And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother. ’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing:go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Mark 10:17-22
We find it strange that a man could stand before Jesus and tell him that he had kept the entire law. But we could do the same. It is completely possible for someone to stand before a judge and say they have committed no crime. The Old Testament Law did not demand perfection, in fact it assumed imperfection Matthew 19:8. People sin, but there was a remedy, you pay a penalty, or give your life, or offer a sacrifice, or move to a city of refuge. This is justice.
Allegory of Wisdom and Justice. Herman Kaulbach. 1888. Oil on Canvas.
Today no one knows what justice is. There is a term ‘social justice’ going around that sounds very good, but it is not justice, it’s really just marxism. In addition we have convinced ourselves that because vengance belongs to God, that justice does too. We think that exercising justice is somehow mean and unloving. Our eschatology has us convinced that things will only get worse and we shouldn’t expect the world to live up to any standard, so we almost glory in the lack of justice. In short, we have a big, mess starting with the unbiblical Church.
Like most of our problems these days, this one is self inflicted. Christianity developed a very complex understanding of justice and how to apply it, but we just threw it out. As C. S. Lewis said, if you are going the wrong way then the first steps of progress are to regress. The solution is to go back and pick up where they went wrong.
Of course the church should be an instrument of justice. From Matthew 18 we learn that the recourse of the church is excommunication. It is a type of death, for what part of the body can live without the body? This is Church Justice, which should be carefully deliberated. The procedure is laid out, and the goal is to gain a brother. The goal is to prevent sin. The decisions, the judgements, of the church aren’t just some game we play here until heaven. What is bound on earth is bound in heaven vs. 18:18. What we do here matters eternally.
And it is not just issues of blatant sin and excommunication that the Church is to deal with. Paul criticizes the people of Corinth for taking their cases before the civil magistrate. The Church has the wisdom of God and you are letting the world decide? I Corinthians 6. Ideally even if you have something against someone, just drop it, but we know that doesn’t always work. We are sinful, we get into disputes and they should be resolved before the church.
But there is more. In Romans 13 God tells us he appointed the civil magistrates to stem evil as well. The state is his minister for justice. Not because they are of the world but because they are a government appointed by God. It’s not some secular operation that Christians are not allowed to participate in. It is an institution like the familiy that God has set up for the good of humanity, even unsaved humanity, it is a blessing. We are part of the family of God does that mean we can’t have families on this earth? We have one foot in heaven and one in earth. And when Christians do participate in government all the better. If secular, idol-worshipping states do his will, how much more Christian states, or states made up of lots of Christians?
We have a silly idea that the world is just going to sin and our job is to just get people saved. It’s all or nothing.
Understand this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. –I Timothy 1:9-11
It is the, fool, the one who rejects god that must be governed by the law. The Christian, should govern himself. It is the world which is held in check by the government.
In the New Testament you have a new thing? We see the beginning of the Church. A small persecuted Church is different from a large group of Christians governing themselves, with no secular power. And given the mission of the Church to preach to all peoples, this was bound to happen. This was a good thing. And so Christians had to figure out how to run a state like Christians. The Gospel speaks to this, as it does all things and generations of Christians struggled to work it out. Of course it wasn’t perfect. But we in America stand on the shoulders of these great men who did figure out a lot of things, things we choose to forget. We chose to throw it away for silly ideas, which are clearly not working.