Justice and Righteousness

My heart has been so very heavy this week, and perhaps many of yours have been, as well.

This has been such a hard year, and just when it seemed things could not get worse, we find our nation at the brink of what seems almost a civil war.

I read an article this week about how much today looks like those dark days of 1968, when peaceful protests turned to riots, when an African-American man was brutally murdered by a white man, when people everywhere wondered what had happened to the peace and justice they remembered when they were growing up.

Maybe you’ve thought this week that this just isn’t the world you grew up in. Well, as one of my friends put it yesterday, it is not. The world of the past stayed silent for too long. Protests are a sign that silence is no longer an option.

Friends, let me clue you in on something. The world is broken, but it didn’t just GET broken. It was broken when I was a child. It was broken when you were a child. It was broken when your parents and grandparents were children. It has been broken since Adam and Eve.

And what we are seeing today — what we saw in 9 minutes of horrifying video from Minneapolis and in countless minutes of video from cities around the nation is both the result of its brokenness and evidence of its continuing brokenness.

What we saw in the video of a white Minneapolis police officer pressing his knee into the neck of a handcuffed and helpless George Floyd as the life slowly seeped from Floyd’s body was the same Satanic corruption of justice that led Cain to kill his brother Abel.

Cain felt injusticed when God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and had no regard for his own sacrifice, and so he sought his own retributive justice on his brother.

What we see in the looting and violence that have perverted the just cause of those protesting for truly equal rights under the law is the same Satanic perversion of righteousness that led David to take another man’s wife and then have that man murdered in battle.

Now understand me clearly: I am not equating the evil of George Floyd’s murder with the evil of looting, nor am I suggesting that the one excuses the other. And I am not painting any class or race of people with a broad brush.

I believe the vast majority of police officers are outraged at the actions of the four who were involved in the death of George Floyd. And I believe the vast majority of African-Americans are outraged at the looting, the violence, and the murders that threaten to drown out the important message of protests around this nation.

What I’m trying to point out here is that we who were made in the image of a just and righteous God were made to desire justice and righteousness, but our understanding of those two concepts has been perverted since the Fall in the Garden of Eden.

So let’s take a look at the biblical definitions of those terms as we work our way toward one of the Apostle Paul’s prayers for the church in Rome.

First, let’s tackle justice: Now, this isn’t a term that’s used in Paul’s letter to the Romans, but justice in a biblical sense is included in righteousness, and righteousness is the main theme of that letter.

So the Greek word for justice is dikaios, and in a narrow sense, it means rendering to each his due, or passing just judgment on others, either in words or in your manner of dealing with them.

So it seems obvious to me that justice was not done in the case of George Floyd, whether he passed a counterfeit $20 bill or not.

And in the broader sense that we would think of justice, the idea of fair play, it seems wholly unlikely that a white man in similar circumstances would have been treated with such callous and inhumane regard for his life.

So, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, that’s what all those protesters are so upset about.

The very men who were sworn to pursue and uphold justice for George Floyd were the ones who denied him that basic human right.

Now, let’s look at righteousness. As I mentioned, righteousness is one of the overarching themes of the Book of Romans.

But it’s important to note that this is the righteousness of God, and we must note that because our own understanding of righteousness suffers from the brokenness of sin.

One Greek lexicon defines biblical righteousness as “the quality, state, or practice of judicial responsibility with a focus on fairness.”

We like to think of righteousness as holy living, as moral uprightness, and the concept should, indeed, include those things, but they are not the end of the matter from God’s perspective.

A few minutes ago, I alluded to the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968.

One of Dr. King’s most famous speeches turned on these dual concepts of justice and righteousness, and he famously quoted from the Book of Amos. I want to read a few passages, including the one you will all recognize, to give you a picture of justice and righteousness from God’s point of view.

Amos wrote to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, warning them to:

Amos 5:6–7 NASB95

“Seek the Lord that you may live, Or He will break forth like a fire, O house of Joseph, And it will consume with none to quench it for Bethel, For those who turn justice into wormwood And cast righteousness down to the earth.”

The prophet described the sins of that nation, saying:

Amos 5:10–12 NASB95

They hate him who reproves in the gate, And they abhor him who speaks with integrity. Therefore because you impose heavy rent on the poor And exact a tribute of grain from them, Though you have built houses of well-hewn stone, Yet you will not live in them; You have planted pleasant vineyards, yet you will not drink their wine. For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are great, You who distress the righteous and accept bribes And turn aside the poor in the gate.

You see, these people honored God with their lips, but their hearts were turned from Him. Like so many people who call themselves Christians today, they occasionally made a show of religion, but their religion did not show in their lives.

And God had something to say about that through the prophet Amos:

Amos 5:22–24 NASB95

“Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. “Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. “But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Now, if justice rolls down like waters, who escapes it? Who is exempt from it? Who is allowed to ignore it? Who is given a pass on acting with justice?

