Justice - The Theology We Preach to Ourselves
Friend, it’s ok to be angry, you should be angry. I know you’re tired, I empathize with your weariness. And I resent the numbness that I feel has been forced on many of us, just to get by each day. I feel you. I see you. I love you.
My thoughts & my approach to these familiar news cycles seem to change day-to-day, season-to-season, from one unjust murder of an innocent black man by the hands of law enforcement - to the next. It’s a sin. Not only against George Floyd, but primarily against God who created Floyd in the Image of Himself. Sin against a holy and infinite God deserves an extreme sentence. Sin brings brokenness, disruption to order, chaos. Friend, the world is broken - and angry because it longs and groans to be right, and brought into order.
Therefore, may I offer you this hope: that Jesus of Nazareth (born between 4-6 AD in Bethlehem, Israel) who was God and made Himself to exist in human flesh, came to do exactly what you wish to see. To bring restoration to a broken and chaotic world - through justice.
I know the questions you have. They are valid. They are tough, and yet they deserve an answer.
If God is so loving, than how can He allow evil in this world?
Well, because He loves us so much that He gave us free will. The very nature of choice (free will) requires a multiplicity of choices and actions. The only way God logically (yes, God follows logic, He is the standard of logic) can keep the world from sin and evil is to NOT offer us free will, and to make us robots that follow His every command. That being said, since that is not the case, we are left with humans as the cause of sin and evil, for that is what we have chosen.
Can God eradicate and rid the world of evil?
Yes, and He is. You may have heard of that Jesus guy and how He died on the cross and resurrected 3 days later. The whole sin against God thing - yea that is a pretty big deal. In fact, the best way to put it is that it requires justice. We all should be very familiar with the concept of justice by now; it can be defined as “to make right” or “to judge.” In the case of George Floyd’s death, you likely and rightfully would see the officer’s arrest, conviction, and sentencing as justice being satisfied. In the case of the sinfulness of mankind, which is the source of evil, God gives a sentence of sacrifice (death). We must sacrifice our highest and best possession, our lives. Yet then, God would not enjoy a relationship with His created beings; so He gave us a better Sacrifice, One that is as pure and as “good” as it gets... Himself. He brought justice on sin by sentencing Himself to death - so that we wouldn’t have to be brought to justice for that sin. That’s the Gospel: Jesus (God in the flesh) dying to pay for the sin of sinners like you and me.
So then why is there STILL sin and evil in the world?
Because God’s intention wasn’t to redeem (fix) the earth, His intention was to redeem (fix) mankind. He has brought justice so that we can be made right with Him. That ultimately is made to manifest in heaven, when we leave this life for an eternal life with God Himself. We will have left the brokenness, the evil, and the chaos behind to enjoy the beauty of our purity ahead in a new heaven and new earth that God has promised. There it will be without sin and without evil - and we will be there to enjoy it because of what Jesus has done on the cross... because of justice.
My friend, this isn’t a fairy-tale. This isn’t a myth. This isn’t religion. This isn’t a feel good story that makes me feel better about myself or my life. This is ultimate reality. There is hope to be offered to you and this world that has allowed George Floyd to be murdered the way he was. That hope is actually found in what you’re protesting for... justice. The officers involved in Floyd’s death, deserve justice on this side of heaven - to the fullest extent of the law. Yet, imagine what ultimate justice looks like: Perhaps, a first century Jewish middle-eastern God-man, a cross, an empty tomb, a repentant sinner like myself, and a future where evil truly does not exist.
It seems many of you understand this though. The anger, the protesting, the call for justice, even the optimism in all of it - you are preaching the gospel, I just ask you to consider the piece that can make it all make sense - Jesus.
In your anger you preach - the death of Christ (the wrath of God).
In your protest you preach - the cause of Christ.
In your hope you preach - the cross of Christ.
If you’ll accept these truths, this is your future - the glory of Christ.
John 3:16 For God loved the world (mankind), and because of that love, He gave to us that which was precious to Him. Himself (in human form). So that whoever would believe and follow Him (Jesus), that man/woman would not serve their sentence (the death penalty), but live life to the fullest and for eternity with their Creator and the lover of their soul.