Justice

Justice renders to each what is due to him. Scripture names it by the Hebrew word rendered “justice”, tsedaqah (צְדָקָה), which the Greek translates by dikaiosynē (δικαιοσύνη): a word that covers at once the uprightness of God, the right rendered to the neighbour, and the holiness of man before his Creator. For the justice of the Bible is wider than that of the courts: it is the conformity of all things to what God wills, and its road runs through the whole history of salvation, from the Judge of all the earth to Christ become our justice himself.

God is just

Justice is first an attribute of God. “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just; he is a faithful God and without iniquity; he is just and upright.” Deuteronomy 32:4. Abraham appeals to this justice when he intercedes for Sodom, and his very boldness is an act of faith: “Far be it from you to make the just die with the guilty! Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice?” Genesis 18:25. Man can plead before God because God is just: his justice is the ground that makes prayer possible. And this justice draws to itself those who practise it: “The Lord is just, he loves justice; the upright will behold his face.” Psalm 11:7.

The justice owed to the neighbour

The Law brings God’s justice down into the most concrete acts. It begins at the scales of the market: “You shall have just balances, just weights.” Leviticus 19:36, for “a false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.” Proverbs 11:1. It protects the wages of the labourer: “Each day you shall give him his wage, and let not the sun set on this debt; for he is poor, and his soul awaits it. Otherwise he would cry to the Lord against you, and you would be charged with a sin.” Deuteronomy 24:15. The withheld wage cries to God: injustice toward the poor is a matter between man and God, and not between man and man only. It bends over the defenceless: “Learn to do good; seek justice, set right the oppressor, do justice to the orphan, defend the widow.” Isaiah 1:17. The prophets demand it with force, above even the sacrifices: “Let judgment flow like water, and justice like a torrent that never runs dry!” Amos 5:24. And Micah sums it up in three words that hold the whole of life before God: “He has shown you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord asks of you: to practise justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8.

The just one

Scripture gives a name to the one who lives thus: the just. His way is known to God: “The Lord knows the way of the just, but the way of sinners leads to ruin.” Psalm 1:6. To know, in the language of Scripture, is an act of love: God watches over the path of the just, approves and keeps it; the way of sinners, for its part, runs to its loss with no one to hold it. And his life rests on his faith: “The just will live by his faith.” Habakkuk 2:4. The prophet speaks amid the invasion that sweeps all away: when everything collapses, the just passes through by leaning on God, and his life rests on this faithfulness to the faithful God. The New Testament will take up this word three times to found justification: the life of grace comes through faith. The Gospel shows its face in Joseph: “Joseph, her husband, who was a just man, and who did not want to disgrace her, resolved to send her away secretly.” Matthew 1:19. His justice is not separated from his goodness: before what he does not yet understand, he chooses the way that protects Mary. The just one of Scripture renders to each his due, and his due toward persons includes honour and gentleness.

The justice that surpasses

Christ brings justice to its fullness. He proclaims it a hunger of the soul: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied!” Matthew 5:6. He warns that it must go beyond outward observance: “If your justice does not surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20. All that follows in the Sermon shows this surpassing: the Law forbade murder, Christ goes as far as anger; it forbade adultery, he goes as far as the look. The justice he asks descends from the deed to the heart, where God sees. And he blesses those who pay for it with their person: “Blessed are those who suffer persecution for justice, for the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!” Matthew 5:10.

Justified freely: Christ our justice

Before this justice, Scripture states the condition of all: “All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God; and they are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:23-24. The justice man could not reach is given to him: Christ “was made for us wisdom, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption” 1 Corinthians 1:30. And this justification makes man really just, it transforms him within: “Just as by the disobedience of one man all were constituted sinners, so by the obedience of one all will be constituted just.” Romans 5:19. Constituted just: grace remakes man just in his being, as the disobedience of Adam had really made sinners. This received justice is living and acts: “Man is justified by works, and not by faith alone.” James 2:24. The faith that justifies is a faith that works; the works are the fruit of the grace received, and this fruit is due.

Justice and mercy embrace

The cross holds together what man separates. There God manifests his justice “so as to be recognised as just and justifying the one who believes in Jesus Christ.” Romans 3:26. Just and justifying: he does not close his eyes to sin, he bears and expiates it in his Son; and he does not condemn the sinner, he makes him just. Justice is satisfied and mercy deployed, in the same act. The psalm had sung it in advance: “Kindness and truth shall meet, justice and peace shall embrace.” Psalm 85:11.

The crown of justice

Justice will have the last word. God “will render to each according to his works” Romans 2:6: the final judgment is the act where all justice is completed, where nothing of what is due remains owing. For the faithful, that day bears a name of reward: “There remains for me only to receive the crown of justice, which the Lord, the just Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who will have loved his coming.” 2 Timothy 4:8. And creation itself awaits this world set right: “We await, according to his promise, new heavens and a new earth, where justice dwells.” 2 Peter 3:13.