No Love, No Justice

Last night I started thinking about the legal systems of this world.  It seems to me the blindfold has fallen from the eyes of Justice, and her scales are a false balance.  I have not studied law, nor am I a solicitor or judge.  But I have studied the character of God and the divine law He instituted.  When we examine God through scripture, we see Him as the perfect Lawgiver and Judge of all.  He is the ideal.  He is by nature wholly righteous, just, loving, and good.  And this is where the legal systems of the world have lost the plot:  law today has become the means to an end rather than a means to God's end.  Justice according to God's standard is no longer the point.  Legal wranglings are all about knowing the system, interpreting law according to precedent, and at times even using law to legally do what is by nature unlawful.  Courtrooms have become a place of pride-fueled entanglements with the combatants not wielding swords and nets, but carefully crafted arguments to damage reputations and ensnare people in their own words.  Making other people look bad makes others seem better, and paid experts brandish opposite opinions using the same evidence.  Winning is more important than truth because truth is debatable.

There are many factors that have led to the breaking away of the legal system in America from the love of God and biblical truth to the relativistic slough it has become.  John Jay, the first Supreme Court Justice said, "It appears to me that the gospel not only recognizes the whole moral law, and extends and perfects our knowledge of it, but also enjoins on all mankind the observance of it."  Because God is just, without an intimate knowledge of God how can a man truly understand justice?  Then it struck me:  God's justice and love are inseparable.  He is loving and just, just and loving.  His love does not spring from pity and His justice does not grow out of pride.  Apart from the love of God, there can be no justice.  This was an amazing concept indeed!  Is there any place for the love of God in our courtrooms?  Is there room for mercy, grace, and absolute truth?  Without being born again through the Gospel, a man can only be selfish, proud, and unjust.  He cannot love as God loves or judge with righteous judgment.

From this biblical perspective therefore, the courts of the world who deny the existence of God and the truth of His Word are breeding grounds of injustice.  Jesus railed against such in Luke 11:52:  "Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered."  Are the lawyers or solicitors the problem?  No.  They are not different than any other person who goes through life in an unregenerate state.  The problem Jesus had with the lawyers He rebuked was their hypocrisy.  They made law so convoluted that the common man could not understand it properly.  It was not that the law needed to be so complex, but such a maze had been created that the lawyers hindered people from entering into godly knowledge.  The path of righteousness and justice they were to lead people through became so muddled and confusing they did not even bother to enter it themselves!  Justice could wink at sin if you filled her scales from behind her back.

The trouble is not just in courts, government, schools, or special interest groups:  the trouble resides in every single human heart because of sin.  The Law was a schoolmaster to show us our great sin and lead us by the hand to salvation through Jesus Christ.  He is the Judge of the living and the dead, and God has proved His authority through raising Him from the dead.  In Him love and justice come together in perfect harmony.  Our walk with Christ is not one according to outward conformity, but through inner transformation by the Holy Spirit.  God is righteous and just, and Jesus speaks peace to all who will bow before Him.  Psalm 85:8-13 reads, "I will hear what God the LORD will speak, for He will speak peace to His people and to His saints; but let them not turn back to folly. ⁹ Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land. ¹⁰ Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed. ¹¹ Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. ¹² Yes, the LORD will give what is good; and our land will yield its increase. ¹³ Righteousness will go before Him, and shall make His footsteps our pathway."