And if righteousness is like an ever-flowing stream, who benefits from it? Who is watered by it? Who grows because of it?

The people of Israel had been commanded to be just and righteous as representatives of Yahweh, the God who had called them out of their bondage in Egypt.

But in placing heavy burdens on the poor as they built their own houses of well-hewn stone, they had failed to do what they’d been called to do. In hating those who spoke with integrity, they had failed to do what they had been called to do.

In their unjust behavior, they revealed that they utterly lacked the perfect righteousness of God.

These people had a callous and inhumane disregard for life. They were lost in a sea of sexual immorality. They loved money more than they loved one another.

Does this sound familiar to you? It certainly should.

I want to be really careful here, because I don’t want to be misunderstood or misquoted.

If your reaction to the murder of George Floyd is to say something that starts with “Yes, but...” then you don’t have a godly understanding of justice or righteousness.

If you call those who would murder police officers in cold blood “thugs,” but you would not use that term for the man who knelt silently on the neck of George Floyd for nine minutes or for the other three who so passively watched as the life drained from Floyd’s body, then you don’t have a godly understanding of either justice or righteousness.

Christians are not called to a “Yes-but” concept of justice and righteousness.

Christians are called to a justice that covers everyone and a righteousness that benefits all, the righteousness of God.

And starting in Chapter 12 of his letter to the Roman church, the Apostle Paul describes how this righteousness should be demonstrated in the life of the church.

Paul starts this letter by telling his readers why they need God’s righteousness. He then describes how God imputes or attributes His righteousness to those who follow Jesus Christ in faith. Then, in chapters 6-8, Paul explains how God imparts or gives His justice to followers of Christ, and then he spends three chapters expounding on how all of this demonstrates God’s righteousness.

Finally, in chapters 12 through the first part of 15, he urges his readers to practice righteousness within the church and in the lost world around them.

We’ll pick up in verses 1 and 2 of chapter 12 and then move through some of the major points Paul makes before closing by looking at one of his prayers in chapter 15.

Romans 12:1–2 NASB95

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

These two verses serve as the topic sentence for this part of Paul’s letter.

The idea here is that we are called to separate ourselves from sin as a sacrifice to God because of the mercy He showed by saving us from the penalty we owe for our rebellion against Him.

Jesus Christ, God’s unique and eternal Son, paid the price for our sins at Calvary. He died, He rose again, and He ascended back into heaven so that those who believe in Him — those who put their faith in the saving power of His sacrifice rather than in their own righteousness — could have eternal life with Him in heaven.

And this plan of God’s to offer redemption to lost sinners through the blood of His own Son was an act of sheer grace and mercy toward those who had nothing they could offer Him to earn their salvation.

We bring just one thing to the table when it comes to our salvation: our desperate need for it.

And so, as we recognize the great mercy of God in His plan of salvation, Paul urges us then to make our bodies — our lives — a living sacrifice to God. He beseeches believers to be all in for their Savior.

And as we give our bodies and our lives for God’s use, we are also to give Him our minds. Instead of being squished into the world’s mold, we are to be transformed into people who pursue what is good, people who pursue what is pleasing to God, people who pursue the best things.

Now, Paul begins to unpack what that looks like in the church in the following verses, but I’m going to skip down to verse 9.

Romans 12:9–10 NASB95

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;

“Let love be without hypocrisy.”

The love here is agape love, that self-giving love that is closest to grace and which mirrors the love that God had for us, such that when we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Biblically speaking, hypocrisy is to appear before men as one ought to be but is not before God. The Greek word here had to do with an actor playing a role. So the idea is to love authentically and not just in outward appearance.

“To say that authentic love ‘has a horror of evil and clings to the good’ is to distinguish it from guilty kindnesses and consequently to define it as a divine love, very pure and spiritual.” [Ceslas Spicq and James D. Ernest, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), 413.]

And what you should note here is that the brotherly love Paul describes in verse 10 isn’t possible without first experiencing the agape love of verse 9.

We are to be devoted to one another as we would be devoted to our families, but we cannot have that kind of authentic devotion without being authentically devoted to God first.

Paul continues to make his case about demonstrating the righteousness of God in the church during the next few verses, but we see in verse 14-21 that this teaching applies to how we interact with the world at large, too.

Look at verse 14 and 15.

Romans 12:14–15 NASB95

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

Verse 15 nearly shouts our calling as Christians during recent days: How can the world know the value we place on life if we do not mourn over death, especially an unjust death?

And as we see this kind of evil permeating the world around us, how are we to respond?

Verse 21:

Romans 12:21 NASB95

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

As we see our African-American neighbors mourning the lack of godly justice and righteousness in our world, let us find ways to demonstrate the goodness of our God to them. Let us find ways to shine the light of Jesus Christ into this darkness.

Let us find ways, as Paul says in verse 8 of the next chapter, to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

Jesus summed up the law in two commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.

