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Justice of God

Diliman Bible Church


Caloy Dño
February 4, 2018

Romans 3:21-26
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the
law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the
righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For
there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood,
to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in
his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show
his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the
justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Intro: Justice in Unexpected Ways


We all have a favorite movie, right. My favorite is an old
historical-biographical film on the life of the Irish hero William Wallace--the
movie “Braveheart”. It starred Mel Gibson, and he did a very inspiring
portrayal of such a tragic but heroic figure. What caught my attention was
how much injustice the Irish people suffered under the English ruling elite
of their time. When the injustices continued to pile on their people, I
wondered at a certain point how a people who were not used to fighting,
who did not have proper weapons could ever win over their adversaries
who superior, more numerous, better trained, more experience and more
powerful?

Even towards the end of the film, when the hero was already captured by
the enemies, I wondered how William could still turn the situation around
and be victorious. And then, just when the injustice against him was at its
height, when the hero was brutally killed by his enemies, that was how
justice came in the most unexpected ways, The death of William Wallace
woke the Irish people up and he became the rallying point for their fight for
liberation, the fight to restore justice for their people.

I don’t know why, but I am always drawn to stories with heroic characters.
Especially stories where the main character and the people around him
experience so much injustice, and that person is forced by circumstances
to fight back. When good people are oppressed by a powerful group of
corrupt and abusive individuals, I am inspired by how one person is lead to
act with compassion for his people, and how one finds the courage to do
what is right, to fight back against their oppressors.

We do not have to look very far to find heroes. We have our own heroes
such as Rizal, Bonifacio, Juan Luna, Gregorio del Pilar. They all gave up
their lives for the cause of freedom.

I often ask myself, given the same set of circumstances, would I also do as
these heroes did? Would I also sacrifice my life to do what is right for the
sake of the greater number of people? I doubt it really. I am such a coward.
But I guess when the issues of what is right and what is wrong becomes
very clear, I guess most of us, if not all of us will eventually have the
conviction to do what is right. And I guess, just like William Wallace, when it
is the people you love who suffer injustice, then the restoration of justice
becomes a very deep personal cause. A profound shift in the heart
happens when the fight for justice is borne out of love.

Thinking about these things have given me a clearer insight into the justice
and righteousness of God.
Secular Justice and Biblical Justice
But before we go deep into our discussion, we need to clear up some terms
here. There is a difference between our common understanding of justice
from the kind of justice being talked about in the Bible.

When we talk about justice in society, we know it’s all about the law and
how our legal system operates. When we talk about justice, what usually
comes to mind is what happens in a courtroom, where a case is presented
and a decision is rendered by a judge, whether something is right or wrong
based on the law. We are a country governed by the rule of law. Our laws
determine what is right and wrong as we relate with other people in society.
When according to the law you receive what is right and what is due you,
then you receive justice.

So let’s take for example, i am accused to stealing a piece of mango from


the store. If I really did steal it, and the legal process finds me guilty and
makes me pay for my transgression, then I am meted out justice--I receive
what is right, what is due me as a guilty person.

Now what if I did not really steal the piece of mango, it was actually my
brother who looks a bit like me who stole it. If the legal process finds out
that I am innocent, then I receive justice--I receive what is right, freedom
and vindication as a an innocent person.

What if the results are reversed? What if I was really innocent. But because
of false testimonies, I was found guilty by the legal process, and was made
to pay for something I did not do. Then an injustice had been done to me.

Or what if I really stole the mango, and because I took advantage of a


technicality, my case is dismissed. I ought to be punished for a crime, but I
get off as though I was innocent. Then, an injustice has just occured.
What if I really stole the mango, but because I paid off the judge, I was
declared innocent. Then a great injustice had been done.

Or what if nothing is done about the case, and the store owner is left with
one less mango with no one to pay for his loss. Then the store owner would
have suffered an injustice.

Or what if I brought along a group of bullies and threatened the store owner
harm if he would bring his case to court? Or what if utilized a team of
lawyers to slap a counter-suit that is completely made-up just to harass the
store owner? Or what if I just hired a riding in tandem gunman to just shoot
the store owner dead? A great injustice would have been done.

For the rule of law to be just, the laws and the entire system running around
it must be right. When the system give freedom to those who do right, and
punishes those who do wrong, then there is justice in the system.

