The Theme of Justice

The definition of justice in the Old Testament is vital to our understanding of justice today. Many theorists have placed the idea of inherent rights in the fourteenth century. If justice was not rooted in the Bible, then the fourteenth century definition (Wolterstorff, 2008) would be irrelevant to the contemporary Christian practice of justice. It would be based on the evolution of human thought instead of the basis of Christian faith, the Word of God.

In the Old Testament, justice was not an institution, it was a way of life (Wolterstorff, 2008, p.74). The institution came out of an understanding of inherent human rights. God loved the people of Israel, and all people, so he called them to practice justice. He held them accountable to just standards not for justices’ sake, but because of the worth that people had to God. Through the Old Testament especially, sacrifice for wrong doing is a central theme. Before God’s written law, the Patriarchs had to burn offerings to God for their repentance. Sacrifice, especially to God, would be completely unnecessary in a justice as right order context. The importance of practicing justice was made evident not only to Israel, but also to the surrounding nations. If God’s definition of justice lay in the institution of justice only, he would have no grounds for expecting the other nations to practice justice. How would the other nations know what justice really was if they didn’t have the Law of God? How did the Patriarchs know of justice or Joseph when he distributed grain for all of Egypt and the surrounding people (Genesis 41 & 47)? There was no Law at that time, but people knew because God created everyone with a sense of what is right and wrong.

The entire basis of what is right and wrong is dependent on worth. Since God has infinite worth, we ultimately deprive him of the rights in which he is due( Wolterstorff, 2008, p. 81). He created humans in his image and to deprive them of inherent rights is stripping them of worth. This is not only an act of injustice against the other person, but an injustice against God for defacing his image. This idea is fleshed out in the New Testament.

Jesus is God bringing justice to earth. It is God’s love that motivates justice. Because of God’s love for the world, he brought forgiveness, but also justice. For forgiveness to take place, the victim and perpetrator must recognize the inherent rights that God has as a perfect being and the value that he gave to humans by creating them in his image. Forgiveness cannot be separate from justice (Wolterstorff, 2008, p. 101). Jesus proved that justice was inherent and not defined by social order when he defied the social order of the day by reaching out to the diseased, afflicted, and oppressed. The forgiveness of sins by Jesus’ death on the cross is the central point of the New Testament. Since there cannot be forgiveness without the concept of justice, the entire theme of the New Testament is love and justice. The writers of the gospels showed Jesus’ love for those he came in contact with (2008, p. 117). His public interaction showed that he cared about the equality of people and highlighted the injustices that were being done to them so often. Not only was he there to lift up those who were oppressed, he came to show the backwardness of those who oppressed.

In the Old Testament, God is constantly reminding the Israelites of the bondage he brought them out of in Egypt. In the same way, we can look to Jesus as a constant reminder of the freedom from sin that we have been brought out of. We can also look back to the Old and New Testaments and see the value that God sees in every individual, whether they were called his people or not. The freedom that Christ brought on the cross and the example of love and justice that he showed during his life and death are the basis for all actions that we take as Christians. The idea of the inherent worth of humans, and the treatment of them that follows, is not an idea that originated a thousand years after Christ’s death, but is an idea that is foundational to the writings of the Old and New Testaments. Not only is it conceptual, but practical as well. God called the Israelites and the surrounding people groups to act justly in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, he lovingly gave himself as an example of the practices of justice and forgiveness. As we seek justice, we see Jesus as the perfect example of defending the poor and oppressed, and turning the idea of justice as social order upside-down.

Wolterstorff, N. (2008). Justice: Rights and Wrongs. Princeton: Princeton University Press.