True Justice

What is Justice?

Deuteronomy 32:4 says, “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.”

Noah Webster’s ‘American Dictionary of the English Language,’ published in 1828, defines justice in part as: ‘The virtue which consists in giving to everyone what is his due.” Webster continues, “Distribution of justice belongs to magistrates or rulers, and consists in distributing to every man that right or equity which the laws and the principles of equity require.”

Our culture’s definition of justice has changed since Webster’s perfectly sound definition. Regardless of what the world says, true justice has its foundations in God and His Truth, found in the Bible.

If God is our basis for right and wrong, our moral standard – we will be able to strive toward living just lives. Micah 6:8 says, “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?”

No human can truly be just, but Christ can. Even though humans fail, God and His word never do.

The American Justice System

The Bill of Rights states “…the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed…”

Our government was designed to serve justice. That is the government’s purpose – to uphold the law and dictate justice. This doesn’t always work, but we must remember this is how it was designed to work.

The founding fathers didn’t design American government like this because they thought it a good idea. They designed it this way because they understood the importance of having God as our foundation. If this system is going to work, we need God to control it.

What Does This Look Like?

The many parts of the U.S. justice system are designed to work together and “award those who do good and punish those who do bad.” 

Often, when we think of justice in America, we think of the judiciary branch, but there is more to it.

Justice begins with self-government. If we have self-control and act justly, we can govern ourselves in accordance with how God calls us to live.

Family government involves active parents who show their children how they should behave in a just, civil society. When children understand this and practice it over and over again, they will be able to live just lives before God. Family-government’s job is to teach children how to effectively self-govern.

Church government involves God’s people shining His light on others in the world, giving them the hope of Christ so they may live just lives too. Countries fall apart when their citizens aren’t taught how to live Godly lives.

When self, family, and church government fail, we have the police to keep those who don’t govern themselves properly in check.

State and local courts serve justice to states and cities, helping keep order. The Supreme Court helps settle cases appealed by lower courts.

An Issue

Unfortunately, lies often get in the way of these steps of self-governance all the way up to the Supreme Court. If there’s no moral grounding for governance based on God, truth is impossible to define. Some people don’t care about the truth, others just want to be done with jury duty, and others have personal assumptions.

The 1957 film ’12 Angry Men” demonstrates this point. As the jurors seek to determine if the accused is guilty, juror number eight reflects on justice, “It’s always difficult to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. And wherever you run into it, prejudice always obscures the truth. I don’t really know what the truth is. I don’t suppose anybody will ever really know.”

What Can We Do?

Every day we have a choice. We can either choose to seek the truth and strive to be more like Christ, or we can be like “dumb, driven cattle” and refuse to seek truth or self-govern. When we live like Christ our country will succeed. Without a biblical worldview, things fall into chaos.

Justice depends on us taking care to follow God and live lives that reflect our belief in Him. God calls us to be a voice of truth.