Do Justice

Sometimes we can struggle with the justice of God. We would rather talk about his love or his grace or even his mercy. We fear his justice.

But, while the cross is evidence of God’s love, it is also evidence of God’s justice: the old hymn ‘Beneath the cross of Jesus’ talks about the cross being the ‘place where heaven’s love and heaven’s justice meet’.

In his justice, God could not overlook our sin. But none of us could deal with it. So, in his love, he gave his only Son who gave his life in order to meet the demands of a God who hates sin – but who loves the sinner. God the just God dealt with our sin.

But God also wants justice for the nations. Jesus was the servant whom Isaiah talks about – God calls him my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. God sent him to bring forth justice to the nations (Isaiah 42:1).

As CS Lewis says in the Chronicles of Narnia:

Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight. At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more. When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death, and when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.

In the meantime, we as God’s people are called to express God’s justice in the way we live in the world. If justice is important to God, it should be important to us. Sometimes we struggle with this too, because we don’t want to dilute the message of salvation into a message of (merely) social justice.

And yet, throughout history, God’s people have been at the forefront of fighting injustice in God’s world. A number of Christians were involved in the campaign to abolish the slave trade, led by William Wilberforce. The civil rights movement in the US was led by a Baptist minister, Martin Luther King. The Church was involved in opposing the apartheid in South Africa.

Nowadays, we are familiar with organisations like TearFund, Christians Against Poverty, International Justice Mission and many other organisations which fight against poverty, modern day slavery and other forms of injustice today. Rather than diluting the gospel, many Christians involved in these kinds of organisations are being the hands and feet of Jesus as they fight injustice in the world.

Indeed, if we are not involved in good works, our faith is futile. As James says:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2:14-17

So we as Christians are invited to join God in doing justice in a world which is so often filled with injustice. But what does that look like?

What woman in the Bible can you think of who fought injustice?