Justice Fulfilled Through Sacrifice

Romans 3:23-26

What is justice? I am not trying to start a scholarly discussion. As the debate over whether justice can be defined or not has yet to be concluded, it is clear that this question is by no means an easy one.

The English word “justice” is known to have derived from Justitia, the Greek goddess of justice. Atmany entrances of secular courts, we can easily spot statues of this Greek goddess. Notably, Justitia is depicted holding scales. The scales represent the tool which weighs the gravity of sin.

Although justice is hard to define, it is evident that mencrave it. All men do. Man’s desire for justice is like a hidden instinct engraved in our deepest bones.

Although men’s definition of justice may differ depending on the issue, all men hope that everything will be done justly.

From a common sensical point of view, justice may refer to a state orcondition where everyone exists peacefully becausethey are treated equally in terms of distribution, process, and punishment for crimes.

A more general, but rather rough, explanation of justice would perhaps be a state or condition that seems right, just, and fitting to people and to me.

Interestingly, many associate the problem of justice with the existence of God. When peoplesee injustice, they tend to blame God, which leads to denying God.

Often, we see people deny and turn from God because of unjust circumstances and incidents they face.

One of my students saw his mother pass awayimmediately after enteringseminary. She died suddenly of cancer. He could not come to terms with her death because she had lived so energetically and had served God faithfully. How could God do this to hisfamily? He thought it was unjust and felt rebellious,which led to quittingseminary and apparently leaving God.

Man’s desire for justice is that powerful.

But there is another concept in the Bible,which is similar to, but distinct from,justice: the righteousness of God.

While justice may be said to be righteousness within the scope of human thought, the righteousness of God is justice from God’s perspective. Righteousness refers to the state which God considers right, just, righteous, and fitting.

What is right and fitting from God’s perspective? From God’s perspective, would justice be defined as the state where men are treated fairly in all conditions?

The Bible says God created man. But God created man and woman. He made them possess different conditions. He gave them different amounts of muscle and different roles and created them in different shapes and sizes.

Among Adam’s descendants, there have been healthy men as well as small, weak men. Among Eve’s descendants, there have been pretty women and uncomely women. You may be born rich or poor. You may be born in Europe or in Africa. You may even be born in countries like North Korea. These varying conditions are ample grounds for protesting to God that it’s not fair. Yet this is how God made man.

Yet there is a reason God created man in such a way. The Bible says:

“the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.”(Isaiah 43:21)

What is right and fitting in the eyes of God is that men, His creation, should praise Him and walk in close fellowship with Him. This is just in God’s sight. That is, God’s righteousness is that all men created by Him should know God, praise Him, and have fellowship with Him.

God’s righteousness and the justice we believe to be right are, therefore, different. The former is God’s justice.

That is why Paul states in Romans 3:

“As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one;there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. […] ruin and misery mark their ways,and the way of peace they do not know.There is no fear of God before their eyes.’”(Romans 3:10-11, 16-18)

Man does not seek God.He does not fear God. Therefore, Paul says:

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”(Romans 3:23)

That all have sinned does not mean that all men have moral defects. Neither does it mean that all have failed to observe the Law.

It means that all men have failed to reach the righteousness, the justice of God. It means that men have failed to live according to their original purpose, that is, to obey God’s will, praise Him and have close fellowship with Him.

Men turned from God from the very beginning when Adan and Eve left God. This is why we instinctively, innately, and inevitably turn from God. A more difficult term for this is original sin.

We have failed to reach our creation purpose, to praise God. We men are in an unjust state. That is why God’s righteousness has yet to be fulfilled; that is why we are all sinners. The Bible testifies that all of mankind has been trapped in sin ever since Adan and Eve.

So God makes a new plan for men. He sends His Son Jesus Christ to earth to obey Him and to follow His will and to go the path of praising Him only. For Adam’s descendants, this was an impossible task; so God had no choice but to send His own Son, who was without, sin to do it.

