On Justice

"God of justice, Saviour to all."

Has anyone ever thought about what a paradoxical statement that is? Christians everywhere praise God for being just and righteous, but they also thank him for his mercy and grace. If you think about it, these seem like things that definitely do not go together. Mercy and grace, by definition, both involve forgoing justice. Nevertheless, we lump them all into traits of the same being and are quite happy to do so. Don't get me wrong. I am not attacking this belief; it is one that I myself hold. I am simply addressing a contradiction that few Christians even seem to realize exists within their fundamental doctrines as well as many of their songs

Why do we want justice anyway? That of course prompts the question of what justice actually is. Considering the fact that philosophers have been asking that question almost as long as philosophy has existed, I will not be so presumptuous as to try to answer it here. Rather, I will just use the conventional definitions: a sort of fairness or equality, punishment for wrong-doing and reward for right-doing, or even a kind of retribution or restoration. The general idea centres around what is right and fair. Justice is generally thought of as a good thing...a desirable thing. If asked, most people say they want justice. I think those people are liars, or at least confused.

End

No one wants justice
Not really
Justice kills us all
And justice is the end
But we all just want to go on
To continue
We're selfish
In the end
And justice is only a means
Only a means
For someone else to end
We all end
An that's why nobody wants it
No one wants justice
Not really

This is a very cynical poem, one of my most cynical in fact. However, I am a human being, and I know what human nature is like. We're selfish. We all suffer from some twisted sense of pride or over-developed self-focus. It is the way of all people. That's why it seems to me that most people who seek justice are seeking a very narrow conception or focus of justice. Usually (and I do emphasize usually), people either want justice for themselves as retribution for wrong done against them, or they even want justice for another person or group of people who have been treated unfairly. However, in either case, these people generally want themselves unaffected by the enactment of this justice, unless it involves some endorphins. From my experience, most Western Christians fall into the second category.

I fully acknowledge that this is not true of everyone who desires justice. Still, it is a definite minority that is actually willing to suffer for the sake of fairness. Nevertheless, I don't know of anyone who has ever sought true justice. As the old saying goes, "An eye for an eye makes everyone blind." We live in an unfair world, and to make it fair means a lot of people, especially in the West, would have to lose a lot (a sudden influx of wealth to the impoverished of the world which raises them to the level of the West seems unlikely, and it also does not seem like this would account for the long apathy of the wealthy). I think perhaps the toughest loss for most in Western culture be their sense of superiority. I don't know if even Christians truly want justice. True justice means we're all damned. "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." When Christians ask for justice, I think they often forget this particular fact. In the words of Sweeney Todd, "We all deserve to die."

In the big picture, what I think everyone truly wants is grace and mercy. We may occasionally want justice done upon certain people, but for ourselves, we would undoubtedly desire mercy. In the case of the impoverished, people are most likely to desire grace. Deep down, we are all aware of what we deserve, even the most conceited of us. I do not think this is a bad thing. After all, our Creator has proved himself full of mercy and grace, and he undoubtedly instilled within us desires for these two as well as for justice. However, the modern church likes to focus on the mercy and grace. Perhaps this is why we have a narrow or underdeveloped sense of what real justice is and how it applies to religion.

The fact that is God is a God of justice is what makes his mercy and grace so remarkable. The Old Testament shows a clear example of this. Attacks against Christianity have said for years that there are inconsistencies between the two testaments, but I would disagree, they are simply on a macro and a micro level. In the Old Testament, God's justice is clearly enacted against the nations around Israel, and it is horrible, but it makes his mercy and grace toward Israel when they turn to him that much more astounding. This is the same God we see in the New Testament offering his grace and mercy to anyone willing to turn to him. "Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame."

As Christians, it is essential that we acknowledge the reality of our iniquity and the punishment we deserve as well as God's merciful forgiveness of sin and graceful gift of salvation. "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Any step without the other leaves a person with an incomplete and therefore dangerous view of God.