The Gospel of Jesus, The Good News of Justice

In this article, I will concentrate our focus on the theme of justice, hopefully, in a properly intense, concise and practical way. My hope is to educate historically, elucidate theologically and exhort practically to a life with power personally and purpose publicly.

I want to encourage you to read carefully and prayerfully with a desire to learn and be inspired to submit to God and serve Him gladly for the benefit of His glory and the good of others.

In previous submissions, we have expounded on the gospel of Jesus as the gospel of salvation. It is that we are justified by grace through faith. When one places their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the one and only sacrifice for our sins, He then cleanses, redeems and justifies us as a new creation. Old things are gone! But life does not end there or else He would have no need of us here on earth. This salvation is just the beginning of a new life in Christ that provides new values, new priorities, new ways and new results. Salvation is not an upgraded version of you or an improved you! It is a complete transformation starting from the inside and working its way outward as the new creation. It is not a partial work but a complete work that then becomes evident over time. If there is no evidence, then there must be questions and investigation to see what really transpired in the heart of hearts.

The gospel of Jesus takes us somewhere not for salvation but because of salvation. Now some immediately agree and begin to think, yes, it takes us to heaven some day. But this is shallow and selfish thinking! Heaven, while wonderful, is not the aim of God for you. The blessing of salvation is not a place but a person. The ultimate aim of God for the believer is that they come to experience the life of Christ and the Kingdom that He so emphasized in His earthly ministry and teaching while still today expanding on this revelation of His Kingdom.

Now there is a great misunderstanding about the Kingdom in the church today because of a great misunderstanding of it down through the centuries. We have come think of the Kingdom as a place somewhere far away that we arrive at some day in the future. Yet, the Kingdom is a new order established by Christ through His death and resurrection two thousand years ago. The disconnect from this reality has rendered the church ineffective at doing fully what Christ has commanded us to do in seeing that His Kingdom (a new world order) realized not only spiritually but tangibly.  Now don’t be intimidated by the term ‘New World Order’! Though this phrase has been hijacked by other groups, particularly in the political realm, it is quite OK to understand that Jesus has established a new order according to His own will not the will of man. The question for us as Christians, is what does this look like and how does it practically come into being?

We should turn our attention to two passages of Scripture as a foundation for us. The first one is found in Matthew 4:17 where it says,

“From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

Jesus had just been baptized, tempted and tested in the wilderness and now begins to preach the nearness of the Kingdom of God. He then begins to show us the life and activity of the kingdom. Then, we notice another passage that brings things into greater clarity. In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus says,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

These verses clearly indicate to us that Jesus saw that His life purpose and the reality of theKingdom would have a tangible presence in the earth and a tangible product on the earth. Jesus was about bringing JUSTICE to the earth through His life, death and resurrection. And He would commission those justified by His blood to do the same. WE WHO FOLLOW HIM ARE TO BE MINISTERS OF JUSTIFICATION AND JUSTICE!

So let’s deal with the issue of JUSTICE as the ministry of the saints in God.

The Bible is full of Scriptures related to ministering justice to the human race. Listen to just a few of them.

“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.” (Isaiah 1:17)

“Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.” (Jeremiah 22:3)

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

“Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31:8-9)

“Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.” (Psalms 82:3)

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27)

“Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” (Matthew 19:21)

 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:41-46)

If justice is something that the Scriptures intend for us to be involved in, then why is it that so many Christians and churches separate social, economic, cultural or any other form of justice from the gospel of Jesus Christ? Many even accuse those engaged in social justice as liberal compromisers of the truth. Keep in mind that my emphasis is on practical justice as an expression of the gospel, not a social gospel. In other words, just doing good does not save you, but those that are saved are called to DO GOOD unto all those who are suffering injustice. Ephesians 2:8-10 says,

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Clearly we are saved by grace through faith - but unto good works!

So how did social and cultural change get disconnected from the work of the church and the responsibility of the believer? We have to go back into history to understand worldview and the philosophies of the world that brought us to where we are today.

The Radical Rise of Dualism in History

The Epicurean Philosophy: The Philosophical Origin of Dualism

A third century BC philosopher named Epicurus and his first century AD follower Lucretius proposed a stream of thought in reaction to the pagan world. The pagan world said that there are gods everywhere and in all things. Yet, Epicurus and Lucretius proposed that there are no gods and even if there were, they are far away and have no role in the condition and direction of the world. Therefore, man himself is responsible for making the world what it is and what it should be. Thomas Jefferson picked up this philosophy as a deist and self-proclaimed Epicurean in order to say that religion has no role in the corporate affairs of man but must be confined to the houses of worship and no more. This philosophy has shaped the world more than we would like to think and has actually crept into the church in volumes more than we would like to admit!

