JUSTICE is at the heart of America’s founding and what it stands for. From our beginning lives have been stressed, given, and taken, in the effort to secure JUSTICE. It’s a huge topic involving a cross-section of Religion, Ethics, Philosophy, & Law. And there are several subsets of the application of Justice, the most common of which are:
Distributive Justice—Fairness in Economics
Procedural Justice—Fairness in Process
Restorative Justice—Fairness in Restitution
JUSTICE is at the heart of America’s founding and what it stands for. From our beginning lives have been stressed, given, and taken, in the effort to secure JUSTICE. It’s a huge topic involving a cross-section of Religion, Ethics, Philosophy, & Law. And there are several subsets of the application of Justice, the most common of which are:
- Distributive Justice—Fairness in Economics
- Procedural Justice—Fairness in Process
- Restorative Justice—Fairness in Restitution
- Retributive Justice—Fairness in Punishment
Since the murder of George Floyd, and all the protests, violence, and destruction that followed in response, we have heard endless commentary and accusation in an effort to explain what Justice is, and who’s at fault when it fails. But GOD has expressed an underlying context in which JUSTICE, in all it’s forms and applications, must be understood for it to be the blessing to society He has intended for us. Here is His commentary on JUSTICE, why it fails, and how it’s restored…
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Is. 59:1 BEHOLD, THE Lord’s hand is not shortened at all, that it cannot save, nor His ear dull with deafness, that it cannot hear.
Is. 59:2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.
Is. 59:3 For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness.
Is. 59:4 None sues or calls in righteousness [but for the sake of doing injury to others—to take some undue advantage]; no one goes to law honestly and pleads [his case] in truth; they trust in emptiness, worthlessness and futility, and speaking lies! They conceive mischief and bring forth evil!
Is. 59:5 They hatch adders’ eggs and weave the spider’s web; he who eats of their eggs dies, and [from an egg] which is crushed a viper breaks out [for their nature is ruinous, deadly, evil].
Is. 59:6 Their webs will not serve as clothing, nor will they cover themselves with what they make; their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
Is. 59:7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their paths and highways.
Is. 59:8 The way of peace they know not, and there is no justice or right in their goings. They have made them into crooked paths; whoever goes in them does not know peace.
Is. 59:9 Therefore are justice and right far from us, and righteousness and salvation do not overtake us. We expectantly wait for light, but [only] see darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity and gloom.
Is. 59:10 We grope for the wall like the blind, yes, we grope like those who have no eyes. We stumble at noonday as in the twilight; in dark places and among those who are full of life and vigor, we are as dead men.
Is. 59:11 We all groan and growl like bears and moan plaintively like doves. We look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.
Is. 59:12 For our transgressions are multiplied before You [O Lord], and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know and recognize them [as]:
Is. 59:13 Rebelling against and denying the Lord, turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving in and muttering and moaning from the heart words of falsehood.
Is. 59:14 Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God) stands far off; because TRUTH HAS FALLEN IN THE STREET, and uprightness cannot enter [the courts of justice].
Is. 59:15 Yes, truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. And the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice.
Is. 59:16 And He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor [no one to intervene on behalf of truth and right]; therefore His own arm brought Him victory, and His own righteousness [having the Spirit without measure] sustained Him.
Is. 59:17 For [the Lord] put on righteousness as a breastplate or coat of mail, and salvation as a helmet upon His head; He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal [and furious divine jealousy] as a cloak.
Is. 59:18 According as their deeds deserve, so will He repay wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; on the foreign islands and coastlands He will make compensation.
Is. 59:19 So [as the result of the Messiah’s intervention] they shall [reverently] fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him and put him to flight [for He will come like a rushing stream which the breath of the Lord drives].
Is. 59:20 He shall come as a Redeemer to Zion and to those in Jacob (Israel) who turn from transgression, says the Lord.
Is. 59:21 As for Me, this is My covenant or league with them, says the Lord: My Spirit, Who is upon you [and Who writes the law of God inwardly on the heart], and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouths of your [true, spiritual] children, or out of the mouths of your children’s children, says the Lord, from henceforth and forever.
The 2 Great Principles Of JUSTICE…
#1 No GOD, No JUSTICE, No Peace!
GOD’s message concerning the breakdown of JUSTICE begins and ends with our relationship to Him!
GOD’s statement opens with the bold declaration that He is Willing and Able to hear society’s cries and deliver us from injustice. BUT society’s own sins of hypocrisy and injustice have brought a separation between GOD and them.
It’s always GOD who’s the first to be grieved at INJUSTICE…
And the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was NO JUSTICE.
And GOD’s statement closes with the covenant promise that Jesus the Messiah will intervene and become The Standard against Satan’s floods of injustice.
When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him and…He shall come as a Redeemer to Zion and to those…who turn from transgression, says the Lord.
In summary: The foundation of JUSTICE is laid on the MESSIANIC PROMISE.
Injustice immediately appeared at man’s Fall when Cain slew Able. But GOD promised that the Blood of Jesus would bring a Better JUSTICE, sown with Mercy and Restoration.
When JUSTICE is removed from its foundation in GOD it becomes a corrupted form of Partial Justice, and becomes a tool of whoever holds the power. The History of Injustice is the history of Human Justice.
When dealing with Israel over their treason against Him and their resulting practices of INJUSTICE, this was GOD’s command to them:
Hos. 12:6 But you must RETURN to your God, by maintaining love and justice, and by waiting for your God to return to you.
Mic. 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God.
#2 Justice Is The Fruit Of Sowing
Is. 59:14 JUSTICE is turned away backward, and righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God) stands far off; because TRUTH HAS FALLEN IN THE STREET, and uprightness cannot enter [the courts of justice].
JUSTICE cannot survive on Hypocrisy!
Truth Falls in the street of a society whose people demand a JUSTICE they don’t practice towards others. When Society allows The Street to be ruled by people (whether citizens or police) that demand JUSTICE while violating the rights of others, then Truth Falls, Hypocrisy reigns, and JUSTICE loses. The message to Society is simple: There can be no JUSTICE among people who do not Practice JUSTICE! Sowing INJUSTICE will only produce more INJUSTICE.
So what do I do with my ANGER toward INJUSTICE?
Eph. 4:26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on the cause of your anger.
When Jesus overthrew the Money-Changers’ tables He wasn’t attacking the idea of commerce or prosperity in “The Street” of Society. He was attacking the sin in His Own House! If we’d practice Righteous Indignation with ourselves (in our own house) we’d be less likely to act UNJUSTLY toward others when we pursue social JUSTICE. Anger can only become Righteous Indignation when it’s surrendered to GOD in Repentance and pleads for MERCY instead of Judgment.
Hos. 10:12 Sow to YOURSELVES in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
Altar Call —
This is a Moment of Great Opportunity for a Jesus Revival!!
If people can pivot away from finding fault in others and turn to realizing their own need for GOD’s Love.
If they can turn from rage and accusation to plea for GOD's Mercy to be sown in their hearts.
If we could see The Truth of our Need for GOD honored in our Streets.
We could have the greatest Jesus Revival and JUSTICE Renewal America has ever experienced.