Now, our secular understanding of justice is very closely related to the


justice of God. Secular justice governs how we relate with one another in
society. The justice of God is about how He relates with the people of His
creation. It is deeply personal for God. God wills that we are rightly related
to Him. So when a legal system is just and equitable, and is implemented
impartially and justly, that justice system is a good reflection of the justice
and righteousness of God.

In the Bible, justice is always linked to righteousness. While they seem to


be two totally unrelated words, in the minds of the Biblical writers, these
two ideas are intertwined. Righteousness is being and doing what is just
and right. God is righteous, which means he will always do what is right
according to His standards. Justice is when God determines whether one
person is right, or whether his actions are right or wrong according to His
standards. Justice and righteousness are tightly intertwined as attributes of
God. One may even say that they are like two sides of the same coin.

We get this sense in the following passages:

Ps. 119:137-138​ - Righteous [‫ַדּיק‬ ִ ‫ צ‬tsaddiq] are You, O LORD, and


upright are Your judgments [‫שׁ ָפּט‬
ְ ‫ ִמ‬mishpat]. You have commanded Your
testimonies in righteousness [‫ ֶצ ֶדק‬tsedeq] and exceeding faithfulness.

Psalm 89:14 - ​“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your


throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you”

Isaiah 5:16 ​- “The LORD of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God
shows himself holy in righteousness”.

Isaiah 16:5 - ​“A throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will
sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice
and is swift to do righteousness”.

The Righteousness or Justice of God is that very attribute of God that


makes Him always do what is right. It is related to the Holiness of God,
which refers to God's very character that is intrinsic to Himself;
Righteousness or Justice on the other hand refers to how God deals in
relationship with others.

Mission of God, Failure of Man


God’s justice, or God’s covenant relationship with His people had been
“manifested” from the beginning of Biblical history. God has always
required that people be in right relationship with God.

When God created Adam and Eve, His perfect will was for his creation who
bear His image live in intimate relationship with Him. He placed them in a
beautiful garden and everything they would ever need is provided for. They
receive the ultimate in TLC, tender loving care. There was only one
requirement for them to remain in that deeply satisfying relationship--that
they have complete trust in God, and that they will obey His commands.

Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. They were God’s image
in God’s creation. How mankind was to live in this creation was meant to
reflect the attributes of God in creation, to display the glory of God.

He had but one command that had fatal consequences when disobeyed:
“Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. God did not want
people to know good or evil apart from Him. What God declares is good is
good. What God declares as evil is evil. All they needed to do what to trust
and obey. And they failed with disastrous consequences. From then on,
people died. They were banished from His presence and separated from a
deep and intimate relationship with Him.

But God in His love and mercy, embarked on a project to restore mankind
to Himself. God started on the great project of saving people and drawing
them back to Him.

The story of the flood, and the ark of Noah was a move to execute God’s
justice and wipe out evil that had taken root in the people of their time. But
at the same time God saved Noah and his family so that mankind can start
over.

The story of Abraham was the story of God establishing a covenant


relationship with man, declaring a promise of blessing to one chosen
individual, so that he can be the source of blessing to the world. Abraham
was not a perfect guy, but because he trusted God, he believed in God’s
promises, Abraham’s faith was counted as ‘righteousness’. Abraham was
declared to be in a right relationship with God by virtue of his ‘childlike‘
faith.

And Abraham passed on that blessing to Isaac, and to Jacob, and on to his
children, until the family of Abraham had become a big nation in Egypt. And
when this people were suffering injustice in Egypt, God heard their cries
and acted to save them. He rescued the people of israel from slavery and
set them free to worship Him.

But now, the covenant relationship had to evolve. A promise will not longer
do to keep a whole nation in right relationship with God. God had to hand
down to the people of Israel a detailed set of laws to govern God’s dealing
with His people. This was the old covenant between God and Israel. The
Justice and Righteousness of God came as a set of laws--the Torah. And
for as long as Israel trusted and obeyed, they remained blessed.

God desired that His glory be manifested in the different kingdoms and
nations of the world through Israel, so that the world may know who God is
by how he deals with His people. The nations would know the very
attributes and character of God by how the people of Israel lived their lives
in relation to God. That relationship was set forth in the old covenant. The
covenant faithfulness of God--meaning His righteousness was meant to
display the glory of God to the nations.

This is was what israel was meant to do--being the People of God, they
were meant to display before the watching world--the kingdoms and
nations ot the world, who God is, what He is like, and what it means to be
ruled by God himself.

