Scripture’s Foundation for Justice

OUR PROBLEM

There is a deeply held belief within Christianity that the pursuit of justice is not the calling of the Church. Many believe that to begin to cross over into social justice issues is to lose sight of the gospel and the saving of souls. “As a revival movement...evangelicalism transformed people within their inherited social setting, but worked only partial and selective transformation on the social settings themselves. Evangelicalism focused on individual conversion and piety. Within this evangelical framework, one could adopt an evangelical expression of Christianity yet remain uncompelled to confront institutional justice.”1 However, God is a God of justice, righteousness, and mercy and these parts of his character are played out in the entire Biblical narrative. The pursuit of justice and racial reconciliation must be addressed by the global Church because God clearly displays in his word that he himself pursues these things.

BIBLICAL RESPONSE

In the book of Genesis, the crown of creation is mankind who was made in God’s image.2 All humans were made to be equal and to be in relationship with each other. They were called to treat each other with fairness and dignity. Being made in God’s image meant that man is called to reflect God’s image to the world in how they live and act. From the beginning mankind was called to be God’s ambassadors.3

Adam and Eve chose to eat the fruit in the garden even though God instructed them not to, and so began the plague of sin that has infected all of our hearts. Mankind no longer treated each other with dignity and fairness. Relationships became broken and power was used over others to gain advantage for oneself. However, God did not send them out without a promise of hope, the promise that one day the curse of sin would be crushed.

As an embodiment of this promise, God made a covenant with Abraham.4 From Abraham’s offspring God would establish for himself a people, giving them both a place and a purpose. We see God’s continued faithfulness to his people by preserving Joseph in Egypt. God’s people are established in Egypt, but are enslaved to Pharaoh. Israel is freed from Egypt and wanders the dessert with God’s presence and promises. Under Moses they are given the law on how they as a people group are to live. “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”5 Israel’s story of oppression in Egypt should lead them to a life that cares for the oppressed and the poor. 

The people of Israel were given a land that geographically and strategically positioned them to love their neighbor. They were given laws to abide by that would easily display the heart of the lawgiver. “Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed.”6 God continues to remind his people of his kindness, gentleness, and steadfast love. He reminds them that he is a holy God and that they are called to be holy. Leviticus 19:9-18 lays out clearly how the Israelites are to love their neighbors:

• “You shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:10).

• “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord” (Lev. 19:15-16).

• “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord” (Lev. 19:18).

God declares after a law is stated, “I am the Lord.” The Israelites are to remember that this covenant keeping Lord freed them from oppression, showed them grace and mercy and restored a right relationship with them through the covenant of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. He is giving them this land because of his covenantal love and not because of their own righteousness.7 This same love that was shown to them was to be the love and righteousness that was displayed to their neighbors. They were to be a signpost in how they lived and treated others that pointed to the Lord. Their acts of justice and kindness were to draw their neighbors to the just and merciful God. Tim Keller explains8 that God’s fulsome display of justice in Scripture is seen in how he expects fair treatment for all people,9 special concern for those without power10, and a radical generosity of all that has been given to them.11

From the moment that mankind left the garden the desire for power and the desire to rule over others in that power swept over their hearts.12 The sin of oppression and the exploiting of one people group to gain power for one’s own is not a new sin. In Isaiah 58 God uses the prophet to remind his people what their call was:

Is not this the fast that I choose; to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Israel rebelled from God’s law, oppressed their neighbors and rejected God’s call.13 The prophets were sent to remind Israel of their identity and mission:

• “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what the Lord requires of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

• “Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph” (Amos 5:15).

•  “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24)

Though Israel refused to listen and follow the Lord, God kept his covenant. In Isaiah 30:18 he says, “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.” God’s justice is relational. He’s promised redemption from the beginning because he longs for his people to be reconciled him and to each other. God’s people did not deserve this grace. They oppressed others and others oppressed them. They deserved separation from God, but he longed for reconciliation with his people because he is a God of justice and righteousness.

Jesus, God’s son, came to earth as a baby born in a cattle stall, lived as a man, was crucified and raised so that we who are oppressed by sin and in turn have become oppressors may be reconciled to God. In Luke 4:18-19 he says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jesus didn’t come to be served but to serve. He didn’t come to rule with power but to serve with humility. He ate with sinners and physically touched the outcast. He spoke to the heart of ethnic outsiders.14 He healed the sick and the blind. He fed the hungry with food while sharing that he alone is the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through him.15 We as Christians, God’s image bearers, have been called and even saved to a life of justice. 

God has commanded and displayed through Jesus that he is a God who fights for the weak, the oppressed, and the powerless. Jesus pushes back against those who aren’t fighting for justice. In Matthew 23:23 he speaks to the pharisees and says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”

OUR CALL

Paul Tripp’s words are poignant and helpful in this discussion.

Jesus calls justice, mercy, and faithfulness. This is our Savior. This is the hero of the story. This is the epicenter. This is the one into whom we are being formed into His likeness. This is the one who says, "The weightier matters of the law are justice, mercy, and faithfulness.”

You see, here's God's plan. Until we are on the other side in the new heavens and new earth, where perfect justice will reign in righteousness forever, here's the plan. We are called to be God's ambassadors. And that means God makes His invisible justice visible by sending people of justice to stand for, to defend people who are experiencing injustice. Life between the already and the not yet is ambassadorial. I'm always, in every way, called to represent the message, the method, and the character of the King, and justice is close to the heart of our Savior King.16

John tells us that “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”17

James instructs us asking, “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.”18

God uses his people to display his love to a broken world. When we know and understand how deeply sin affects our relationship with creation, ourselves, and others, then we understand how deeply we need a Savior. The biblical narrative displays so clearly that God is a God of justice and his people have been called to carry out this mission to a broken world. As ambassadors called to bring the message of reconciliation we must invest in acts of justice. We must weep with those who weep. We must fight for the oppressed with the same boldness, compassion, and love that Jesus fought with for us as he went to the cross.

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1 Jemar Tisby, The Color of Compromise, p. 50.
2 Genesis 1:26
3 II Corinthians 5:17-21
4 Genesis 15
5 Exodus 22:21
6 Jeremiah 22:3
7 Deuteronomy 9:5-6
8 Race, Grace, Talk with Tim Keller and Bryan Stevenson, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyBfOX5OHRQ, accessed 7.21.20.
9 Leviticus 24:22
10 Proverbs 31:9-9, Proverbs 14:31, Proverbs 19:17, Psalm 68:4
11 Leviticus 19:10
12 Genesis 4:8
13 Judges 2:16-19, Micah 3:5 
14 John 4:7
15 John 14:6
16 Paul Tripp, The Gospel, The Church, And Racial Injustice, https://www.paultripp.com/wednesdays-word/posts/ the-gospel-the-church-and-racial-injustice, accessed 7.21.20.
17 1 John 3:16-18
18 James 2:14-17