Godly Justice

God’s justice is not fair.  It really isn’t.

Now that I have your attention…Let’s see if we can “see” justice differently.  What does Godly Justice look like?

Did you know that my problem is God’s problem.  My issues are God’s issues.  My sinning is God’s opportunity.

Rom 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (ESV)

Sinning is no different from any other disease, oppression, poverty, limitation, excuse, condemnation, wedge, thorn, pain, hurt, anger, rebellion…long list of stuff that keeps us from a relationship with God.  It isn’t an infraction or crime that needs punishment.  It is an expected reaction and a fruit of a broken relationship that perpetuates an ever-increasing dysfunctional division between man and God.  It is the elephant in the room.  It needs to be addressed not punished.  The justice of God addresses the dysfunctional relationship issue instead of punishing the penal-perspective, moral-absolute perceived violation.  The later is a human wisdom perspective.  God’s plan is way better than my plan, God’s ways are more awesome than mine and His wisdom is way bigger than my brain.  His love is beyond my capacity and surprises my mercy-deprived motivation.

Me, myself and I want to see fairness, tit for tat, eyes for eyes, no…even worse, we humans want to see the other suffer for the offenses against us.  Come on.  Can’t you see that our human form of justice is pain, hurt, suffering, zero-forgiveness driven, payback time for the perpetrator, put them in prison and throw away the key, to hell with “reform them” but instead let them stay in jail where I don’t have to see them anymore…justice?  Maybe I am being extreme but I think you “see” what I am talking about.  As a fallen human we are driven, compelled and consumed by fairness.  Our list following paradigms demand “justice” as fairness.  If the good versus evil discernment meter gets off kilter then there needs to be balance.  Here is the issue: that isn’t God’s perspective.

God is not bound by our limitations.  We think that we are “sinning against God” as if He was offended.  Really?  This same God that becomes a man and dies on a cross at the hands of humanity gets offended when I sin?  Sinning isn’t a God depravity issue.  When we sin we aren’t emptying the God goodness bank account.  We aren’t stacking up a huge pile of payback.  We are living from a broken relationship.  We are stepping away from God.  We are reacting to unbelief.  We are rebelling based on lies.  We are acting like spoiled little kids that have no clue how awesome God really is.  We are feeding the condemnation engine with nitrous oxide.  We are throwing white gas on a fire of guilt and shame.  We are agreeing with the enemy and making alliances with deception.

We have to stop seeing sin as a crime in need of punishment with Jesus as the Judge.  Instead we need to see it as a disease in need of Jesus as a doctor.  Paul says the wages of sin is death.  He said wages not a death sentence by God.  Apart from God we are already dead.  That happened in the garden to a fallen Adam.  Jesus defeats sin and death and the devil on the cross.  That is Godly Justice.  You are right, it isn’t fair.  It isn’t supposed to be fair from a human perspective.  That is the love of God.  It can’t be balanced by anything.  It is as big as He is and the universe fits in the palm of His hand.

So now that I have diatribed my way outside of Boxlandia, want some proof to join me in Freetosia?

So what is the justice of God look like?  This is what the Israelites understood:

Deut 10:17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing (ESV)

God’s justice brings equality.  God’s justice fixes stuff.  God’s justice comes to the rescue!

Ps 103:6 The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. (ESV)

He is the one that does it.  We get to benefit from it.  We get to pass it on.

Isaiah 1:17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. (ESV)

He gives us the POWER to be successful.

1 Thes 1:5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.(ESV)

What is right and true for God?  Here you go:

Zech 7:9 “This is what the Lord All-Powerful [Almighty; of Heaven’s Armies; of hosts] says: ‘Do what is right and true [Administer true justice]. Be kind and ·merciful [compassionate] to each other. (EXB)

We wait on Him and we are blessed.  He always leads with mercy.

Isaiah 30:18 Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.  For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. (ESV)

Those are only a few of many but just in case you haven’t seen it yet…Jesus is the perfect and complete image of God.  What He says is who God is.

Matt 12:20 A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering (dimly burning) wick He will not quench, till He brings justice and a just cause to victory. (AMP)

Jesus also said He didn’t come to judge or condemn.  He said His words (Logos), God’s manifest nature as Jesus, would be the judge.  When we reject is restorative justice we have been judged.

So if there is still a voice inside you screaming “foul, unfair, not balanced, you have to be kidding me…” it is OK.  That is your fallen human nature deception yelling at you.  I say kill that dude.  Jesus took him(her) to the cross for good so just let it die.  I know it is hard but that is why Jesus is the Gospel which is POWER.  When we surrender God can fix it.  Really He can.  That has been the issue from the first fallen day in the Garden.  We stopped trusting God and instead trusted self.  Jesus sets us free from our self-life by giving us His life.  He dies to demonstrate just how much He loves us.  He lets humanity beat Him and kill Him so our fallen nature has no more reason to fear God and hide in the bushes.  Our human nature grabs God by the throat and screams in anguish about all the “injustice” in our own lives and God looks right back and says “I love you.”  That perfect love sets us free.  That perfect love restores us to the family.  That perfect love empowers us to be powerful.  That perfect love makes His home in us so we will never be apart or forget just how much He loves us.

That is Godly Justice.  I hope it doesn’t seem fair.  If it did then it wouldn’t be the infinite, unconditional love of God.

Yay God!

Lance