Prayer 9: God’s Justice, part II

Note: When scripture is quoted, I usually copy from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) but in this discussion Don makes many biblical references apparently using the New International Version (NIV), so I have done likewise except where specifically noted.

Don: The promise of the parable of the importunate woman is that god’s justice will eventually come. There was some confusion over what god’s justice means.

Consider Isaiah 55:8-9:

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

The justice of god and what we would consider to be justice are light years apart. Here are some (of many) scriptural references to it; they suggest that justice is part and parcel of the very character and nature of god:

Leviticus 19:15: “‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.

Deuteronomy 16:20: Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Deuteronomy 27:19: “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

Job 37:23: The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power;
in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress.

Psalms 33:5: The Lord loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of his unfailing love.

Psalms 106:3: Blessed are those who act justly,
who always do what is right.

Psalms 140:12: I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor
and upholds the cause of the needy.

Proverbs 28:5: Evildoers do not understand what is right,
but those who seek the Lord understand it fully.

Proverbs 29:7: The righteous care about justice for the poor,
but the wicked have no such concern.

Isaiah 1:17: Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.

Ezekiel 34:15-16: I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,” declares the Lord God. “I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment.”

Micah 6:8: He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?

Zachariah 7:9: “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.’”

Matthew 12:18-21: “Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
the one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
He will not quarrel or cry out;
no one will hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out,
till he has brought justice through to victory.
In his name the nations will put their hope.”

Matthew 23:23: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

These are just a handful of numerous scriptural references to god’s justice. Justice is evidently a central characteristic of god. Two similar English concepts: Righteousness/rightness/being right, whose origin is Anglo-Saxon, and Justification/justice/justness/judgment, whose origin is Greek. We use them differently in English. We tend to use righteousness in more of a divine context, and justice in a more secular context. In Hebrew and Greek, one word is used for both meanings.

In the old Catholic English translations of the bible, the word tends to be translated as justice, whereas in the Protestant translations it tends to be translated as righteousness. But essentially, in the scriptural context, justice and righteousness are synonymous. The Hebrew word—sadaq—is similar to an Arabic word—suduq—meaning truthfulness.

Treating these words and concepts as synonymous greatly simplifies the understanding of scripture.

Psalms 89:14: Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
love and faithfulness go before you.

The psalmist is linking these things as attributes of god; but not merely as peripheral attributes: They are foundational, the very core of god.

The word justice is also linked to justification: The idea that one can be made righteous by some kind of imputation of righteousness as a result of the grace of god.

In Romans 1:16-17, the concept that the gospel is synonymous with justice and righteousness:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.” [NASB]

Most translations say “…for the just shall live by faith.”

The commonly held notion of god’s justice as heavenly bliss or eternal hellfire is a perversion. This key passage reveals that the justice of god is in truth the gospel of Jesus. It is the ordering of things according to divine intention—according to god’s will. Hence “Thy will be done” in the Lord’s Prayer. The divine order of things is violated by things which god does not condone such as poverty and (especially) oppression. If justice is to be done, then this must be liberated.

The judgment scene in Matthew 25 is set over the issue of whether the judged took care of the poor and the needy. It’s as if god leaves the relief of this type of oppression to the community of faith. While god might at any time miraculously intervene to relieve oppression and institute justice, his preference, it would seem, is that the community of faith assume and accept that responsibility. So there is a sense in which the answer to prayer of those who are in need should be in the response of those who are close by—one’s community. Perhaps the existential answer to our prayer is that those of us who have a relationship with god, who hold the 0idea that the justice of god is important, have an obligation to be, as it were, god’s hands and god’s heart and to answer cries of oppression around them.

So we are back at our old topic of community. Could it be be that god’s glory and power are intended (god’s will) to be displayed not as miracles but through us in the form of worldly justice and the relief of oppression?

In John 9, Jesus was asked whose sin—his own or his parent’s—caused a certain blind man’s condition. Neither, was the answer; it was caused so that god’s glory could be made manifest.

Thus, it appears that the kingdoms of god, justice, and righteousness tend to have the same theme. In Matthew 6:33, Jesus puts kingdom and righteousness together:

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,…”

The synonymity of the kingdom of god, justice, righteousness, mercy and so on suggest that together, they are what we should expect as the end product of prayer: As that which we will always receive when we ask, the door that will always be opened to our knock, the object that will always be found when we look.

So when Jesus says, as he often does in the parables, “The Kingdom of god is like this…,” we can also read it as “The justice of god is like this….” Understanding this perhaps will give us a fresh insight into what god’s justice is, what the product of prayer is, and what the gospel is ultimately all about. Can this understanding nourish and sustain our faith in god? Or is magic—miracles—still a necessary product of prayer?