Epicureanism basically says that the world is distanced from God if there is such a deity. Of course, this then leaves a vacuum and when there is a vacuum, other gods, philosophies or powers will fill that vacuum. Though the world prides itself on secularism (a product of epicureanism), there really is no such thing because everyone worships (prioritizes and gives worth or value to) something.

The Church has become guilty of the same thing: adopting dualism by separating God from the earth and confining Him to a distant place called heaven. We have also been guilty of seeing heaven and earth as two separate places, one bad and one good. We have convinced people that they will leave the bad place – earth, and go to the good place, heaven. This philosophy is rooted not in Scripture but in Epicureanism. This philosophy creeping into the church has caused us to separate ourselves so much from the earth that it literally separates us from the issues of the earth. While Christians historically have done good things and accomplished much, mainstream contemporary Christianity tends to care less for the earth because there is a better thing coming. But we need to return to Scripture and get a fresh understanding of the teachings of Jesus and Paul. The emphasis is not about heaven but about a new creation that consists of heaven and earth coming together in fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer (the Lord’s Prayer) and accomplished through the crucifixion. When this is properly understood, then we will have a new mind toward justice in the earth. The justice of God is a product of the new creation.

Epicureanism continued to pick up steam as history entered …

The Enlightenment Period: The Practical Ontology of Dualism

The main point of the enlightenment period (1600-1800) was:

“No religion should ever be involved with anything other than its own place of worship, where worshippers can believe and practice anything they deem fit, far away from enlightened, logical, reasonable people.”

Where did this idea come from? Both Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes (philosophers of the enlightenment) trusted in reason to be the arbiter of truth. Bacon used reason to take him from observation of particular phenomenon to universal principles, and Descartes saw the human mind as the final authority in understanding reality. Although they approached it from different angles, both trusted reason rather than faith and tradition to lead to the truth.

Because of their influence, by the middle of the 17th century, science was becoming the only lens by which reality was viewed.  The mysteries of nature that had previously been attributed to the direct intervention of God came to be explained as natural phenomenon and a division developed between science and religion. God was understood to be the creator, but was no longer thought to be necessary for day-to-day management of the material world because the world was obedient to Natural Law. Similar to the division between God and His Creation, was a widening gap between God and human reason; reason was understood to be autonomous.

Another philosophical thinker of this time was Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).  Kant saw the movement from reliance on God toward a reliance on reason as typical to the movement from childhood to adulthood. This idea was foundational to the period we call the Enlightenment. The light of the Enlightenment was the realization that it was neither God nor the church that would lead to a better world, but human Reason. The light, in Enlightenment, is Reason. This view is the essence of the modern worldview, and is still with us today.

Now that we have taken a peek into history, we must now understand …

The Radical Results of Dualism on the World

The Removal of God from the Affairs of Men

Nature abhors a vacuum and so does philosophy and worldview. When a vacuum is created due to the removal of God, other gods will quickly fill the void. In reaction to religion and spirituality, a space was created by dualism for gods to mask themselves and reappear as a different sort. For example, in the ancient world, they believed in gods like …

Mars, the God of War or Power (Nietschke)

Control is a force that compels one human to hold another in its clutches. Whether through politics, relational manipulation or slavery, control is the driving force behind wars and struggles over land, resources, and special interests at the expense of people’s ability to self-govern even if that government is different than the controlling power. Even in the area of policing the world, the human condition often causes us to drift from justice to personal gain. As righteous as we may think we are as sensible humans, there is always the possibility that justice is not served in our attempt to be just.

Power (the god of war in demonic form) tends to be a force that interferes with our ability to discern the one true God in performing His will in the lives of people. Why? It is because our human motivations are conflicted by the selfish and sinful conditions of the heart.

Unfortunately, the evangelical world has been equally infected by the god of power that disables the church to walk in unity with one another, with other churches and with justice loving people. This dilemma has rendered us ineffective at changing the world as God would have it changed. Then there is …

Mammon, the God of Money or Prosperity (Marx)

Money is a driving force for our society and is a power for the destruction of lives as much as it can be a tool for good. When God has been discounted from human life, the role of money takes a higher place in our lives and we become fully incapable of using resources for the glory of God and the good of man.

If we do not think that we ourselves have been influenced by mammon, then we need a wake up call. The generosity principle is often defied by our own self-preservation focus and our failure to serve our fellow man in our community. This has even caused the church to become irrelevant because of a focus on mammon. The god of mammon has held us hostage to our own desires over the call to meet the needs of others.

The evangelical church has been greatly damaged by mammon through the prosperity gospel with the plea for money raining down from the pulpits of the western world while the poverty rolls increase and third world citizens starve to death.

