Understanding Biblical Justice
Written by Kaylee Morgan
We are coming out of Easter weekend and for some of us that included getting dressed up, taking photos with the family, eating together, and possibly even going to church. For some of us, it might have just been just another Sunday. Either way, this felt like the perfect time to look at another side of justice. A justice that isn’t as mainstream as social or criminal justice. Today, let’s talk about biblical justice and how it is truly possible to combine our faith and advocacy work together.
I understand that words like church, Bible, and faith can be triggering. It could be tempting to quit reading, but as you continue, you may actually find out that criminal justice and biblical justice aren’t too terribly different.
You might be wondering how that can be true…and that is valid. I know that Christians haven’t always had the best reputation in the justice world. I know this because I am a Christian, who lives and works in the justice space. One of my degrees is in criminal justice, and as I studied biblical justice, I’ve discovered that the two align about 80% of the time. Both identify some form of injustice, with a victim and a perpetrator, and in order for there to be justice, there must be a righting of the wrongs. This is true in criminal, social, and biblical justice. At the end of the day, we want to right the wrongs. However, the way in which we go about righting wrongs is where the last 20% differs.
If I were to sum it up in two words, the difference between criminal/social justice and biblical justice would be this: punishment vs. redemption.
Ultimately the difference between them is the end results: “Make them pay or make them better.” What is so beautiful about biblical justice is that it desires not only justice for the victim, but also wants redemption for the perpetrator. If you are to redeem someone, you must look at the circumstances that led them to wrongful acts of injustice. Was it previous abuse? Was it the effects of poverty? What injustice did they experience and how do we work to address those wrongs?
This idea of righting the wrongs done to the perpetrator comes from the idea that God sent his son Jesus to save ALL people. Not just those inferior, not just the victims, ALL people. John 3:16-17 says this: “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.”
Biblical justice doesn’t focus solely on the punishment of the perpetrator because Jesus already paid the ultimate punishment for their wrongs. When you view justice through this lens, the focus becomes putting the world right again by fighting against all the injustices of the world– including those done to the perpetrator as well as those done to the victim.
If you want to dive deeper into biblical justice, I highly recommend watching this video by the Bible Project. They will be able to break it down even further than this idea of punishment vs. redemption with imagery, visuals, and Hebrew translations. They also have a plan on the Bible App that dives deeper into the scriptural aspect of biblical justice along with a podcast series on justice.
At the end of the day, Christian or not, Democrat or Republican, male or female, I really do believe we all desire to live in a more just world. (Truthfully, I went back and forth between using the word “loving” or using the word “just” in that last sentence. It’s so easy as a Christian to say we all just want love and that’s what God sent Jesus for. There is irony there because we as Christians can use “love” as an excuse for inaction when most of the time the word love is used in action form in the Bible.)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (a Civil Rights Hero and a Christian) during the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 said this about pursuing justice, “Whatever we do, we must keep God in the forefront. Let us be Christian in all of our actions. But I want to tell you this evening that it is not enough for us to talk about love, love is one of the pivotal points of the Christian face, faith. There is another side called justice. And justice is really love in calculation. Justice is love correcting that which revolts against love.”
That is what biblical justice is all about: Love correcting that which revolts against love.
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