And in chapter 13, verse 10, Paul simplifies that second commandment.

“Love does no wrong to a neighbor.”

This really isn’t complicated, folks.

Love your neighbor as yourself. Saved or lost. White or black. Native-born American or immigrant. Wealthy or poor. Educated or not.

If we have an authentic, self-giving love for our neighbors, then godly justice and righteousness will follow. It is when our love is inauthentic that we start up with all the “Yes, buts....”

Paul now moves in chapter 14 into a discussion about eating and drinking, and the thrust of his argument here is that believers shouldn’t be judging one another in regard to actions that have no moral significance.

The Jews and Gentiles of the church in Rome came from completely different backgrounds. The Jews were raised to understand that some kinds of meat were not to be eaten, but the Gentiles were never under those constraints.

Believers should not allow the unity of the church to be broken over such inconsequential matters.

Look at verse 17:

Romans 14:17 NASB95

for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

I think we can see a progression in what the Kingdom of God is about in this verse.

First, it’s about righteousness, the righteousness of God — needed by all mankind, imputed and then imparted by God to those who have followed Jesus Christ in faith and then demonstrated on earth by those same people.

The righteousness of God brings peace, and not the kind of peace we might remember from when we were growing up, not the kind of peace that’s simply a lack of protests and riots. This is the peace of the God who reconciled us to Himself when we were still rioters and looters and murderers in His sight.

And in that reconciliation — in the peace we have with God through it — we experience joy, the joy of knowing that we who have been clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ will spend eternity being watered by the streams of His righteousness.

And these are wonderful things for us to experience, but our experience of them isn’t the whole point.

Look at verse 18:

Romans 14:18 NASB95

For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.

As we demonstrate the righteousness of God, we serve Him in a way that is acceptable to Him, but we also serve the lost world by pointing them to the Savior who gave us the Spirit by which we are being transformed by the renewing of our minds, instead of being conformed to the world.

As I have said so many times before, we are blessed so that we can bless others. We are blessed with sound finances so that we can share our financial blessings with those who are in need.

And we are blessed with our salvation so that we can share the hope of Jesus Christ with those who are so desperate for hope.

We share that hope in our words — by telling people the good news of a Savior who died for their sins. But we also share it by demonstrating the righteousness of God — by pursuing godly justice and godly righteousness.

We share it by demanding that every person who is made in the image of God — and that’s every person, everywhere — be treated fairly and with the respect we would expect to be treated ourselves. We share it by demanding just judgment of ALL people. And we share it by living lives that clearly portray the hope — the confident knowledge — we have that Jesus will one day bring true justice and righteousness across all the earth.

As it turns out, hope is the theme of Paul’s prayer in chapter 15.

Look at verse 13.

Romans 15:13 NASB95

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We can have hope, because we serve the God of hope. And here Paul prays that the God of hope would fill us with joy and peace as we follow Jesus in faith.

And what should be the result of that joy and peace?

Abounding hope!

Now, to abound is to exceed a fixed measure, to overflow.

If your hope is overflowing, it cannot help but spill onto someone else.

And that’s just what we should be doing as followers of Christ during times like this. We should be spilling hope all over the place as we demonstrate the righteousness of God.

As our black friends and neighbors wonder why their lives don’t seem to matter to so many Americans, we should be showing them how much they matter to us. In the process, perhaps we’ll spill some of our hope of eternal life onto them.

As our cities burn and the violence grows, we should be spilling the hope of Jesus Christ onto even the rioters, because we ourselves were once rioters and looters in the sight of God.

John Piper, who lives in Minneapolis, published a prayer for that city yesterday, and I want to read a portion of it as our concluding prayer today, because it beautifully bears on the themes we have talked about today.

“May our leaders love the truth, seek the truth, stand unflinching for the truth, and act on the truth. Let nothing, O Lord, be swept under the rug. Forbid that any power or privilege would be allowed to twist or distort or conceal the truth, even if the truth brings the privileged, the rich, the powerful, or the poor, from the darkness of wrong into the light of right.

“For the haters and the bitter and the hostile and the slanderers — of every race — we pray that they will see ‘the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.’ We pray that the light will banish darkness from their souls — the darkness of arrogance and racism and selfishness. We pray for broken hearts, because ‘a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

We pray that our city will see miracles of reconciliation and lasting harmony, rooted in truth and in the paths of righteousness. We pray for peace — the fullest enjoyment of shalom, flowing down from the God of peace, and bought at an infinite price for the brokenhearted followers of the Prince of Peace.

“… [W]e pray that the compounding of sorrows will not compound our sins, but send us desperate and running to the risen Savior, our only hope, Jesus Christ.

“O Jesus, for this you died! That you might reconcile hopeless, hostile people to God and to each other. You have done it for millions by grace through faith. Do it, Lord Jesus, in Minneapolis, we pray.

Do it, Lord Jesus, in Suffolk. Do it in Virginia and all around this nation. Amen.