God weighs in on the topic of justice

In the book of Isaiah, God says, "Let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows Me."

This idea isn't one that would strike most Christians as unusual. But it might surprise them what God wants them to understand about Himself:

But let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 9:24)

The part about kindness and righteousness rings familiar. But isn't it interesting that sandwiched in between them is the idea that God exercises justice? And it's justice, not specifically in His heavenly kingdom, but here on earth. God says He delights in this.

These days in America's churches, God's justice doesn't come up a lot in conversation. It doesn't come up a lot in teaching. In fact, I bet if a poll were taken, justice wouldn't make it in the top 40 of popular Christian topics. Yet, in this passage at least, God placed it in His top three. (When was the last time you saw a Christian book on the topic?)

I once visited a Reformed church where the pastor was doing a sermon series on God's attributes. I asked him if he was going to cover justice, and he gave me a puzzled look. "I don't think so. . . Boy, that would be a tough one."

About the only time I hear the topic of justice come up in Christian circles is when the Gospel is presented and it's explained why Christ had to die for us. And it's almost like "just-ness" is God's single negative, preventing Him from accepting us just as we are.

If our understanding of justice stopped there, it wouldn't surprise me if even Christians had a discomfort with this attribute which God says He loves, delights in, and thinks we should boast in the knowledge of.

Let's consider some strong words from Jesus in Matthew 23:

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, `If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!

"You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?"

"How will you escape being condemned to hell?" Not the kind of rhetorical question one wants to hear coming from the mouth of God's Son! It goes without saying that we would do well to avoid what the Pharisees were guilty of.

But what often goes unnoticed is that, it's not just sins of commission that Jesus was angry about. There are also sins of omission, or neglect. Jesus calls these sins "the more important matters of the law." What may be surprising to some, (and most certainly missed by most), is that the first of these is justice.


I sometimes wonder if for many Christians, the idea of sin is the breaking of a law, or a rule -- that a person becomes guilty of breaking the rule, needs forgiveness, and that's the extent of sin's significance.

For me, it might not have been until I really gained an accurate assessment of what abortion is that I began to understand that a culture where injustice runs amok not only represents broken rules, personal guilt, and the need for forgiveness, but also carcasses of children in trash dumpsters. The victims are tangible. And suddenly justice doesn't seem so out of place in between kindness and righteousness.

When I hear some Christians belittle attempts by other Christians to facilitate the restoration of justice in our land, characterizing their attempts as "strong arming politicians to create legislation that moralizes our land" (link), I have to wonder if maybe they've never gotten past the idea of sin as merely broken rules. When you see the victims, I think you begin to understand God's passion for justice. And arguments like Steve Camp's begin to sound a lot like the men who objected to Jesus healing on the Sabbath. "And how shameful for them to hold a political rally with prostitutes and tax collectors! . . . I mean, Catholics."

I've assembled a page of Bible passages that relate in some way to the topic of justice and responding to injustice. I hope you'll take a few minutes to read them and contemplate the content and intensity of God's sensibilities on the topic. And consider what sort of response we should have to injustice.

"The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, He was appalled that there was no one to intervene." (Isaiah 59:15-16)