What About Justice?

Justice in Christian moral theology is a quality or habit which perfects the will and inclines it to render to each and to all what belongs to them…including God. The object of the virtue of justice is primarily concerned with the relationship with God first and secondarily the other person's rights, whether natural or bestowed by God or State.

So…what is justice? I think Thomas Aquinas has a good definition that we can start from. We have tended recently to think of justice as having our rights, as though it was a relation between things, between me and my right. But Aquinas says, no; it is a relation between three things, between two people in relation with each other and thirdly the goods and services that at least one of them needs. One way to put this is that rights are always correlative to obligations or responsibilities. The question of justice is the question of whether the person in need and I are related in such a way that I ought to meet the need. I further add to what Aquinas said and add in how God factors into the overall equation. I do so because the Bible says so. 

Micah 6:8: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

God requires. Its not a request. It’s a de facto command. You’re expected to do so. Do what? Act justly to others in kindness AND walk humbly with your God. So immediately we see that the proper definition of justice is relational and is a three way relationship between you, another and God.

So why is God so intrinsic to an otherwise interpersonal relationship between two people? Two reasons. (1) God is ultimately the absolute measure or benchmark of what is right, righteous or holy. A benchmark in which all measured against him will fall short. This should, in turn compel us to be better and try harder to act justly towards others. (2) God will, being the ultimate measure of goodness and holiness also be the final judge and purveyor of justice as all justice flows out from His being like living water. Only he is worthy to judge. The judge of all great and small. Whether a man believes in God or not, they will all face the same judgment against the same exacting holy standard. Christ. The only One who could embody and therefore abrogate the Mosaic Law.

Revelation 20:11-12 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.

Hebrew 9:27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment

But that...that is the end of all things. The final judgment. The hellfire and brimstone judgment or eternal salvation eschatology aspect. What do we do now? How do we reconcile the justice now on earth during such twisted upside-down times? How do I practically apply the idea of Biblical justice now to make the world a better place than it currently is?

What else do we learn in the Bible?

In serving the purposes of God I am therefore serving Christ. Christ came specifically to serve others, and he humbled himself to do so. So much so that he made Himself a slave to death and the grave until overcoming death. So, when we serve the purposes of God, we serve Christ who invariably served man and submitted to death so that man would ultimately conquer death. Paul says exactly this in Philippians 2.

Philippians 2:5-11 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above all names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

In the ultimate act of submission to the will of the Father, Jesus served man by becoming a slave to death for three days in the grave. He allowed Himself to be crucified in the worst miscarriage or abortion of justice in history. In so doing the Father through the Spirit raised Christ to life the third day overcoming the injustice of death. Having been brought down to the lowest low in death, in utter humiliation, God lifted him because of His justness and perfection to the Law. So we see that part of justice is in living a life like and having in us a mind like that of Christ in the Cross. Jesus served those in need. So, I should emulate and do the same. So should you. Not because I told you to but because you want to.

The root of true justice involves us walking humbly with God. To walk humbly with God is to give God the initiative. He is putting us into the situations and the relationships in which justice is to be done and can be done. If we allow ourselves to be pliable in God’s hands we can be shaped to implement justice in whatever form He deems necessary or possible through us. That is true for the smallest child to the greatest leaders who ever lived. From an infant child in a manger or a lofty Pharoah over Egypt.

Justice is treating your neighbor as yourself. Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. The word proximus in Latin from which we get the English word proximity is drawn from the Greek word plesion / πλησίον. It literally means ‘near to’, ‘next to’ or nearby. It is also translated and is a word used for neighbor in the Bible. It is the word neighbor in the Greek in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. God put the Samaritan traveler next to, proximate to, the wounded dying man lying by the side of the road. In this way, we as neighbors are used by God to give justice based on our proximity to the people that do not have it. By extension by being good neighbors and loving our neighbors (or others) we dispense God’s justice to those that do not have it. In so doing we balance the scales of justice in the way we show love and kindness to them.

That is exactly why true justice…can’t be gained through the point of a sword or the tip of a bullet by those seeking revenge. That is why those that chose to live by the sword eventually die by the sword. Justice through violence is totally contrary to the idea of justice put forth by Scripture. 

For man, God has providentially given us to those in need so we can serve the needs of other people. He as put us near and next to others as our neighbors to help balance the scales and seek justice for those neighbors or as in the case of the Good Samaritan…even complete strangers. To do any less is to be godless and away from God. Not in proximity to Him. The last I checked, the farther away from God you are, the more alienated from Him you become. The more alienated from justice you become. The more likely that the judgement befalls you as you become out of balance.

A man who truly loves God can’t not love his neighbor. That is justice. We are justice to others if we walk humbly with God and do unto others.