On my daily commute, there is a stretch of road adjacent to a construction zone where the two lanes going each way have been limited to one in each direction. The people who travel this road daily know about this area; it’s been this way for 6 months or more already. This road has a half-mile straightaway leading up to the merge and morning traffic can back up and cover this straightaway. Every morning that the traffic backs up like this, there are drivers that will camp out in that dwindling lane as they drive through, blocking the idiot drivers’ attempts to jump to the front of the line. I’ve done this myself, and those who also do it are my heroes in the same way that soldiers are. They are the defenders of the masses. They have a thirst for justice that I also have: to see that the commuters waiting in this line of traffic aren’t ripped off by a few selfish (insert profane epithet here). We all long for justice and enjoy seeing justice prevail. It's just that we have different opinions on what justice is. Justice, it seems, is a matter of perspective.
Actually, what we want is selective justice. Justice--real justice--isn’t so pleasing. It applies to all of us equally. We rarely see pure justice. What we see is corrupted with leniency, favoritism, self-servitude and bias.
Our morals are generally inconsistent, too. Standards or opinions we don’t agree with are wrong. On one side, we say that homosexuality is immoral. On the other side, they are saying that intolerance and hatred are wrong. Some libertines would have us believe that morality is relative and that multiple, contradictory standards can coexist, but that makes no sense. Something deep inside each of us knows that there is an absolute standard out there somewhere, something that ties it all together and sweeps away the confusion and disarray. We just don’t know what that standard is. We don’t know, or we don’t want to know.
Some people would say that Christianity is one of these morally inconsistent viewpoints. We set up our rules that make us look good and others look bad. Our standards make sinners out of those we disagree with and saints out of those like us. This point of view is based in ignorance. The foundation upon which Christianity rests is the Bible--the Word of God. The Word of God is that Absolute Standard. It ties everything together and makes better sense of many things in this world that are puzzling. Our inability to maintain that standard or our unwillingness to acknowledge its authority does not change what it is. Also, read it cover to cover and you won't find the picture of justice as we would have it; it's not there. Instead you find God's justice, and God’s justice is perfect and is based on His holy, unwavering standard.
Yet we still want that relativistic justice, custom made to fit our particular weaknesses and strengths. The problem is that wavering mores and relativistic justice have no place in the economy of a God who is the same yesterday, today and forever. We are all guilty of failing to meet this holy, unwavering standard. Sooner or later, we will all stand before God’s throne. Before the bench of this Holy Judge, we will be without defense. The boldness with which we defend our warped views today will evaporate, for the Holy Judge will demand respect in his Court, and in His Court there is only one opinion. All of His attributes are flawless and He can exist perfect in every regard, without contradiction, without inconsistency. He holds us to the standard of His Word, and He maintains this standard, not lowering it at any point. Yet we are not without hope As God is perfect in His justice, He is also perfect in His love, and the part of God that is perfect in love is willing to pay debt of those who come to him in humility and repentance.
Those who have made their peace with God and have allowed Him to reform their lives find that they have had their thirst for justice refocused. They want to see God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven. They have read the end of the book and know that day is coming when all things will be made new, yet the longing remains in the here and now. We long for justice, not that we may see wrongdoers punished, but that we may see the will of our holy and righteous Judge done. We echo the words found in Amos 5:24:
...Let justice roll down like waters
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Looking to that day when justice prevails and to when peace--real peace--finally comes, we also echo the words of John the Apostle:
Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus
I long for that day. Sometimes my heart aches in anticipation. I know that God's patience will not endure forever. I know that the evildoers of this world are storing up wrath for that day. I know that righteousness will ultimately prevail. As I long for that day and acknowledge all of these things, I would also like to add the words of Captain Jean-Luc Picard:
Make it so.
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