But Israel failed in this calling. They fell short of what was expected of
them. The fell short of displaying the glory of God. they have broken the
Torah and were not faithfully obedient to God’s commandments.
They turned away from the worship of God to the worship of idols. And
because God’s people were not faithful, because they failed to trust and
obey Him, because they failed to display the glory of God, then God had to
act. He had to be faithful to the covenant. He had to execute His justice
against the people of Israel. God withdrew His presence and sent Israel
into exile.

God was being faithful to the old covenant, yes. But what about the
promises of God to Abraham? What about his glory which was tarnished by
the unfaithfulness of Israel? What about His mission to save mankind? How
could God be faithful to His covenant, in His righteousness and justice, and
still display his glory and continue to bless the nation?

This was the central dilemma of the story. And if we didn’t know what was
to come, at this point it seemed like all was lost, that the mission of God
had failed, and that salvation for man was now impossible. How could God
save people and restore them to an intimate relationship with Him, and still
be Righteous and Just?

Justice of God Revealed


When we watch a movie, we are drawn into a story because the main
character, the bida is pursuing a noble, inspiring goal, and we want him to
succeed. If the bida reaches his goal quite easily, that would be a pretty
boring story.

The best stories would throw upon the bida conflict after conflict, hurdle
after hurdle, obstacle after obstacle, failure after failure. And it would
appear as if the cause is all but lost, the pursuit is hopeless, ultimate victory
is impossible.

There is a dilemma that is unsolvable. It would appear as if the enemy has


won, and the bida is utterly defeated. This is the highest point of the story,
the tension is building up, we are at the very edge pf the story’s climax.

But THEN, something happens that turns everything around!

But THEN, something totally unexpected happens, that the enemy is


disarmed, and the cause is recovered, hope is restored, and victory is
snatched away from the jaws of defeat.

And in the story of the Mission of God, The twist is that NOW, in Jesus,
God’s righteousness, God’s justice, God’s faithfulness to his covenant
promises has been ‘revealed.’

The coming of Jesus addressed the conundrum. Jesus solved the riddle.
Jesus provided the missing piece to the puzzle.

God revealed a new way of relating to Himself, apart from the law, which
was the old covenant. This is now a new covenant, thereby expanding the
scope and coverage of God’s dealings with people, no longer exclusively
for the Jews, but now includes the Gentiles

God accomplished this without disregarding the law, because God had to
be faithful even to the old covenant. God fulfilled the law, He remained
faithful to the covenant. And God did this by sending Jesus to be the
Remnant of One, the one person who is the representative of all Israel, the
only one who would be faithful to the covenant requirements under the law,
the Torah. And he was faithful even unto death.

God set forth a new covenant relationship with God through ‘faith’ in the
Anointed One, the Messiah Jesus. This new covenant is sealed on the
basis of the blood of Jesus shed on the cross.
Just as in the old covenant, the blood of the sacrificial animals was
sprinkled on the ark of the covenant on the Day of Atonement to appease
God for the sins of Israel, So also in this new covenant, blood was
required--the blood of Jesus shed on the cross--it served to deal with the
wrath of God for the sins of man. The precious blood of Jesus removed
whatever separated God from a righteous relationship with people.

You see, God never abandoned his mission, the Missio Dei. He never
abandoned his plan for the world to be restored back to him. to be restored
in to a right relationship with its Creator.

Man was created in the image of God. Every person in the world were
meant to reflect the image of God, the glory of God’s very character--his
beauty, his love and mercy, his justice and righteousness.

But just like Israel, we all failed to display God’s glory in our lives, Every
person in the world has been a miserable failure in displaying the glory of
God. Because we all have violated the moral laws of God. All by ourselves,
no one will be saved. No one will be restored to a right relationship with
God.

But the Good News is, there is a new way to be restored in right
relationship with God. We are justified, restored into a right relationship,
whether that is by God’s declaration of innocence, or we are imputed with
the very ingredients that make us acceptable to God, and therefore
restored into that right relationship -- this is purely by grace, absolutely
undeserved, given to us as a gift

We who used to be slaves to sin have been redeemed, or purchased out of


our slavery. Just as the israelites were purchased out of slavery from Egypt
and were led out into freedom and into the promised land, so also were
used to be slaves to sin, but have been set free through the redemption
achieved by Jesus Christ.
This was offered by Jesus for free. No one can do anything to deserve this.
This can only be received by faith. The only true requirement of God is trust
and obey. You believe this to be true, and it is so.

