Let Justice Roll On

Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! - Amos 5:24

We hardly need to be alive long before we face injustice. People in power often exploit those they should look after, who then go and hurt whoever has less power than they do! We see injustice in the world, in our neighbourhoods and even in our families, and we long for equality, for justice to be done.

But we also don’t need to be around long to realise that the battle between justice and injustice is not only one that rages between us but also within us. Our justice is finite, temporal and changeable. That’s what turns victims into oppressors moment by moment.

God’s justice, on the other hand, is infinite, eternal and unchangeable. That’s both a comfort and a terror to us who long for justice but recognise that we ourselves are unjust.

Praise God, that just as his justice never changes, neither does the gospel. Jesus brings the justice we need as well as the justice we desire. His unjust death in our place means that instead of the wrath of God’s justice, we experience the upholding charity of it instead.

The justice of God leads us to praise him for his mercy to us in Christ and to extend that mercy to others in the power of the Holy Spirit. In him we can be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave us (Ephesians 4:32).

Blessings,

Geoff