What is… Justice?

“That is just not fair”. This is a statement that sometimes is spoken, sometimes shouts and rings across lounge rooms, kitchens and bedrooms in houses all over the world. It was a common phrase used by my children as they were growing up and it was a phrase used by me to my parents. Of course, it is not just a phrase used within our homes, but it is our cry whenever we see things we believe that are wrong, unfair and unjust. It is the cry of the protestor; it is the statement of those who judge, and it is the groan of the oppressed. The sense of justice and fairness is core consideration of our humanity.

Justice relates to fair behaviour or treatment. At its core it is about what we believe people deserve. It is here that the challenges arise, because we can all have a slightly different view or standard of what is fair. This is becoming more and more evident as we now live in a dominant western culture that emphasises self-actualisation and expressive individualism. The expression and articulation of justice is more and more through the lens of individual understandings and beliefs, rather than communal ones. Justice becomes about what ‘I’ think it is. Justice becomes disconnected from truth and what it right. The calls for justice then become as we see in culture, angrier and angrier. The Prophet Amos describes this reality in chapter 5 verse 7 where he says, "There are those who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground."

Real justice requires a standard outside of what is right and just. In our culture that is often the rule of law. Though we know through history there have been plenty of unjust laws; so, we need something even bigger. Here at Green Point Christian College the bigger thing is the Sovereign God and Creator of the universe. In Amos chapter 7, Amos describes the Sovereign Lord standing by a wall with a plumb line, then the Lord said "Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel." This passage is making the statement that God is the external standard, God is righteous and therefore can arbitrate true justice.

God’s righteousness was most fully displayed in His son Jesus. Jesus expressed this righteousness most fully when He went to the cross to take the consequence we deserved, on Himself. Through this most costly gift of grace and mercy, Jesus meets the plumb line of God’s justice on our behalf. He also opens the way for us to participate in His righteousness and justice.

One of the things we learn about all this from Jesus, is that righteousness is relational, it is ‘right with goodness.’ It is about moving beyond what is fair, or right, to what can heal and what can restore. Justice is about the heart’s cry for restoration. Jesus lived this way and calls those that follow Him to also live that way.

Here at Green Point Christian College we will seek to give our students a picture of justice that goes beyond what is fair. Rather, I hope we will encourage them to push past toward restoration, healing and wholeness that is found in the grace and mercy of God. That is where real Justice is found.