Justice

Every person I have ever met has a sense of justice. Every single one.

Now, we don’t apply it consistently, and we sure don’t apply it evenly. In our fallen state, we can be pretty relaxed about the justice other people receive. But God forbid we’re the one who gets wronged. Then we want justice for every injury done to us, every slight, every wrong — and we want it down to the last penny. Watch how fast it wakes up when it’s ours.

Nobody taught us that. We never argue about whether justice exists. We only argue about whether this thing or that thing was unjust. The standard itself, nobody really questions.

C.S. Lewis noticed the same thing. He wrote that "human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way." We know the rule. We break the rule. I know that in myself as much as anybody.

Here’s the part I can’t get past: I don’t think that sense of justice fits the natural world. Out in nature, the strong take what they want from the weak, every day, and no creature stands up and calls it unjust. It just is. We’re the only ones standing in the middle of it saying, "This is not how it ought to be." Where would we get ought from a world that only knows is?

Lewis came at faith from the other side of that question. He’d been an atheist, and his argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. Then the argument turned around on him: "My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?" He saw that if his idea of justice was nothing but his own private fancy, his whole argument against God collapsed with it.

I believe that sense of justice is something God put in every single human being, on purpose. And I think it’s part of what makes us long for Him. We look around at this world and we see how unjust it is, and something in us knows it isn’t finished. Somebody put it to me once in a line I can’t shake: we know it’s not over, ’cause all is not right.

David wrote, "Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep" (Psalm 36:6, NKJV). A great deep — like the ocean. If you’ve ever stood on a shoreline and watched the water come in, you know: nothing stands before the ocean if it comes past its shoreline. It doesn’t ask permission. It doesn’t negotiate. It covers.

Amos said it this way: "But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream" (Amos 5:24, NKJV). I believe the day is coming when justice will cover the world like a flood. Not our justice. His.

And it won’t come the way we’d bring it. Isaiah describes the One who brings it: "He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles... A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench... He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth" (Isaiah 42:1–4, NKJV). He doesn’t come shouting. He doesn’t crush broken people. But He does not fail, and He does not stop, until justice is established in the earth.

One day, justice will come.

When Christ came the first time, He came as the Lamb, to bear the sins of the world — mine included. But when He comes again, He comes as the Judge. Paul said it plain: God "has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained" (Acts 17:31, NKJV).

If you read the accounts of His second coming, friend, you do not want to be on the side that chose not to believe in Him — that refused His gift. He will separate the wheat from the chaff (Matthew 3:12). And you don’t want to be the chaff.

One day.

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So if you’ve made it this far, I don’t think it’s by accident. No doubt you’re seeking justice — maybe for something that was done to you, maybe just looking at the state of this world. So let me invite you to accept the gift God has given us through His Son, Jesus.

There’s a thing we call the Romans Road. It’s a handful of verses out of the book of Romans, and it walks you step by step through what God has done — and what you need to do to accept His gift.

Romans 3:23 — "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Every one of us. That’s the starting point, and there’s no sense pretending otherwise.

Romans 6:23 — "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Sin earns death. But God offers a gift instead — and a gift isn’t something you earn. It’s something you receive.

Romans 5:8 — "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." He didn’t wait for us to get cleaned up first. He came as the Lamb while we were still sinners.

Romans 10:9 — "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

Romans 10:13 — "For ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’" Whoever. That includes you.

If you’ll do that — confess Him, believe Him, call on Him — He will save you. That’s His promise, not mine.

Now here’s what comes next, and it matters. Start reading the Bible. You may not understand it all — I know the first time I read it, there was a lot that confused me. I kept reading anyway. And God will bring you the knowledge you need as you keep digging into His Word.

And find a Bible-believing church, and start going. Find a seasoned Christian and let them help you — I’m big on mentorship and discipleship, and that’s part of what the church is for. It isn’t just the pastor’s job; it’s the congregation’s. I can’t tell you how many men and women invested in me when I became a Christian. You weren’t made to walk this road alone.