Justice Isn't Like Ice Cream
I recently interacted with someone who claimed he didn’t need God in order to remain passionate about justice in the world. When I asked where he got his standard of justice or how he knew what a just and fitting punishment was for any given crime, he replied, “I know what is just or unjust by thinking about it. It’s not that hard. Justice is logical.”
That may sound innocent enough, but it epitomizes the sinful human condition ever since the Fall. In our rebellion against God, we insist that we can be our own gods and determine good and evil for ourselves (Genesis 3:4-5).
I’m the King of England
My friend’s answer leaves it unclear exactly who the standard is. Is he saying that he personally is the world’s authority on justice? That’s unlikely, but possible. I mean, some people go crazy and claim to be the King of England or Jesus Christ. But I doubt that’s what he meant.
Most likely, he meant that every person individually should “think about it” and logically determine what justice is. But that’s actually as crazy as claiming to be the King of England. Didn’t Hitler think about and carry out what seemed right in his own mind? By what standard do we call his (or anyone’s) actions wrong? “Just think about it” doesn’t solve the problem. In fact, premeditated murder is the worst kind.
If good and evil, right and wrong, justice and injustice is simply a matter of what each person thinks, then justice is nothing. To put it another way, justice is transcendent, absolute, and universal or else it is meaningless.
Even children understand this. Listen to kids on the playground when one child gets a little bossy and tries to make the rules. All the other kids protest, “Says who? You’re not the boss of me!” If the rules are going to have any weight, they have to come from a legitimate authority that is above us.
But if justice is subjective and relative—if justice is whatever I feel, or whatever we feel, or whatever the majority feels—then justice is nothing.
Ice Cream Is the Best
When you say that murder is wrong, do you mean that murder is absolutely, objectively, universally, and transcendently evil? Or do you mean that you personally don’t like murder? If the latter, why should anyone listen to you? It’s nice of you to share your opinion and all, but maybe nobody asked.
If truth is subjective, every supposed truth claim about justice and injustice is not actually about justice. It is actually a statement about the personal preferences of the one talking. “Ice cream is the best” is a subjective claim. It tells us nothing about ice cream. It only tells us something about the dessert preferences of the person talking.
If justice is subjective, then to say police brutality is the worst tells us nothing about police brutality and whether it’s actually evil. It merely tells us that the person talking dislikes police brutality. Maybe he also dislikes cilantro and lime ice cream. Fine. Thanks for sharing.
If justice is subjective, then all the protestors calling for justice are no more meaningful than a crowd organizing to protest the presence of cheddar cheese ice cream at Parlour. Sure it’s a bit weird. It’s not for everyone.
But no one is trying to say that things like racism and police brutality are matters of personal preference. People are trying to say that these are absolutely and universally evil, no matter when or where you live. But to make that claim, you have to answer the deep, deep question: Says who? Unless there is a transcendent, universal Law Giver, there is no transcendent, universally binding law. And if there’s no law, there’s no standard by which to judge right from wrong.
Under, Not Above the Law
However, as soon as we admit that justice is transcendent, that we don’t make it up as we go, but that we receive it from above, we have a problem. It means none of us gets to invent the standard but every one of us is accountable to the standard. That is, we are under the law. And our problem is that we are guilty of violating God’s holy and just law. We deserve God’s just wrath.
If we want justice in our society—and we should—we must first be reconciled to the God of justice, the One whom we have offended. Thankfully, amazingly, this is possible because God gave his only Son to be the sacrifice that suffered the just punishment our sins deserve. And his sacrifice was sufficient. Jesus is the only human ever to perfectly fulfill all the righteous requirements of justice, yet he also suffered the full punishment that justice demands of lawbreakers. So the work is finished. Atonement is possible. Jesus died as a substitute for the unjust so that everyone who submits to and relies on him can be freed from guilt and condemnation forever.
Now, those who are reconciled to God, whose consciences are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, can begin to understand what true justice is and how it must be applied in society. “Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it completely” (Proverbs 28:5). A just society is founded on the gospel of Jesus Christ.