Brian S. Rosner
The theme of justice in the Bible reveals God’s loving and upright character, our own failure to act justly, the means by which we can be justified, and the need for God’s people to love justice.
In the OT the terms for judge, justice, and (civil) laws all derive from the same root. Thus, justice is closely related to and administered as an ideal legal standard. Yet the concept of justice in the Bible covers more than punishing wrongdoing. It includes treating all people not only with fairness but also with protection and care. God calls all people to seek justice for those most vulnerable to suffering injustice. The Bible regularly pairs justice with acting righteously and behaving with mercy, love, kindness, and compassion. For example, “Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor” (Zech 7:9–10, emphasis added).
The God of Justice
Justice is rooted in God’s character and creation: “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he” (Deut 32:4). “The LORD is righteous, he loves justice” (Ps 11:7). “The Maker of heaven and earth . . . upholds the cause of the oppressed and . . . loves the righteous” (Ps 146:6–8). God’s character includes a zeal for justice that leads him to love tenderly those who are socially powerless (Ps 10:14–18). “The LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice” (Isa 5:16).
Justice and God’s People
The nation of Israel must keep God’s “righteous decrees and laws” (Deut 4:8) so that all the nations of the world will look enviously at the justice and right ordering of their society and be attracted to God’s wisdom (Deut 4:6–8). In particular, as God’s representatives, judges must acquit the innocent, condemn the guilty, and expose false accusations and bribery (2 Chr 19:5–7). They are not to distort justice by favoring either the poor or the rich (Exod 23:3; Lev 19:15). God also charges kings to act justly and instructs them to look after the weak and defenseless. The psalmist prays, “Endow the king with your justice, O God . . . May he judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice” (Ps 72:1–2).
Throughout the OT, God’s people must “learn to do right [and] seek justice” (Isa 1:17). When Job confronts his accusers, he insists, “I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy; I took up the case of the stranger” (Job 29:14–16). Similarly, the prophets rail against injustice and insist that the right worship of God cannot exist without loving justice. Amos threatens judgment on “those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts” (Amos 5:12). “What does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Mic 6:8).
Jesus’ teaching and ministry continues to underscore the central place of justice. Mary prophesies that Jesus will fill the poor but send the rich away empty (Luke 1:53). When John the Baptist’s disciples ask Jesus if he is the Messiah, he points as evidence to his care for the downtrodden, including the blind, lame, deaf, those with leprosy, and the poor (Matt 11:4–5). Echoing the OT prophets, Jesus accused the Pharisees of concentrating on religious observance while neglecting “justice and the love of God” (Luke 11:42). For Jesus, a lack of concern for the poor is not a minor oversight but reveals that a person is at odds with God. In the parable of the sheep and the goats, the true sheep of Jesus are those who have a heart for the hungry, the stranger, the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned (Matt 25:35–36).
The letter of James confronts injustice, especially exploitation of the poor. James challenges those who have been justified to make justice a mark of their lives. It also recommends waiting patiently for the Judge to bring justice and reverse fortunes: “Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming . . . The Judge is standing at the door!” (Jas 5:7, 9). Bringing these two threads together, the letter directs the new community of faith to allow the hoped-for justice of the kingdom of God to permeate their lives in the present by caring for those in need (Jas 1:27; 2:14–26).
Amos calls believers to “let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:24).
Justice and God’s Goodness
The theme of justice raises two formidable problems. The first is the need to defend God’s justice and goodness in the light of injustice. How can a just God tolerate evil? The Bible addresses this concern in several places, most pointedly in Habakkuk and Job.
Habakkuk complains to God that his people are ignoring his demand for justice, and he wonders why God allows the unjust to continue in their wickedness: “Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails” (Hab 1:3–4). Habakkuk asks how God’s justice can reconcile with his experience of the world. God’s answer is that he has appointed “the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people” (Hab 1:6), to punish his rebellious children by taking them into exile.
Not surprisingly, this raises another moral dilemma for the prophet: Babylon is even more wicked than Judah (Hab 1:13)! How could God use such a vile tool, those who are “a law to themselves” (Hab 1:7)? God assures Habakkuk that he will eventually judge the Babylonians. In the meantime, the just must wait patiently, remain loyal to God, and trust God to show himself as just. In the words of Hab 2:4, a verse the NT quotes three times (Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:38), “the righteous person will live by his faithfulness.”
While Habakkuk asks why the unjust seem to go unpunished, Job asks why a righteous person should suffer. Job is a just and honorable man, but Satan, the accuser, wagers with God that Job’s faith is motivated by self-interest. To prove that Job is trustworthy, God allows Satan to take away all of Job’s possessions and children and strike him with a severe disease. Job’s so-called friends assume that God punishes only the wicked, and they counsel Job to repent: “Who, being innocent, has ever perished? . . . Those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it” (Job 4:7–8).
The book of Job does not address all unjust suffering. Ultimately, Job receives an answer that reduces him to silence. God assures him that there is an order to the world, even if it is at times imperceptible. God’s sovereignty and mercy are impressed on him, and Job perseveres in faith. With Job’s restoration in mind, Jas 5:11 cites him as a model of endurance: “You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” In one sense the experience of Job points to another righteous sufferer, the suffering servant of Isaiah (Isa 42:1–9; 49:1–7; 50:4–9; 53:1–12), a figure the NT identifies as Jesus.
Justice and the Day of Judgment
Habakkuk and Job voice the Bible’s concern to defend God’s justice and goodness, but a second problem is more personal: if God is just, how can you and I stand before him on the day of judgment? Both the OT and NT agree: “no one living is righteous before [God]” (Ps 143:2) and “there is no one righteous, not even one” (Rom 3:10).
The only exception to this sweeping verdict is Jesus Christ. In Luke’s account of the crucifixion, the centurion at the cross concludes, “Surely this was a righteous [just] man” (Luke 23:47). Acts repeats this conclusion. Peter accuses the Jewish crowds, saying, “You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer [i.e., Barabbas] be released to you” (Acts 3:14; cf. Acts 7:52). Ananias states that God chose Paul on the road to Damascus “to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth” (Acts 22:14). Jesus’ just and righteous character connects him with Isaiah’s suffering servant, who brings salvation: “he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities” (Isa 53:5).
The gospel offers us a right standing before God on the basis of Jesus’ dying in our place: “For Christ . . . suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Pet 3:18). Rom 3:25–26 explains, “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith . . . He did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” The only means of our justification is confessing our failure to live justly and trusting in the death and resurrection of Christ.
The Bible reveals the God of justice, who demands justice from his creatures. It also gives full voice to human cries against injustice and proclaims that God determines to restore justice to the whole earth.