What is true justice?

Justice means just behavior or treatment. Fairness and equity. I would also add respect and equality among every citizen crossing racial, cultural, and religious barriers. 

A Biblical definition of justice is God administering righteousness to His people which is fulfilled in the salvation provided through Jesus Christ. In this sense, God’s holy justice eternally justifies sinners. Biblical justice is salvation by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-9).  

Negatively it is divine judgment on unrepentant sinners. 

I supplied the answer before discussing the problem. Now I want to discuss the problem of why human justice can never fully be obtained. 

Due to the total depravity of man, we can never experience complete justice in our neighborhoods, cities, counties, states, and nation. There are many who do and will not see all people as equals. The rich oppress the poor. The strong dominate the weak. The arrogant belittles the humble. Those who are anti-God hate and mock the religious and the list goes on.  

No matter how much government enact laws and write tons of legislation, our situation has seen little improvement. Black people's lives are better than they were in the 60’s during the civil rights movement (although some black conservatives disagree). It has only been 55 years since the voting rights act was made law on August 6th, 1965. When a black person is killed by police, groups like Black Lives Matter are declaring that it is justice for black people to loot stores and property because in their minds that is “reparations.” It is no big deal. The stores have insurance this one BLM young lady declared on twitter. When a people have been oppressed for so long, they will eventually attack like a wild animal fighting for survival. The rage they feel overrides their judgment.

So, in the minds of many two wrongs do make a right. Hate begets hate. 

In other words, oppress the oppressor. Do to them what they have done to us. Let them know exactly how the oppressed has felt for centuries and see how they like it. That in the minds of the oppressed is justice. 

When the wicked execute their own justice, it never leads to peace. It will only produce more hate, riots and killing. Resistance movements that do not bring about effective change will only produce more chaos. Yes, you will have many that will share the same ideals and join the cause, but no human organization is a one size fits all solution. Not even every black person shared the same ideology of Martin Luther King which was nonviolence and civil disobedience. Many with him wanted to take up arms to defend themselves against the white man that was brutalizing and killing them. Naturally, I understand that. It is about self-preservation. It is our natural impulse to protect ourselves and our families. 

What should be our response as Christians? The Bible makes it clear that vengeance belongs to the Lord and He will repay (Deut 32:35; Rom 12:19). To take matters in our own hands is to usurp God’s position and deprive Him of the recompense and justice He wants to execute.  

Do we want to put ourselves in the place of God (Gen 50:19)? 

Paul in Romans 12:21 said, "Do not let yourself be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.” Now, let me be honest. The idea of treating someone kind while they treat me with hate is quite unnatural. In my flesh I do not want to do that. You hurt me; I want to hurt you worse. But, if we are determined to do things God’s way, then we cannot get our own revenge. We have the right to be angry and not sin. We must love our enemies (Matt 5:44). This does not mean we trust them. Even as Christians this is awfully hard to do (i.e. love our enemies). That is why most will never do it.  To treat someone with justice after being mistreated seems downright stupid in the eyes of the world. It makes one look weak like a punk. The world is a blood thirsty place. It is kill or be killed. Only the strong survive right? 

We have to ask ourselves some serious questions as believers. Is our own reputation more important than obeying the commands of the Lord and glorifying Him? Are we willing to suffer injustice temporarily by the hands of evil men and wait on the Lord to even the score in His timing (Rom 8:18; 1 Pet 4:16; 2 Tim 2:3-4)?

It is wise to combat injustice. There is nothing wrong with peaceful protests to decry injustice. It is our first amendment right to bring awareness to the leaders of our country of injustice. Our country was born out of pain in the American Revolution against the British Crown in the late 18th century. It is just to punish those who do evil. Worst case scenario criminals should be executed. Those who do not value other people’s lives will forfeit their own through our criminal justice system or by law enforcement. It is equally fair for those in law enforcement to be punished if they are abusing and killing innocent law-abiding citizens. They are to protect and serve the innocent. Not harm and kill them. 

Because these are human institutions pure justice will never be meted out to everyone’s satisfaction. Where some may feel justice was served in a particular situation, others will feel a grave injustice was delivered. Like in the case with the O.J. Simpson trial some 25 years ago. Just as there were those that insisted, he was guilty of double murder because he led police on a slow speed chase on the 405 freeway with a gun to his head in the infamous white Ford Bronco driven by his friend Al Cowlings, there were others that felt he was innocent based on the evidence or lack thereof in his “Dream Team” murder trial defense. 

No one knows if he was innocent or guilty other than him. And even if he admitted now that he killed his ex-wife and her friend, he could never be indicted because double jeopardy is attached since he was acquitted in a court of law. 

Let me end by saying this: We as Christians cannot change the hearts of evil men. Only God Almighty can do that. How? Through the love of God through Jesus Christ and the proclamation of the gospel. Now to the world, the gospel is foolishness (1 Cor 2:14).  They cannot see how preaching can bring the necessary change our world needs. That is because they do not know the supernatural power the Word has to save souls and lovingly compel sinners to be righteous. Psalm 19:7 says the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul (italics added for emphasis). It is because they are lost they cannot see how it delivers one from sins. A new heart must be transplanted into the life of sinful man for him to see how God sees (Ezek 36:26-27). Without that spiritual heart surgery man is spiritually blind and dead (Eph 2:1; Col 2:13). A man centered justice may give temporary solace to a few, but there will always be opposers of one group justice as injustice.  Once again, man’s justice has never been a one size fits all solution. Once God delivers His perfect justice on a godless world by getting rid of evil forever, all of us who are in the kingdom of God will live in perfect peace.