What is Justice?
Justice is an ever prevailing topic in every culture and in every age because sin is an ever present reality in every culture and every age. Cries for justice (whether voiced or silent) are as common as the rising and the setting of the sun. But just because injustice is ever present, easy solutions are not. There are several reasons for this, but one of the basic ones revolves around the common question: Who gets to define what justice is and isn’t? This conundrum, particularly in Western culture, that is still choking on the historical fumes of postmodernism, often prohibits any real change. For the next couple of months, we will post several pieces written from different people about various issues surrounding justice.
There will also be a few entries from the book of Exodus. While all of the particular entries from Exodus do not exclusively discuss the topic of justice, there is a deep corollary between the second book of Moses and partnering with God in helping to right a world gone wrong.
So, what is justice? The English word justice dates back to the 11th century, but the concept of justice goes back much further than that. Merriam-Webster defines justice as the maintenance or administration of what is just, especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments. It also has an archaic definition that says “faithful to an original.” While the former is true, it is this latter, archaic definition that carries the sense that the Bible builds around the concept of justice.
The first time the word “justice” is mentioned in the Bible is Genesis 18:19, “For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” This move of God, to call Abraham and his lineage to himself, was for the purpose of partnering with him to do righteousness and justice. This move was in response to the entrance of sin in Genesis 3 and subsequent chapters where injustice began to manifest. Israel then was oppressed and enslaved by Egypt, so as an act of justice, God rescued His people from the Egyptians. The book of Exodus then displays God’s character in that both His mercy and His justice are present in His saving acts. His mercy is severe. His justice is merciful.
This concept is an all of Bible concept because it is an all of life concept. Wrongdoing creates inequality in relationships and until it is confessed, forgiven and reconciled, it remains “unfaithful to the original,” thus the need for justice–to make something right–according to the way God always intended.
What God has done in the person and work of Jesus is the ultimate act of justice. Sin is an act of injustice – first, against God and second, against others and the rest of creation because it goes against the way the world was designed: to be in right relationship with Him and with one another. Jesus received the just punishment for the sin of the world, so when we look at the cross, we are looking at what each one of us should receive for our sin. Yet, because God is also merciful, Jesus offered Himself as a perfect substitute (He’s the only one who doesn’t deserve death), so that anyone who looks to Him and trusts Him, can be restored to right relationship with God, which gives the potentiality and power to be restored to others as well.
1 Peter 3:18 says, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, Jesus died, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.”
This is the only power that could fuel the vision God originally gave Abraham, to partner with Him to “do righteousness and justice in all the earth” (Genesis 18:19). The next couple of months, we are eager to share stories and reflections around these ideas, so that we too may become the kind of people who “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with [our] God” (Micah 6:8).
