Justice and Injustice – What Does This Mean?

Justice is a word dangling from the lips of a host of Christians and non-Christians alike these days. But, what of this “justice?” Social justice, economic justice, racial justice, environmental justice; do these ideas jive with the Christian notion of Justice?

In a word, No.

Justice as a concept can only exist in a world where equality is the goal. Justice can only simultaneously be for everyone. It does not defer to the great. It is not partial to the poor.

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. (Leviticus 19:15)

You can slip any seemingly opposite pairs into this definition and maintain the concept and the principle drawn from it: women and men, military and civilian, urban and rural, native and naturalized, blue collar and white collar, one race and another, skilled and unskilled, uneducated and educated, renters and homeowners, southerners and northerners, Christians and non-Christians, and the like. All are due equality in the application of justice. We shall not defer or be partial.

Sadly, the contemporary civil rights movement wants to abandon God’s standard of impartiality. The claim is that there is racism, for which privileged people as a whole must repent. They insist that justice can only be obtained by abandoning God’s Word in favor of the world’s constantly moving standards. Furthermore, there is a call to repentance for what they claim is systemic or historic racism. In effect, they hold individuals guilty of sins of society. They insist that people atone for sins they didn’t commit. According to this view, Jesus death isn’t enough to forgive sins against racial justice.

This is antithetical to Christianity. First, God’s justice can’t be preferential to anyone. Second, atonement before God can only be through Jesus’ death. Third, sin cannot be conferred upon you by someone else’s deeds. Instead of justice, the social justice crowd are advocates of injustice as God defines it.

This injustice also requires us to break the eighth commandment. We must point to our neighbor and confess their sin for them. Yet, we cannot confess each other’s sins. Neither can we withhold Christ’s forgiveness from those penitents, who seek it.

Ironically, justice is not what we want as Christians anyway. Justice looks like this: all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God’s justice condemns us all for our sin. We deserve only hell for our failure to keep God’s law. But, instead of meeting out justice on us. God’s wrath and punishment fell upon Jesus. His suffering and death paid for our sins. We, forgiven children of God, have not received the justice we earned.

Justice modified is injustice. But, God’s forbearance saves us from the justice we are due. In Christ, we are all one race, one family, one people. Human injustice is met by Showing mercy to those who are abused, hurt, cast aside, poor and in need.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX