God gave government for one reason: justice

I got a thank you letter from Stand to Reason today, a ministry I support monthly. The letter partly ties in with the principles I was discussing in my Steve Camp posts:

If the recent cultural clash over the fate of Terri Schiavo teaches us anything, it's that there is a difference between law and power on the one hand, and morality on the other. God gave government for one reason: justice, "for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right" (1 Peter 2:13-14). From God's perspective, then, law stand upon the necessary foundation of morality. The power entrusted to governments through law should be wielded to secure justice, not individual self-interest. This runs counter to the popular canard that morality can never be legislated. Morality is the only thing that can be legislated. Law not based on morality is despotism and tyranny.

What happens, then, when laws meant to secure justice are no longer moored to a moral foundation? What happens when morality turns out to be nothing in particular? What happens to law when morals dissolve into relativism? Not only is relativism a challenge to culture, it's a challenge to Christianity.

Please read May's Solid Ground carefully. It will give you the tools necessary to understand the moral underpinnings of law so that you can make sense both of justice and the cross of Jesus Christ.