What is Justice?

Justice is defined by God’s law, which in turn is an expression of His nature. Justice is not distinct from grace and mercy, because these characteristics are also part of God’s nature. We are usually accustomed to thinking of justice and judgment as being synonymous with condemnation. But the fact is that divine judgment is broader than that, because it includes all decisions and verdicts in the divine court. This includes verdicts declaring one’s innocence as well as a guilty verdict.

The Hebrew word for justice is mishpat, which Strong’s Concordance defines as “a verdict (favorable or unfavorable) pronounced judicially, especially a sentence or formal decree.” So the word is usually translated judgment, which is based on justice when applied correctly (by the mind of Christ).

Righteous Judgment

The law of God instructs us in the ways of righteous judgment. For example, Leviticus 19:15 says,

¹⁵ You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly [sedek, “righteously”].

Again, we read in Exodus 23:6-8,

⁶ You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute. ⁷ Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit the guilty. ⁸ You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just.

Bribery is as common today as it was in biblical days. In many countries, it is a way of life. Anyone who is given authority to grant privileges is tempted to demand a bribe. Even Christians who do not have the law written on their hearts have been caught up in bribery as if it were expected and acceptable in their society. But this is not justice.

Judgment on Jerusalem

The prophets were often executed by the religious leaders of their day. Jesus Himself condemned the religious leaders in Jerusalem, saying in Matthew 23:29-33,

²⁹ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, ³⁰ and say, “If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.” ³¹ So you testify against yourselves, that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. ³³ You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell [gehenna]?

In other words, they had killed the innocent and the righteous in violation of the law in Exodus 23:7. God says of this, “I will not acquit the guilty.” Christ’s righteous judgment is recorded in Matthew 23:34, 35,

³⁴ Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, ³⁵ so that upon you [Jerusalem] may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

The murder of Zechariah is recorded in 2 Chronicles 24:20-22. Jerusalem’s apostasy brought the condemnation in Jeremiah 19:2, 10, 11 in the valley of Ben-hinnom (gehenna). In the end, Jerusalem became comparable to Sodom for its immorality and Egypt for its oppression (Revelation 11:8). It is also said of Mystery Babylon in Revelation 18:24,

²⁴ And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.

Here John confirmed Jesus’ condemnation of Jerusalem in Matthew 23:35. No doubt this will be fulfilled when Jeremiah 19:10, 11 will be fulfilled. Jerusalem is the great harlot of Babylon that pretends to be the bride of the Messiah. In fact, it is the place where the prophets were murdered, and it is the city that is held accountable for all such bloodshed going back to Abel.

Justice for Foreigners

Exodus 23:9 says,

⁹ You shall not oppress a stranger [gar, “a guest; by implication, a foreigner”], since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger [gar], for you also were strangers [gar] in the land of Egypt.

It was common to oppress foreigners and then withhold justice from them. The Israelites experienced this during their sojourn in Egypt. God reminds the Israelites of their own bitter experience in Egypt and admonishes them not to repeat the sin of the Egyptians.

The law of the Kingdom of God says in Numbers 15:15, 16,

¹⁵ As for the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the alien who sojourns with you, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the alien [gar] be before the Lord. ¹⁶ There is to be one law and one ordinance for you and for the alien [gar] who sojourns with you.”

Hence, if an Israelite judge were to show partiality to an Israelite and pervert the justice that was due to an alien, he must be called an unrighteous judge.

New Testament Justice

In the New Testament, James comments on the principle of justice, telling us in James 2:1-4, 9,

¹ My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. ² For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, ³ and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” ⁴ have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? … ⁹ But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

James focuses on justice between the rich and the poor, who are to be treated impartially. I have seen cases today where ushers are instructed to seat poorly-dressed people in the upper balconies where they are hidden from the video broadcasts. This is done to project an image of prosperity and success, but it is blatant violation of biblical justice. In such cases, those preachers openly reject even the words of James and will receive their reward accordingly.

Paul, too, comments on the law of impartiality in Ephesians 2:13-16,

¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, ¹⁵ … so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.

The ”dividing wall” was erected in the outer court of the temple in Jerusalem, although there is no Scripture that supports such a barrier. Non-Jews and women were forbidden on pain of death from crossing that barrier, thus establishing partiality into the very worship of the temple. This violation of the law was corrected by Christ Himself who “broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.” For this reason, Paul could write in Galatians 3:28, 29,

²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

Paul recognized racial and gender distinctions, of course, but he was telling us that everyone has equal access to God. There is no “dividing wall” in Christ’s Kingdom which tells women and gentiles that they must remain “far off” in their approach to God. They are all one body, and all are subject to “one law and one ordinance” (Numbers 15:16), applied equally and impartially according to the law of impartial justice.

Though many in the church today have reconstructed this dividing wall by claiming that Jews are “chosen” by virtue of their race and are therefore given special privileges that others are not given, the day will come when Christ again must destroy this dividing wall in the minds and hearts of the church. The Age to come will not be ruled by those who claim biological or racial descent from Abraham but by the saints of the Most High who share Abrahamic faith.

This is biblical justice.