Through Jesus, God tried to fulfill His original purpose of creating man. He desired to see this one Man who would trust Him only,align His whole will with that of God’s, andobey God unto death. God desired to see this one Man who would fulfill His purpose for creating man, that one Man who would follow His heart completely, that one Man who would fulfill God’s justice.

Jesus carried out that very task. Being both the Son of God and human in the flesh, Jesus fulfilled the righteousness of God through perfect obedience. By doing the right thing, the just thing in God’s sight, Jesus createdthe right relationship with God.

This is how Philippians describes Jesus:

“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”(Philippians 2:6-8)

This obedience pleased God. The justice that God envisioned was fulfilled. In Christ, the right and just relationship between man and God was accomplished.

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”(Philippians 2:9-11)

The reason God exalts Jesus as our Lord is becauseJesus is the only One who fulfilled God’s righteousness. And through Jesus God plans to save all mankind. This is God’s will. Therefore, the salvation of mankind through Jesus is God’s righteousness.

Therefore, although the statementthat Jesus carried all our sins may be interpreted in many ways, in the context of what I have been explaining till now, it means that Jesus canceled and wiped out man’sendless disobediencethrough His single act of obedience on the Cross. It also means that God received this single sacrifice of Jesus as the eternal sacrifice of atonement and sin offering.

Therefore, today’s Scripture testifies to us:

“God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—”(Romans 3:25)

Therefore,God’s righteousness that has been manifested sinceJesus’ sacrificeis this: “redemption gained in Christ.” This is the righteousness, the justice of God. This is what is right and just before God.

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”(Romans 3:23-24)

Today is Palm Sunday, a day to remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem to bear the Cross. People shouted, “Hosanna! Deliver us!” It is likely they shouted these words, dreaming about political independence from Rome.

They probably shouted“Hosanna!”,believing Jesus to be the hero who would deliver Israel from the oppression of surrounding powers.

At the time, national independence was the dream and desire of the people of Israel; it would have been the justice they craved. ‘Being under the rule of anothercountry is unjust. We, too, must achieve independence, guard our sovereignty, prevent external powers from taking our taxes, and fight discriminationas a colonized people. This is to achieve justice.’ This was probably what the people were thinking as they shouted, “Hosanna!”

But Jesus did not go up to Jerusalem to achieve the justice that the people were envisioning. He went to fulfill the righteousness of God, the justice of God.

As the One who showed perfect obedience to God’s will, as a Man who perfectly fulfilled God’s law to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself, and as a Man who obeyed God unto death on the Cross, Jesus sought to fulfill the righteousness of God.

By doing so, Jesus wanted to save whoever followed Him.

The New Living Translation explains this secret as such:

“For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past,for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.”(Romans 3:25-26, NLT)

By giving His body and offering Himself as a sacrifice, Jesus achieved the righteousness, the justice of God.

The fact that Jesus, a Man without sin, bore the Cross would not be justice from the perspective of the world. If a sinner or a thief who committed a great crime was crucified, this may be justice. But the execution of Jesus by crucifixion can never be justice.

Yet Jesus fulfilled the righteousness, the justice of God by bearing the Cross that was unfairly given to Him. By becoming completely obedient to God’s will, Jesus glorified God. The sacrifices we make may not seem just in the world’s eyes, but they become God’s righteousness.

God’s righteousness is found beyond the justice envisioned by man. We must not view justice from the scope of human thought or from that of the world. We must be able to see God’s righteousness from God’ perspective.

Only then do unfortunate incidents like Christ’s crucifixion become justice. Even that unjust sacrifice becomes justice. Jesus, who entered Jerusalem and bore the Cross, shows us this very path.

Passion Week starts today. As we meditate on the Passion of our Lord who became fully obedient to God’s will and advanced toward the Cross, may we again engrave in our hearts the path of Jesus who became God’s joy and righteousness.

And may our eyes of faith be opened so that we will be able to see all the pain and misfortune occurring in our lives in a new light.