Let Justice Roll Down
Justice has become a ruined word to many conservative Bible believing Christians. Preachers who speak on justice are often considered "woke" and risk termination.
But justice is a robust biblical word. Take Amos 5:24 in the ESV as an example:
"But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."
In contrast to social justice, while well-meaning and often leaves out God, biblical justice is rooted in the very character of God himself:
"Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
steadfast love and faithfulness go before you." Psalm 89:14 ESV
Notice that righteousness and justice mesh. The two are inseparable. In a recent article in The Atlantic magazine, Tim Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Church in Manhattan, stresses the importance of this union:
"… the Church in the U.S. can grow again if it learns how to unite justice and righteousness. I have heard African American pastors use this terminology to describe the historic ministry of the Black Church. By righteousness they meant that the Church has maintained its traditional beliefs in the authority of the Bible, morality, and sexuality. It calls individuals to be born again through faith in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. By justice, they meant that the Church has an activist stance against all forms of oppression.
“White Protestant churches in America tend to pick one or the other. Liberal mainline Protestantism stresses justice but has largely jettisoned ancient affirmations of the Christian creeds, such as the preexistence and divinity of Jesus, the bodily resurrection, and the authority of the Bible. Evangelicalism stresses righteousness and traditional values, but many congregations are indifferent or even hostile toward work against injustice. However, if the Church at large could combine these two ideas the way the Black Church has, it can begin to rebuild both credibility and relevance, rebutting the charge that it is merely another political power broker. A church that unites justice and righteousness does not fit with the left on abortion and sexual ethics or with the right on race and justice. Instead it is a community that addresses the timeless longings of all people for meaning, hope, love, and salvation."
We've seen this union of righteousness and justice play out in the ministries Foundry supports and participates in. Shepherd's House, the Pregnancy Resource Center, CRU, Family Kitchen, Eagle's Wings camp to name a few. Foundry has a rich tradition of supporting groups that are both right and just.
For example, I have a friend of Latvian descent. He was impressed when I told him our church supports a camp that not only serves Latvian youth but also houses orphans from the war in Ukraine. This led to a conversation about why we support the camp. It's because Jesus loved us first in his sacrificial death and resurrection that we respond as his people in love to others.
My conversation is just a small example of what we can do to regain, in Keller's words, "credibility and relevance" by combining righteousness and justice. As we do so, we'll see more opportunities to seek eternal justice: seeing men and women reconciled to God through Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice.
Remember: righteousness affirms what is right; justice seeks to make it right. Both reflect the character of God and shape what we're called to be and do:
"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?"Micah 6:8 ESV