Then there is …

Aphrodite, the Goddess of Erotic Love or Sexual Lust (Freud)

Epicureanism, in its pursuit of separating morality from divinity, leaves the human condition to regulate its own life. This gives way to the gods of immorality to persist in free sexual pursuits. Free love and the drive from within the nature of humanity becomes the evidence of a godlike force as the priority in the lives of men.

Again, in an attempt to remove all spirituality and rely solely on reason, it opened the door for the disguised gods of a pagan world. In an attempt to do away with the true God as well as all other false gods such as Mars, Mammon and Aphrodite, the human race, by embracing Epicureanism, simply experienced the impositional gods of the ancient world in sophisticated form, while the God of grace and mercy remains a God involved but invitational nonetheless.

This brings us to the state of humanity. As this philosophy took root in the hearts of men, we see …

The Rule of Man Apart from the Authority of God

Man has chosen to rule himself. The philosophy of this world intends to persuade men to create the world from within its own boundaries without consideration of God. This is the problem with dualism. But it is not the design of God nor is it the will of God!

Dualism and self-existent thinking is the product of sin. As we well know, sin separates but Jesus unites! The purpose of Christ is to do what man could not do for himself. He came to reconnect what was divided in the Garden of Eden. He came to restore, reconnect, rejoin man to proper relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and establish a new order of union between the Father and His children.

Man is incapable of ruling his own affairs. Our God is Sovereign and will continue to reveal Himself in and through those who have been justified by grace through faith to a relationship that has eternal value and consequence. But the church must wake up to this reality of being AT ONE WITH GOD or atoned for through the blood. There is however a problem with the church our day. We must recognize …

The Radical Repercussions of Dualism on the Church

There is an attempt to have Jesus without justice! Yet, the life of Jesus was all about justice. So to have Jesus, the life results would be to minister justice under the unction and direction of the Holy Spirit. How can you have … redemption without restoration (a type of faith but void of fruit) or religion without results (a form of godliness but denying the power).

One thing the church has been guilty of is living in the future without loving in the present. There is a theological framework that has been developed from a worldly philosophy. It has led us into the clutches of the enemy that operate a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy. The enemy’s plan has been to isolate us from truth and push us to aim for another world than the one that God will make new - an attempt to have heaven without earth! It is because we have not understood the Scriptures as we ought. We have failed to understand …

The Concept of New Creation

New creation is the product of salvation in Christ Jesus. Salvation is a package of justification, sanctification, and glorification. As this gospel of salvation works out in our lives, it leads us to the ministry of reconciliation.

Reconciliation begins first when one is personally reconciled to God through Christ and then is led to reconciling the world to Christ. Reconciliation is not just a spiritual act or condition but rather it is a physical reconciling of others first to Christ and then with all of creation through an aim to eliminate the effects of sin such as poverty, hunger and homelessness. It is living out as new creatures in the new creation by bringing forth a new world order under the lordship of Christ. We have also failed to understand …

The Concept of New Culture

The justice of God is a cultural issue. It is manifested in the expression of meeting the real needs of people. The justice of God is that His people live out the faithfulness of God in all the earth. By this I mean that we are a physical expression in the way in which we express righteousness or the faithfulness of God.

The justice of God is the ministry of reconciliation physically, emotionally and spiritually. The justice of God is a byproduct of justification in Christ. The justice of God is a product that comes forth from those who live by the faith of the Son of God. The justice of God is the remission of sins, mercy extended, grace functioning and righteousness prevailing. The justice of God is that the poor are ministered to, the hungry are fed, the homeless have shelter, the prisoners are released and God is glorified.

In conclusion, First Corinthians 13 is a passage about love but why does Paul suddenly change course in the middle of the chapter and begin to compare what we are now versus what we shall become? The point that Paul is making is that in the new creation love will be the common denominator and the eternal condition of our lives. However it is in the now that we get to practice this love in preparation for the new creation and in so doing we are proving ourselves to be new creations! Therefore the passage is not about love in a simplistic manner but rather love as an eternal reality and this reality begins at the point of salvation indicating that eternity has begun. The question is how then do we practice this spiritual love in the here and now? It is by ministering reconciliation and loving those around us who are in great need. This is the justice of God personified!

Let us deny the philosophy of this world that says our God, if real, is distant from the affairs of the earth and only deals in vague unrealities. Let us, as the church, recognize how infected we have become even in our contemporary theologies by these philosophies that have separated us from the true call of God upon our lives.

The book of Colossians is about Thanksgiving and thanks living! The ministry of justice comes out of our thanksgiving to God for how He has blessed us with Christ Jesus and therefore an expression of thanks living by giving ourselves into the lives of those who are in need of reconciliation.