Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
“He is faithful and just . . .”
1John 1:9
Earthly justice is good, just as it is good to take care of the environment, get enough exercise, or eat a balanced diet. But good as those things may be, there are matters which carry much more weight with God and matter most to men’s souls.
There is an earthly, social justice, accomplished by earthly means, and there is a spiritual justice that is achieved only by the wisdom and power of the Spirit of God. Jesus did not suffer and die in order to make earthly societies just, but to make individuals pure and good in God’s sight, to justify them and transform them into living testimonies to the righteousness of God. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and JUST to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The social justice that carnal men strive for has some earthly benefits, but that is all. Those benefits can change at any time, and they end with the grave. That is why Jesus, Paul, and other servants of God did not focus on changing societies. God did not send them to do that because it was the eternal part of man that needed to be secured, not the temporal conditions of nations.
This is why Paul commanded slaves to be good slaves, and masters to be good masters. Instead of what is called “social justice”, Paul preached the eternal justice of God, which is this: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor freeman, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ.” This is a kind of equality and justice that carnal men cannot attain to, even if they manage to acknowledge that it exists, because the flesh cannot use God’s weapon to achieve it: the holy Spirit.
In the Spirit of God is where true and lasting justice is found. In the Spirit, earthly conditions, being transitory, become irrelevant. There is no bigotry among those who walk together in Christ because in Christ, none of the earthly differences that give rise to bigotry exist. That is why nobody walking in God’s Spirit becomes entangled in earthly social reform movements or earthly political movements. Such things are worldly and can only affect worldly conditions. They are unworthy of Christ.
The Savior was sent to deliver fallen man from sin and to make him a citizen of an eternal and perfectly just kingdom, not to change the external political and social conditions in which man lives out his vain, sinful life.