By Jeremy Bell
I am going to highlight theocentric perspective using Psalm 94 as well as the reference to it from Romans 10: 11 – 18 and Hebrews 12: 1 – 13. All scripture is God breathed, written through His uniquely made people. People use it to learn to be people of God. Scripture is NOT people breathed to uniquely create God. Theocentric perspective is simply believing that God reveals, and people understand. It rejects that people understand and reveal to themselves, God.
The only way I can count the number of times perfect justice has been perfectly executed in human lives throughout its’ history is to close my hand into a fist. The subject of justice is a fascinating topic, though it is one of the most contentious. Every person ever lives to a type of moral code and ever person ever has broken their own moral code.
Justice Theories
Some say that karma serves justice for these small, private instances. Karma is basically a cause-and-effect justice that comes at random times in random ways. While feeling just in believing in karma, no one is satisfied with it. Videos of instant karma leave us satisfied while karma deferred is a letdown and assumed in faith. Certainly, we don’t extend karma to the weightier crimes of rape and murder, having faith that the people who committed such things will find similar activities committed against them.
Atheists, from my understanding, believe in a ‘do no harm’ system and that justice is simply a tactic to enforce whatever it is to ‘do no harm’. Crimes will vary depending on culture and society and justice should direct the norms of that society. This system eludes me in understanding. From what I have read, doing harm has often been attributed to some of the greatest empires in history for acquiring what they want and keeping it. This even trickles down to the wealthy businessperson. For what purpose would a person do no harm? It gives reward, it teaches that justice is avoidable, and in the end, nothing really matters because you, your efforts, and any of your thoughts and ideas will be in the dust to be forgotten within two generations.
The naturalist is not too far behind the atheist. There may be a general feeling of karma in the cosmos, but whatever gods there may be, they leave humans alone and the idea of crime and justice is a random evolution that rides the waves of societal change. Unpredictable and purposeless in goal.
Justice and Struggle
Ulpian, a late classical Roman jurist and senior civil servant is quoted as saying, “Justice is the constant and perpetual will to allot to every man his due.” This is the sentiment we all have, but we don’t all agree on the specifics or the why. Mary Vasquez writes in her book, Love Poems from God, “God is love, and as pure love, He is always inclusive, and I believe that we should be, too.”
The struggle we humans have with this topic is rooted in the hypocritical paradox of ourselves. We know justice is pure, we want justice, we demand it. At the same time, we know we have broken the law in society, morally, and even to ourselves. To demand pure justice is to condemn ourselves and that is not attractive or desirable. We also desire love and forgiveness, so we focus on these qualities, hoping that justice will be satisfied if we do. God is love, He is inclusive, He is good and could never see someone separated from Him, and I could go on.
For us less than perfect people, we must know that if God is good, He must enforce justice, and if He doesn’t include us, then He is biased and unjust Himself. It’s time to call to the stand, mercy. This is the only thing that can satisfy the justice and love we really want. It’s time to hear God and believe what He says. The time for playing around with karma, atheism, and naturalist justice as a means for escape is over.
Elusive Justice
True and equal justice does not exist as we know it, and it never has in the course of human history. A proof of life after death is the assurance that justice is sure, pure, and unavoidable while at the same time recognizing it has never been these things in any recorded or transmitted reality. God wrote the laws, in all physical nature as well as moral nature as well. He spoke them into creation and He spoke them to the first humans. Humans chose to break the law.
Justice is coming. In His mercy, God sent His messiah, His son, to save people from the ultimate consequences of their law breaking. All will die when this life is over, all will resurrect to stand before Him for judgement. For some, their own law breaking will be confessed by them as well as their own punishment. They will hate the God they hated before and will separate from Him forever. Others will confess the condemnation they deserve while God’s messiah, Jesus, stands in their place, pardoning them, granting mercy. They will live with the God they have loved forever.
Hopefully that gives some perspective and things to consider while preparing to read this Psalm. They are by no means the only perspectives or considerations, just the ones right now. So… without further hesitation, here is Psalm 94 and Romans 10: 11 – 18 and Hebrews 12: 1 – 13. My book, Psalms in Motif Visualization, color codes the selections for further study.
[ Psalm 94 ]
Yahweh, you God to whom vengeance belongs,
you God to whom vengeance belongs, shine out.
Rise up, you judge of the earth.
Pay back the proud what they deserve.
Yahweh, how long will the wicked,
how long will the wicked triumph?
They pour out arrogant words.
All the evildoers boast.
They break your people in pieces, Yahweh,
and afflict your heritage.
