INTRODUCTION
learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow’s cause.
(Isaiah 1:17)
“What kind of thing do you say that godliness and ungodliness are,” Socrates asks Euthyphro.[i] This is another way of asking, “What is the standard of just living?” Who defines justice, and how can we know what actions make up a just society? How do we justly prosecute unjust actions? Socrates and Euthyphro debate back and forth. Is an action just (pious) because the gods declare it to be just? And if that is the case, then could the gods rightly declare murder a just action? Or is justice located outside of the whims of the gods?
That may seem like an esoteric discussion of bygone millennia, but our own society is currently asking the same questions. As I finalize this letter, the murder trial of Daniel Penny in New York City has just ended with Penny’s acquittal. The opposing reactions to his acquittal across America reveal how divided we are in our understanding of justice.
Recently, a member of our congregation sent me the following: “I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how Christians should live in a land increasingly without justice…I know vengeance belongs to the Lord, that we are to obey governing authorities, turn the other cheek, and pray for our enemies, but I feel as though my perspective is not complete. How should I be thinking about justice?” It’s a wonderful question and I plan to take several weeks to share various thoughts on Biblical justice through these letters.
2,300 years after Socrates, in the Supreme Court building of Switzerland, a painting entitled “Justice Lifts the Nations” by Robert Paul hangs for all to see. In the painting, Lady Justice stands towering over black-robed judges in the courtroom. Men and women crowd around, all arguing their case. The lady holds a scale in her right hand, perfectly balanced. In her left hand, she wields the sword of execution. The tip of the sword points to an open Bible laid before the court while her eyes, not blindfolded but open, remind the judges that all they say and do is known to God. The symbolism cannot be missed. God’s revealed Word defines justice and God hears every complaint, sees every injustice, and expects human judges to honor him. Many in our nation have forgotten the reality of God as judge, yet as we shall see, no one can escape the category of morality and moral language.
THE INESCAPABILITY OF MORAL LANGUAGE
For decades, if not centuries, it has been popular to deny moral objectivity. Friedrich Nietzsche said that God is dead and therefore moral arguments are merely power plays.[ii] Marx agreed.[iii] For both of these men, morality was merely a tool for manipulation. Because both denied the existence of the Creator, religion was a mere fabrication of the powerful used to control the weak.
On a popular level, many of our neighbors have embraced the life philosophy of Princess Elsa of Frozen fame: “It’s time to see what I can do, to test the limits and break through. No right. No wrong. No rules for me. I’m free.” And yet, even the fictional princess realizes that her actions come with grave consequences. This is because, as much as our culture may want unfettered license, we cannot escape moral categories and language. Try as we might, we cannot jettison verbs like “ought.” “He ought not to have stolen.” “She ought not to have screamed in rage.” “They ought not to have invaded another nation.” Like it or not, moral language is deeply embedded in human consciousness.
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. (Gen. 1:27)
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. (Romans 2:1)
Human beings are made in the image of a just God. Therefore, we make claims concerning justice. The reason that moral language and moral categories are inescapable is because we image (even as imperfect sinners) the just nature of the Creator.
THE STANDARD OF JUSTICE
Any true human understanding of the law or justice must find its origin in God himself. The nineteenth chapter in the Second London Confession of Faith (1689) gives a wonderful introduction to the law of God and I highly recommend reading and studying that chapter along with the prooftexts thereof.[iv] The confession states that the law originates with God and is given to Adam in the garden. Adam owed God personal, total, exact, and perpetual obedience. (19.1) That same law is further delivered by God at Sinai in the 10 Commandments which convey our duty to God (Commandments 1-4) and our duty to humanity (Commandments 6-10). (19.2) The moral law is binding on believers and unbelievers. (19.5) True believers in no way obey the law in order to justify themselves. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone. Yet, the law of God is useful to us to inform us of God’s will and our duty. (19.6-7)
What is our standard for justice? It is the moral law of God which issues from God’s very nature and character. What does it mean, then, to act justly? Justice means treating someone lawfully from the heart. It means obeying the moral law of God and delighting in that obedience. God’s law defines both the content of just actions as well as the attitude with which the actions are pursued.
As we begin this series on biblical justice, remember that justice begins and ends with God. The fundamental distinction of all reality is the distinction between the eternal uncreated Creator and every other created thing. God is the ultimate judicial reality.
[i] John M Cooper and D S Hutchinson, Plato: Complete Works (Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997): 5.
[ii] See Nietzsche’s The Gay Science
[iii] “The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man. Religion is indeed the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself or has already lost himself again. . . . The struggle against religion is therefore indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion. Religious suffering is at one and the same time the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness.” from
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Marx on Religion, ed. John Raines (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2002), 171.
[iv] Access the chapter here: https://founders.org/library/chapter-19-the-law-of-god/