Work for Justice Today


What does this all mean for us today?

We all want justice, we all want righteous relationships in society. But when
we look around, we ask ourselves, where in the world can we ever find real
justice? Who in the world can deliver such kind of right relations in society
anywhere in the world?

The world is filled with injustices of every conceivable kind. So many things
are going wrong in our country today. From innocent young people falling
victims to tokhang to young children being offered by their parents online to
pedophiles; from drug suspects in the slums of Metro Manila being shot
point blank because as the police claimed, they were ‘nanlaban’, to
powerful drug lords who continue to ship in billions of pesos worth of drugs
without any fear; and from the baffling decision of a judge to allow a corrupt
and murderous public official to go scot free, to the vindictive move to
impeach a decent and godly Chief Justice of the Supreme Court—the list is
long, and injustice touches everyone at some point in life.

When we set our sights beyond our own country, we see injustice as well.
The Rohingya people have been targeted for genocide by the dominant
people in Burma. Refugees from Syria and other war-torn countries in
Africa continue to be homeless, stateless people scattered all over Europe.
And they are absolutely banned from entering the US. There is the
continuing injustice of a small circle of people having control of a huge
amount of the world’s wealth, while billions of people have to survive on
very little.

There is so much injustice and unrighteousness in the world. Where can


we find hope?

Our hope lies in the fact that all the injustices of the world--which seem to
be advancing, winning, dominating, in the world today--all of these will soon
end. All these will soon be subject to judgment by a righteous God. And
someday soon, God will put everything right.

I see no promise in the BIble that we on our own will be able to solve all the
injustices in the world. The structures of injustice is deeply entrenched. The
evil in people is deeply rooted that people with power and wealth will
continue to work for their self-serving ends rather than for the good of all.
There is so much inertia in the way things are and how they work is very
difficult to make changes in how the whole system works.

But does that mean that we do nothing? Of course,we must do something.


We are called to do the work of His kingdom. But we need to be very clear
about our expectations.

Our role today is to display the glory of God. We are God’s ambassadors in
this world that is dominated by the enemy. And we display God’s glory by
doing the difficult work of being salt and light in every area in the world
covered by darkness. As we feed the hungry, heal the sick, give comfort to
the widows and orphans, and visit the prisoners. As we stand up for what is
right when everything in the culture and the system of government is going
wrong. As we help dismantle structures that oppress people and rob them
of their dignity. As we do whatever we can where we are with what we
have, as God enables us and empower us to do these good works. We
display the glory of God when we do these things.
This is an endless, thankless job of putting the world to right. This is the
work of the Kingdom. We may experience success, but briefly. Most often
than not we will experience failure. We will be persecuted. We will be
threatened with harm. We may even be killed.

But by our works, by our acts of righteousness and justice, we present to


the world what it is like to be ruled by God. We declare that Jesus is Lord,
and that at his name every knee must bow and every tongue should
confess that Jesus the Messiah is LORD, to the glory of the Father.

The bullies of this world, the corrupt, the greedy, the violently evil, the
immoral--these people do not experience the full weight of the
righteousness and justice of God yet--not right now-- that’s why they do
what they do without fear of judgment. They will meet their judgment very
soon.

We are all still under grace. We all, including the evil people in the world,
still enjoy God’s forbearance at the present time. Which means they still
have an opportunity to repent and submit themselves to the Lordship of
Christ.

And so, we have work to do. It is our role to proclaim in word and display in
deed the Good News that the Kingdom of God has come, that they who
pretend to have power are under the rule of Christ, and that they will all
give an account for eveyrthing they have done and will do, and everything
that is in their power to do but failed to do.

The inlustices that they commit in this world, they will soon pay. They will
soon receive what they deserve according to the Justice of God.

The question for us however is, how can we be a reflection of God’s justice
and righteousness in society today? If we are truly rightly related to God, if
we have been declared righteous and in the good graces of God, how can
we reflect back God’s character of being faithful to his covenant
relationship?

We ought to also be, just like our God, faithful to a right relationship with
people around us. Jesus himself commanded us what the nature of the
relationship should be--love.
We are to love our neighbors just as we love ourselves.

We are to have compassion for the poor, the neglected, the prisoners, the
widows and orphans. We are to love even our enemies. We are to love just
like Jesus. For His honor and glory and praise.

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