God loves justice.  In the greatest act of mercy, He sent His Son to die on the cross. Why in the world was such a barbaric act required?  It is because of justice. Sin matters that not even God could unilaterally wipe it away. A judgement price needed to be paid. And that price was fully paid in the sacrificial atonement of Jesus Christ and made freely available to those who truely repent. Jesus' death was the ultimate act of love and justice. As God's people, we are called to also love and pursue justice. 

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And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

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Today, justice is one of those words which means different things to different people. Hence, when seeking to clarify what type of justice we are talking about, we add descriptive preceding words - such as legal justice, poetic justice or social justice. Biblical Justice is best defined as 'the correct ordering of things' according to the Bible while Social Justice Warriors often a used the word justice as a utopian euphemism for pursuing a cultural revolution. 

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Australians should be grateful that our legal system still largely operates on its Christian heritage legacy. The heritage of our courts system was built on biblical principles.  When testifying in court, the witness is asked to swear on the Bible. The 10 commandments were often displayed in court houses while the judge would wear white wooden wig with its origins in the hair of the Lamb returning as judge in Revelation 1:14.

Many of the laws on our books today continue to enforce a moral code that is aligned to Christian principles. When legal justice consistent with Biblical truth is enforced through laws, there are positive social implications. The Western world bears the positive social fruit of leaders like William Wilberforce, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr, who fought for freedom and equal legal and political rights for all. We also owe our ANZACs a debt of gratitude for defending those values. Yet for all the talk of justice, feelings of injustice seems to grow. Increasingly we see riots and mass looting in the name of 'justice' in response to 'systemic injustice'. So, when considering justice as defined by God, let's start with a ​searing observation in Isaiah.

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Our courts oppose the righteous, and justice is nowhere to be found. Truth stumbles in the streets, and honesty has been outlawed. Yes, truth is gone, and anyone who renounces evil is attacked.

Isaiah 59:14-15

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This verse savages a pursuit of justice within a moral vacuum. There can been no justice without first acknowledging truth and righteousness. Many of the new laws being passed are built an equity framework which elevates woke identity politics above equality.  A society which is confused about truth or which censors honest speech will very quickly find that real justice eludes it.  Jesus rejects the eye for an eye philosophy. While our justice system was built on the Romans 13:4 principle of punishing the wrong-doer and thereby rewarding the good, this framework only works best when those in power recognise the eternal absolutes of good and evil.  When our rulers become corrupt and evil, the citizens weep.

When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked are in power, they groan.

Proverbs 29:2  

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In the church, justice meets a new principle - the Christian principle of forgiveness. Both justice and forgiveness should be considered in tandem, but never should forgiveness mean that transgressions don't matter nor have consequences. The perpetrator should be subject to the full legal consequences for stealing from their neighbour or abusing a fellow citizen.

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But in parallel to the legal consequences, the victim who knows Christ is in a position of great power.  As a victim, they do not need to remain a victim. They can chose to forgive. Forgiveness is not easy or trite nor does it need to be accepted. It does mean however, that reconciliation between the transgressor and the aggrieved is possible through Jesus Christ. This is no way minimise the crime, but it does maximise the depth of forgiveness in Christ. The church should be a community of people who do not mis-use or avoid justice, but seek to emulate a higher justice and forgiveness as displayed in the person of Jesus Christ.