Our next speaker was Charles Cobb and man did he shake things up. His topic was justice and everyone in my school was challenged. We are in a school of social justice, and yet I know less about what justice truly is then I did when I started this school. Here we go…
What is Justice? No really what is justice…the world has twisted and distorted justice so much in my brain that I thought true justice was the same as revenge. Is that what you think? From what I’ve seen in the word I believe that true justice in God’s eyes would look like every person being reconciled to him. That they would be set free from their shame and guilt, and experience an incredibly exciting and fulfilling life with him. Looking at the world now I see a lot of death and pain and…injustice. That is why I’m at this school, to help the orphan and the widow, to love on the poor and bring God’s hope! My hearts cry is to bring justice to the injustices of this world, why? Because God’s heart is ripping apart every second of every day because his children are starving, thirsty, dying, being raped, being murdered and so much more, and he has asked me to do something about it. We point the finger at God and say “If you love us so much why are you letting this happen!” and he is looking back into our eyes saying gently “why have You (humans) let this happen?” wow. That’s not to condemn us or to heap guilt on our heads, if you feel that then get rid of it because God is not a God of guilt shame or condemnation. He convicts not condemns. I could talk about that for years, but the point of this entry is justice.
Okay so we are called to bring justice, we are called to go. This is my dilemma I hope you can follow my mind vomit. In my brain I have never been truly “justified” for the sin that I chose to walk in. If I were to actually pay the consequence for my sins I would be in hell right now. I’m not talking about consequences, because we all have experienced consequences, we know what cause and affect are. I’m talking about actual payment for the things I’ve done. Because God has given me so much grace and continues to give me grace for all my huge mistakes, I will never have to pay the full consequences for my sins. Jesus did that for me. I truly believe that this is God’s justice but it is not justice in the world’s eyes. So continuing on with this idea since (from the world’s perspective) we have never been justified how do we know how to bring justice to anyone? How can we say “hey your mistakes and sins are greater than mine and you have to be punished to the fullest” when we ourselves have never paid to the fullest? How do we enforce justice and still incorporate God’s grace? Can we do that, is it even possible? Is that even a part of our role as followers of Christ?
How can we walk out or even talk about something we don’t understand or know how to walk out it? Isn’t that what “Christians” have been doing lately, and isn’t that the very thing that people HATE about Christianity. Hypocrisy? Do you remember who Jesus was always picking on and calling out…the religious people the Pharisees who were preaching but not walking out? Are we only supposed to help people bring reconciliation in their lives because we ourselves have been reconciled? Don’t get me wrong I do believe we, as a society, need laws in place and we do need to enforce them to protect people. I do believe that people need to be held accountable and punished for the crimes they have committed; otherwise we are not loving them. Love is a verb not a noun. However this is a huge gray area to me now and I don’t know where the truth is! If you look at God and how he judged people in the Bible he is completely inconsistent. Some people he strikes with a lightning bolt and some he lets off the hook. So how are we supposed to build any kind of system based on how God judges when we have no idea how he does it? Can we!? Only God knows someone’s heart and only God know what punishment will suffice for every individual. Obviously our prison systems aren’t working because most people who go end up returning. Is that because the same punishment is not effective for every individual? I think so…so what do we do? I have no idea…these are all questions that a simple question Mr. Cobb asked us inspired. What is justice? I am in the process of asking God what it is right what is truth and what I can do right now and I challenge you to ask him as well. As disciples of Jesus we need to know what justice is and how to practically live it out. Is it something that we will ever understand? Is it something that we are called to seek out? Or is reconciliation what we as “little Christ’s” supposed to seek out. I do believ that reconciliation is a beautiful and pretty painful part of justice. How is a practical way we walk that out? I don’t know yet but I know that God will show us the answers we need. He’s pretty awesome like that. It is amazing what one little question can do. My whole foundation is being shaken and it’s awesome because God is rebuilding it on his truth which is a rock that I can stand on!
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ReplyDeletei Cassie,
ReplyDeleteGood stuff. Sounds like God is really challenging your thinking. I just wanted to throw in a couple of thoughts. I think it helps to think of justice in terms of eternal justice (eternal judgment), and natural, or temporal justice. Eternal justice/ judgment is entirely in God's hands. Only he knows the motivations of the heart, and the level of revelation that anyone is living from. He has given man the responsibility for natural justice, and gave us governmental structures for carrying it out. It may also help to understand that the role and responsibility of a government, is different from the role and responsibility of the individual. Governments are given the right to create and enforce laws. They are supposed to use that authority to serve people, obviously that doesn't always happen. Individuals are called to love, serve, show mercy and grace. Individuals are exhorted to turn the other cheek, governments carry the sword for a reason. God is the only one who can hold both mercy and justice perfectly, so He gave us the mercy part, but retained the justice and judgment part for himself. So justice, as far as punishment for sin, is Gods, as far as lawbreaking belongs to specific authorities (government, parents, etc.). The current discussion about " social justice" is in the neighborhood of what you are talking about. As I read the Scripture, I see that God is in favor of freedom. He gives equal opportunities to people, but does not guarantee equal outcomes for all, because to enforce equal outcomes, you have to take away freedom. Christians and churches can help to right some of the inequities that have been created by sin. We can work to give people, that is make them aware of, the free access to God and to his purposes for them that circumstances may have stolen from them. But we have to be careful strategies and public policies created by secular governments that seek to impose equal outcomes for all. Those always take away people's freedoms.
Good stuff. Keep praying, thinking, and writing. We love you.
John C.
Ps. Sorry if there are a bunch of typos in this. I am on a mobile device and can't scroll back to proof;(
Thank you so much for taking the time to write back, it was really encouraging to hear what you thought. I also got alot of clarity from what you said about eternal justice, natural justice, and individual justice. Thank you so much, love you guys too!!
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