding us. By definiton, justice is showing and giving people what they rightly deserve, but that can be difficult. For example, it is difficult to celebrate others when you are in a season of waiting just like it is difficult to watch others get away with bad things when you are trying to live honorably. 

In Psalm 73, a man named Asaph discusses this same thing. He talks about how he doesn’t like to see wicked people succeed. He has been trying to be so pure, yet he still has struggles, and when he looks at these people that are not pure, they are still succeeding and they don’t seem to have much struggle. Verses 2-3 say, “But as for me, my feet almost slipped; my steps nearly went astray. For I envied the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” Later on in versus 16 and 17, Asaph says, “When I tried to understand all this, it seemed hopeless until I entered God’s sanctuary. Then I understood their destiny.” This resonates so much with me. There are so many situations in my school that have left me feeling sorry for someone because I know something that happened behind their back. I know of situations where girls have been dishonest with their boyfriends or when a group of friends made some poor decisions and hid it from their parents. It was wrong. It seemed unfair. It didn’t affect me, but I wanted them to get caught because I wanted them to understand what they were doing was wrong. Much like Asaph, these things don’t make sense to me until I spend time with the Lord and ask for His wisdom.

When I hear someone talking about justice, the first thing my mind goes to is discrimination of people. Whether it be between a male and a female, people of a different ethnicity, an adult and a child or people with different religious views, injustice can be found everywhere. In our society, justice looks like “getting payback” or seeking revenge. We want to see others get punished for their wrong actions or words. We want people to feel shameful about what they have done, but thankfully, we find in Deuteronomy 32:35 that the Lord takes care of this. He says, “Vengeance belongs to me.” Honestly, I am so thankful that vengeance belongs to the Lord and not anyone else because if it belonged to us, we would be quick to anger and bring punishment, but the Lord extends grace and kindness even in His vengeance. 

Injustice is an age-old problem, beginning in the Garden in Genesis 3, but Jesus came to end injustice and to redefine justice. He was sinless and pure, therefore He is the perfect example to look at how to show people justice. We can clearly see throughout the Bible that justice is something very important to the Lord and something He would like us to take part in. For example, Micah 6:8 says “Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.” If we all were to live by that verse alone, the amount of change that would occur in our world would be truly significant. The Lord has commanded us to live a life justly, faithfully and humbly. 

Jesus is the only one that has demonstrated this life perfectly. 

The most clear example of justice in the Bible is when Jesus laid His life down on the cross for our sins. He was setting things right that we had made wrong. We do not deserve this. Sometimes, especially for those who have been following Jesus for some time, we can become numb to The Cross. We unintentionally normalize the fact that God loved us so much, despite our sin and flaws, that He literally died to show us what true justification is. Not only that, He DESTROYED death for us and holds every victory. 

I thank Jesus for what He has done on the cross and the way He continues to show us mercy and justice.

*Maddie is a guest student writer. She is involved with Cross Point Students.