They kill the widow and the alien,
and murder the fatherless.
They say, “Yah will not see,
neither will Jacob’s God consider.”
Consider, you senseless among the people;
you fools, when will you be wise?
He who implanted the ear, won’t he hear?
He who formed the eye, won’t he see?
He who disciplines the nations, won’t he punish?
He who teaches man knows.
Yahweh knows the thoughts of man,
that they are futile.
Blessed is the man whom you discipline, Yah,
and teach out of your law,
that you may give him rest from the days of adversity,
until the pit is dug for the wicked.
For Yahweh won’t reject his people,
neither will he forsake his inheritance.
For judgment will return to righteousness.
All the upright in heart shall follow it.
Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will stand up for me against the evildoers?
Unless Yahweh had been my help,
my soul would have soon lived in silence.
When I said, “My foot is slipping!”
Your loving kindness, Yahweh, held me up.
In the multitude of my thoughts within me,
your comforts delight my soul.
Shall the throne of wickedness have fellowship with you,
which brings about mischief by statute?
They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous,
and condemn the innocent blood.
But Yahweh has been my high tower,
my God, the rock of my refuge.
He has brought on them their own iniquity,
and will cut them off in their own wickedness.
Yahweh, our God, will cut them off.
[ Romans 10: 11 – 18 ]
Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him (the cornerstone) will not be disappointed.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him. For, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News of peace,
who bring glad tidings of good things!”
But they didn’t all listen to the glad news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
But I say, didn’t they hear? Yes, most certainly,
“Their sound went out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.”
[ Hebrews 12: 1 – 13 ]
Seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls. You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin. You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children,
“My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when you are reproved by him;
for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then you are illegitimate, and not children. Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.
All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
Relational Insight
The rain rains and the sun shines on everyone, wicked or righteous. God chooses to bless some and allow for trouble for others. While we cannot know all the reasons, those who have a personal relationship with God can know some things. God disciplines and saves His people from the ultimate pit of death. He witnesses to the wicked in pursuit that they will repent. If they don’t, He allows their own wickedness to come back on them and does not save them from the ultimate pit of death.
If you are born again with the spirit of God, you know His desire is that everyone would turn to Him. He uses His people, people like you and I, to proclaim His gospel that they would hear. How we live our lives is important, but the words are more important. Our big or little house makes no difference in eternity and makes no difference in the truth of justice, love, and mercy. Sharing doesn’t help nor does feeding the homeless. Not in the grandness of time outside our personal timeline.
Works Don’t Speak, Words Do
These things only have meaning if it is clear that these are the acts of God through us, and that Jesus does these to draw people to himself, the mediator, the savior, the perfect atonement. The words of life are not in kind acts, they are in words that Jesus came to save sinners and that only through Him do we have access to God. Because justice is not complete in this life, it is completed with or without Jesus in the future. Kindness is a proof of the words, not the other way around.
Justice is coming, we all know it in our heart of hearts, it is no secret. Outside of Jesus the Messiah, there is only the hopeless unpredictability of nature ending in eternal death. Living in Christ Jesus, there is only the eternal justice, love, and mercy that starts in the wellspring of the Nature of Joy.
Resources and Notes
All scripture in this article is from the WORLD ENGLISH BIBLE (WEB). The World English Bible (WEB) is a Public Domain (no copyright) Modern English translation of the Holy Bible. The World English Bible is based on the American Standard Version of the Holy Bible first published in 1901, the Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensa Old Testament, and the Greek Majority Text New Testament.
For more related to this blog, check out my post on Practical Life Strategy Steps Created in Root Cause Abundance.
This is a reliable translation, but it is always good to read other translations as well. Biblegateway.com has a multitude of translations to read from. It is a great resource.
Another great resource is Biblehub.com. There are multiple translations, commentaries, and so much more. Great research can be done on this platform.
One more I use regularly is Gotquestions.org. This is a great site to answer questions and find threads of related questions.
There are many resources. The key is that God wants relationship directly with you, the individual. His primary source for revealing who He is and growing in intimacy is His word, the scriptures. Don’t just read for instruction. Analyze and read for understanding. Explore, ask questions, and be transformed in Jesus every moment you possibly can. There is no dispute this is a key desire of God. People are brough to the Father, in the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. This… This is the Nature of Joy.
Jeremy is an author, musician, and business intelligence manager. His mission is to equip and encourage those in Christ, to equip and encourage others in Christ. Jesus, Christ, is the Nature of Joy and melody of the heart. Jeremy unites business analytics (business intelligence), songs, and Scripture for Christian living in the power of the Holy Spirit.