Justice & Righteousness : Honor & Generosity Part II
Righteousness and justices are the foundation of your throne;
faithful love and truth go before you.
~Psalm 89:14 (CSB)
Justice and righteousness mean so much more than I ever realized.
I recently began a study by biblical culturalist Kristi McLelland’s called Jesus & Women. In the week two video session, McLelland describes two things that Jesus brings into every interaction with women: justice and righteousness. You can do the study for yourself to learn why these particular qualities are so important for women to receive during Jesus' time, but for now, I would like to pull on the biblical definitions she gives for justice and righteousness.
Our Western view of justice and righteousness are much as I described in the previous post. Justice refers to that which is morally right and fair, while righteousness refers to being made right with God. However, Jesus in the first century A.D. did not live in a Westernized culture. He lived in Israel and was Jewish; therefore, His culture was uniquely different from our current culture. Justice and righteousness have deeper connotations connecting to honor and generosity, two things that I have never equated with either justice or righteousness. As the foundation of God's throne, justice and righteousness automatically become essential virtues in the biblical world.
Referring to McLelland’s definition, biblical justice occurs whenever the honorable reaches down to the shameful, lifts them out of their shame, and restores their honor. This is such a beautiful description of what Jesus does for us. He is the very embodiment of honor, and He came down to us as a human to reach us in our shame and sin. He was raised up on the cross as the ultimate, perfect sacrifice for our sins. When we place our trust in Him, He lifts us out of our shame and restores our honor. The apostle Paul describes this process perfectly when he writes, "Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds expressed in your evil actions. But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him…" (Colossians 1:21-22). Once we were alienated from God by the shame of our sin, but now Jesus presents us to God as holy, faultless, and blameless, filled with honor.
Biblical righteousness also includes much more than the idea of just being made right with God through Christ. McLelland adds to our understanding that being righteous means being generous. In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He says, “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6: 19-21). We store up treasures in heaven through our generosity. Generosity is a willingness to give more than expected and show kindness towards others. And is this not what God does? God is extravagantly gracious towards us and gives us far more than we could ever expect or deserve.
Jesus’ words in John 3:16 describe God’s extraordinary and generous love towards us. He says, “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” I do believe the English language fails to emphasize the magnitude of what God did.
God's kingdom is established and maintained by justice (honor) and righteousness (generosity). We, as humans, were lost to the kingdom of God because of our sin. We were thoroughly separated and alienated from God and living in shame. God, the Honorable One, loved us so much, He could not leave us in a state of shame and disgrace. He reached down to us through His one and only Son Jesus Christ and offered us grace, lifting us from shame to honor, administering justice. He revealed His righteousness through the extreme generosity of allowing the sacrifice of His Son so that we might have eternal life with Him.
Praise God, the only just and righteous King. May your kingdom come and be established forever and ever. Amen.