Jay: We usually view justice in a punitive, negative light. But if we link justice with mercy and righteousness, it seems different. Romans 5:12-16 contrasts justice with judgment:

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. [NASB]

Paul is saying that justice is not about judgment; it is about the free gift of grace. When people—it’s especially common among children—say “That’s not fair!” they are appealing for justice. I think that justice delivered in the form of grace is indeed sufficient to sustain faith.

Harry: The justice talked about in Isaiah is not really the kind of justice Man wants. We have created our own selfish doctrine of justice but it cannot compare with that of a god whose ways are not our ways, whose thoughts are not our thoughts. We (myself included) are not prepared give anything like what we are supposed to give to relieve suffering and oppression. It’s really quite depressing.

Don: The grace with which prayer will always be answered indeed may not be what we have in mind, but if we could see the life-sustaining richness of that answer even when we are in the direst straits, perhaps it would open up a whole new dimension to prayer.

Kiran: Our discussion is affecting my own prayer! I am starting to doubt whether I even need to pray, since the spirit will pray for us anyway and god’s will will be done anyway. The only reason I can see now for prayer is so as to receive god’s grace, his justice. The cross is my judgment, my punishment, but it has been delivered and executed already—I don’t need to worry about it. This makes me feel that I am accepted by god, and that has set me free somehow.

Don: I am reluctant to tell someone not to pray for whatever they want. It doesn’t matter matter how trivial, frequent, and inconsequential one’s prayers are; the key is not to expect god to respond in any way other than by giving you his grace, justice, mercy, truthfulness, and so on. That response is unequivocally guaranteed, but is it good enough for us, or will we insist on miracles and magic?

Michael: We often pray for other people. Does that work? Might we be benefited by other people’s prayers for us, even though we might not realize it? Can we get god’s grace by this means? Believing that god answers prayer through other people adds a dimension to prayer.

Harry: It seems to me that the gift of prayer is so that we can center ourselves by establishing a relationship with the principles of god’s justice, mercy, righteousness and so on. But we are so far away from practicing the true concept of god’s justice, or even from discussing in church such questions as what the cross has to do with justice and what sins the cross cleanses us of? We don’t want to confront such questions. We’d rather take the easy route and ask for magic. Yet prayer that centers us to remind is of justice, mercy, and grace is not complex, and has real value.

Robin: Selfishly, we tend to want justice for ourselves and mercy for others. I think we should treat prayer as a conversation with a close friend or family member, and say and ask whatever we want. I think god wants that.

Kiran: I wanted a god of magic, and it colored the way I read the great prayers, such as David’s, in the bible. I failed to see the humility in them, and in comparison my own prayer was arrogant, lacking that humility. Our discussions have changed my view of prayer. Prayer that acknowledges god’s power to answer it according to his will, not the supplicant’s, is beautiful prayer. It affects me in a wonderful way.

Jason: I agree. Approaching god through prayer that says “I expect nothing; thy will be done” is liberating and productive: It gets you and me god’s grace. And not just you and me: Everyone else. It is perfectly equitable, and therefore perfectly just. Once we can get past the difficulty of accepting prayer in this light, then prayer is indeed beautiful, wonderful, liberating. It is the ultimate end point of prayer.

David: I am not sure I agree, as has been asserted today, that god wants our prayer. Prayer does not feature at all in Confucianism. Of course, that is not a religion per se but it has religious aspects to it—together with Daoism, it constitutes a deeply spiritual philosophy—and it substituted for religion in many ways in its heyday. However, the notion of justice features heavily in it: Confucius was consulted about justice all the time by the rulers of his day. The people of those days explicitly recognized the existence of a heaven and of divine justice in accepting the notion that over time, the unjust ruler risked losing “the mandate of heaven” and would fall from power. There is no suggestion in Chinese philosophy that people should pray to heaven to remove an unjust ruler. If it is to happen, it will do so of heaven’s will. Similarly, we will get god’s grace, whether we pray for it or not.

Michael: When we pray for others, perhaps it helps us realize what they need so that we ourselves are better able to help them.

Harry: Isaiah 55:11 seems to support the contention that we don’t need to pray:

So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

David: Mention has been made of “prayer life.” The question is whether this means a life of prayer—a life focused on prayer—or whether it means a life that is lived as a prayer—a prayer that is expressed through our behavior, through the way we live.

Don: To be continued.

 

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