I very recently came to understand and have a new appreciation for justice, but let’s rewind 5 years before I explain.
There was a time in my life I felt victimized by local and state laws. I sat in jail. A straight-A student in college and single mother, but also a very irresponsible driver. I could not afford to pay tickets, and so I sat there. It was terrible at the time. I learned from experience that most people in jail are mentally ill, suffering from addiction, and suffering from the sociological boundaries they allow to hold them captive. Having been in child protective services, experienced the pain of drug addiction within my own family, and-well-even the fact that I was sitting in jail, there was enough to find common ground with the other ladies. In these moments spent separated from my son, I hated justice.
Fast forward to now, I’m glad to say I’m a much better driver. I have a husband that can hardly believe I ever sat my pretty little butt in jail. The consequences of me not sitting out my tickets would have stifled my career and life and also my sons. This is how legal or general justice is carried out in society. When someone has broken a law they are subject to consequences. Whether they agree with the law or not, they must submit to the consequences or they risk steeper punishment. This is justice. She carries out her duty to relinquish the wrongdoer of their debt to the community. A debt that is incurred from an action that is lawfully wrong. Justice is a fundamental virtue, and part of a system of virtues, that work to hold civilized societies together. Due to justice, we have peace in our communities.
Legal justice is a subset of an internal form of justice. Internally, justice is different. When we commit a wrongful act to another, a debt is incurred. This debt couriers itself as guilt, insuppressible guilt. Our heart betrays our minds ability to reason it away, and demands punishment in order to receive freedom. Justice is written on our hearts, and she serves as relief to our conscience when we have wronged another. Before justice is served the perpetrator wrestles their guilt, and zeal for life is lost. However, justice brings life. She is beautiful in the sense that when she is carried out she sets us free from our indebtedness; our debts to one another as well as our debts to society. Due to justice, we are able to have peace in our hearts.
This reflects the widespread belief held by Christians that Jesus came and justice was served at the cross. Justice that no longer has to be served by us, for eternal life with God. Other religions claim that if one chooses to live a moral life they are welcome to heaven. Christianity is different in that it says, people are born sinful and must accept Jesus, as willfully having accepted the consequences of their sinful behavior for them, in order for a Holy God to re-commune with them, despite their imperfections. Jesus’s recorded life teaches us how to live, and He extended the invitation to each of us to accept Him as serving the ultimate sentence, to set our souls and hearts eternally free. All justice was served at the cross, and through Jesus one can live a life of freedom. Due to the life baring fruit of justice, our souls have peace.
The cycle of sin and redemption is: We make a mistake. In that moment the consequences are incurred. Before justice is served the wrongdoer is held captive by fear and guilt. While justice is being served we experience shame and inadequacy. Afterwards life is born, and freedom is reached. Our hearts long for the freedom born through justice, regardless of how we reason.
In every direction I look, whether backwards or forwards, I can praise God for justice.
“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” -Hebrews 12:11
-Revelation 3:19