Paul's Passing Thoughts

“It is no surprise then that the world which unknowingly has the law of God written on their hearts, will be greater lovers of justice than believers who think that justice is just another story about the gospel.”

For those of us left who would dare partake in the dangerous stunt of studying the Bible on our own at home—do a word search on “justice.” If your local Reformed elder finds out, simply diffuse the situation by telling him that you were looking for Jesus in every verse. Make it the truth by doing so, but look for additional information like, what does the word “justice” mean? And is it important to God? And should an understanding of it incite us to think differently and act differently?

However, a warning: this is “leaping from reason to action” instead of contemplating the works of Jesus in every verse that will result in a “mere natural flow” of the manifested active obedience of Christ. The sharing of this dangerous behavior with others should be done with much discretion.

Let’s do a state of the word “justice” in the Church assessment as an introduction. Like many biblical words, it has been replaced with, “gospel.”  Where is the emphasis on justice that is in the word of God? It is a massive theme throughout Scripture by use of the specific word, not including the same concept expressed in different words with the same meaning. So, where is the same emphasis in teaching and action within the church? And has this lack of emphasis yielded any fruit?

An emphasis on justice disrupts the easy believism  gospel wave of circa 1950-1970, and the second gospel wave of the authentic Reformed gospel wave of 1970-present. Both movements are heavily predicated on the idea that elite groups lead the incompetent masses:

1. The gospel must be kept simple. Attempting to understand more than, “Jesus died for our sins” could keep many of the ignorant masses from entering the kingdom.

2. The sheep, are well, sheep, and we all know about sheep: they have to be led to water and grass or they will starve to death (they have no survival instinct at all); they are not created with any defense anatomy (like horns etc.)—they have to be protected; they are skittish—sudden loud noises can cause them to fall dead of a heart attack; if they fall over, they can’t get up on their own. In a word: helpless.

3. God has appointed special men (and sometimes women) to lead the hapless sheep safely home to heaven. They are the ones “called to the ministry.”

4. All of God’s enlightened are not saved because the unsaved ignorant masses need an elite group to guide them as well (or else the world would be in chaos)—otherwise known as “government.” But as far as the full spectrum of life, the unsaved enlightened ones have enlightenment that can help Christians because “all truth is God’s truth.” Therefore, the Bible doesn’t have all of the answers for life’s deepest problems, it is a mere continual feeding for the hapless sheep—the water and grass of “Christ died for our sins.” The full revelation of God to the saints contained in the Bible doesn’t add up in the philosophy of incompetence.

5. On the church side, the enlightenment that comes to the ones “called to the ministry” and distributed to the sheep as the authoritative word is referred to as “orthodoxy.” The form in which it is then distributed to the dumb sheep in a way that they can understand it is referred to as, “creeds and confessions.” On the secular side, it is called “psychology.” On the secular side, psychology is the priesthood of enlightenment, and government enforces the truth that prevents chaos. On the church side, the truth is orthodoxy presented in creedal form, and enforced by “church polity.”

6. This explains why very little evangelism takes place outside of the church—the dumb sheep must bring the other dumb sheep to the temple where the enlightened ones dwell and know how to present the gospel in wiser ways. It also explains why the vast, vast, majority of Christians are unable to help each other with the word of God. And besides, dumb sheep can’t change anyway. Hence, the enlightened ones, being few, must depend on the lesser enlightened ones to help with the sheep; ie, the secular priesthood of psychology.

The biblical concept of justice throws a monkey wrench into this concept—big time. First, the concept of biblical judgment infers value. That poses a huge problem for both gospel waves.

In the first gospel wave, while “high self-esteem” was heavily touted, it was framed in context of why Christ died to save us: we are valuable to God because He created us, and God doesn’t “create junk.” But on the other hand, “what amazing grace that God would love SINNERS like us!” We are still, “sinners saved by grace.” The first gospel wave, though a proponent of high self-esteem, was nevertheless predicated on the incompetence of the saints who are still “sinners,”  making no distinction between sinning as a life style verses sin that manifests itself in our war against it.

This translated into the whole, “We are all in the same boat named Sinners, so who are we to judge?” “We should forgive the way we were forgiven; ie, ‘forgive and forget.’” “If you don’t forgive others, God will not forgive you.” “Your willingness to forgive and forget shows that you understand God’s grace.”  And if you don’t understand God’s grace—you don’t understand the gospel, and if you don’t understand the gospel, well, you do the math.

Justice doesn’t get invited to this party. To seek justice is to supposedly reveal the fact that you don’t understand grace, and assumes  that you are a lesser sinner than someone else. We should rather all be like the Apostle Paul who wrote, “I am the chief of all sinners.” To seek justice is to be the unmerciful servant that Jesus spoke of who executed judgment on a fellow servant after being forgiven of the same thing by his master.

The trend that always follows this philosophy is tyranny which is the antithesis of justice. We have all heard of the “awesome testimonies” of parents who were able to forgive the serial killer who threw their daughter away like a piece of trash after torturing her. These testimonies are often heralded as “awesome displays of God’s grace” when really, they say more about the value of human life and the lack of God’s righteous indignation within the image bearer. This same philosophy has always resulted in the ruling elite viewing the masses in a demeaning way. In some cases, less than human. The Inquisition, The Jewish Holocaust, and many other historical events come to mind.

The second gospel wave’s twist on all of this is  total depravity. Look, I was Reformed for twenty years—they laugh at the idea of  righteous indignation. “You want justice? Are you sure about that? If God gave you justice, you would be going to hell!” Anger, Justice’s kissing cousin, is said to be indicative of our heart’s sinful notion that we deserve something other than hell. This type of thinking is exemplified in the often used parable about the Puritan who worked all day, and was then served nothing but a nickel sized piece of meat by his wife; he, without hesitation, exuberantly exclaimed, “What! Christ, and this also!”

Sounds honorable, but what is discussed little is the kind of behavior and indifference towards human life that this philosophy spawned among the Reformers and their Puritan children. When the Bible is gospel narrative only, and not a guide for life and godliness in the hands of capable Chrsitians—superstation and many other things will fill the void. The 300 years of European witch hunting should serve as an apt example among many others on this point.

If you go to Bible Gateway .com, select “Whole Bible,” and do a word search on “justice,” you will see hordes of Scriptures that point to a moral responsibility before God to execute fair judgment as morally competent people.  The Bible is also fraught with warnings from God that He will execute judgment on those who refuse to do so.  Biblical justice has innumerable spiritual ramifications as well as practical necessity.

What are the fruits of both gospel waves that refuse to agree with God’s heart on this issue? Well, just look at the ABWE/GARB Bangladesh missionary children nightmare. In that whole twenty-year ordeal, getting any kind of justice has been like pulling teeth that don’t need pulling. In fact, in like situations where justice is called for, persecution of the ones calling for justice soon follows.

It is no surprise then that the world which unknowingly has the law of God written on their hearts, will be greater lovers of justice than believers who think that justice is just another story about the gospel. “It’s about Jesus, not us. He was God, but quietly endured the injustice of the cross for us. But you want justice for merely being raped? How dare you!”

This is the problem with interpreting the whole Bible through a Reformed gospel prism that isn’t even a complete gospel. “Christ died for our sins” is not the complete gospel.  It’s a glorious part, but by itself—it’s a half gospel that excludes our enablement to repent and glorify God in many, many ways which includes the execution of what is right and just. In contrast, the narrow Reformed gospel narrows everything the Scriptures state about justice to justification alone.

This isn’t the Bible, it’s orthodoxy. And it will not endear the world to Christ when they are better informed about God from the works of His law written on their hearts and what they plainly see in the world.

paul