To impose a fine on a righteous man is not good, nor to strike the noble for their uprightness.
What is justice? The idea of ‘justice’ has absorbed our culture, inflamed it, rallied and assailed it. ‘Social justice’ has come and gone as the great rallying cry of the left, superseded by cries for a thousand splintered causes, leaving behind those remnants, particularly in the ‘Christian’ church, who have not realized their movement has passed them. ‘Justice for the unborn’ and a hundred other cries have meanwhile become the cause of thousands on the right (if we define the Right as ‘not the Left’). On whose side is justice, really? What is justice?
God has an answer for us, one often hard to bear, one truly joyful when we live in Him. Justice is to give a man what God commands be given him; justice is to act towards another as God commands; justice is to give to a man all he deserves from me, good and bad. Thus injustice is the reverse. To punish the righteous man is evil because God would not have me do so. To strike the noble man in retribution for his nobility is evil likewise, for God does not reward good with evil. Indeed, He is quite the opposite: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matt. 5:6).
This justice rests on God’s nature- His righteousness and His authority, which are one and the same in the end. It rests on His righteousness, for God’s justice is to give to each what he deserves (Gen. 3:14; Rev. 19:2). To death, He gives death; to rejection, rejection; to the abhorrence issued against Him by the unbeliever, He gives abhorrence as complete as the unbeliever’s is in principle, thus damning him. “As he has done it shall be done to him” (Lev.24:19). He may delay the giving for a time (Ps. 73:4,18), but in the end even mercy is but preparation for judgement (Mark 4:25).
It is this righteousness, this Divine justice, which demanded the death of His Son as propitiation for the sins of His people. Hebrews 9:12-13 summarizes this mercy: “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come…, He entered once for all into the holy places… by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” God’s mercy is to bear His own justice in our place in order that we, who deserve death, might have His life (Is. 53:12; Rom. 6:1-5).
Our justice is not God’s; it is derivative and reflective. We know what a man deserves because God declares it (Ps. 119:1-9). Even when we know a man’s sin, however, we are often not entrusted with delivering his reward, even its earthly component- for instance, vigilante killing is murder, for God does not give man that authority. This principle brings us to the second foundation of justice: God’s authority. God is not merely aware of the sin of men, not merely aware of their just retribution. He also originates the right to act upon that knowledge.
God is the “Judge of all the earth” (Gen. 18:25). To any other judge it is appropriate to ask, “Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly?” (Ps. 58:1). God by definition judges rightly and enacts that judgement. To the wicked He brings destruction, for, “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). To those who by the blood of His Son are made righteous, He brings life everlasting, for, “The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).
Man’s authority to do justice depends entirely on God’s decree that man has that authority. In other words, if God gives me the right to reward or to punish (and both are restricted) in a specific circumstance, then I have that authority, but not otherwise. The government has the right to punish as God gives it that right; the church has the right to reward as God gives it that right; men have the right to do either as God gives them that right. So a father can justly discipline his son (Ex. 20:12; Heb. 12:5-9), as can those whom the father (or mother) have delegated that authority to (within limits, for delegation too rests on God’s authority, not man’s, and is therefore governed by His law), but a random stranger or the government or a fellow child may not discipline that same boy as a parent would, as God has not given those agents that authority. There is a divine right of kings, but it is a right only to do what God commands. It is definitionally nonexistent outside of that application.
What is justice? It is to give to a man what he has a right to, to the extent that I have the right to give it to him. Justice is thus received and given both on grounds of right defined by God’s nature, His righteousness. Thus, Proverbs can here condemn evildoing with certainty, can call injustice wrong without flinching or fear of falsity, for God the standard of justice does not change (Num. 23:19). His justice therefore is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8), and the justice we are called to give corresponds to that eternal code, differing in circumstance but never in principle. To give evil for good, therefore, is never right—even if done by the greatest of all earthly powers.
God bless.
Written by Colson Potter
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
