As I was reading Mere Christianity for homework today, I stumbled upon this quote:
“Justice, as I have said before, includes the keeping of promises” -C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity; Book III; Chapter 6) *Note: This is not Lewis’ definition of justice, and I have not adopted it as my own. He is just making a point about one of justice’s many facets, and I am expounding on what I think of that point.
Lewis uses it in context to marriage. He makes the point that it is justice for a husband and wife to maintain the vows made to each other on the day of their wedding. So, I came up with two points of what I think about this quote:
Point #1 : If justice is inclusive of the keeping of promises, then what does that look like in regards to the justice of God? (Alright, now is the time in this blog that I am going to whip out my New King James and start spouting off some promises that God has made and intends to, in justice, keep).
“For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 10 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Deut. 5:9-10). We’ve all heard this verse, but I think that sometimes it is hard to think of a declaration coming from God as a promise of God, but that is exactly what this is. God promises that He is a jealous God, and that, He will stretch out His hand of wrath AND His hand of mercy in justice as proof of His faithfulness in keeping this promise.
“‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’” (Matt 22:37). Again, we have to look at this not only as a commission, which it is, but also as a prophesy. It is inevitable, all men will love Jesus in the end, because they will finally see Him for who He really is without the deception of Satan still on them. Jesus intends to keep this promise as a way of showing His justice. The revelation of who He truly is is just and good.
Lastly (and, believe me, I could go on forever, but these were the first three that just popped into my head), “love is as strong as death, Jealousy as cruel as the grave; Its flames areflames of fire, A most vehement flame” (SOS 8:6). This is a huge promise that He has made to us. He promises that love is better and more powerful than the most powerful thing that we can conceive, and that no one escapes His jealousy. The really awesome part about this specific promise is that it never stops being revealed to us; we can never know how strong His love is or how demanding His jealousy is, not even though we are going to ponder it for the rest of eternity. Every time He reveals more to us about the cross, He is proving the keeping of this promise. Everytime He reveals to us that He is more jealous for us than we can ever imagine, He is proving the keeping of this promise.
Alright, take a little eye break and then we can dive right into my second point.
…
Good? Perfect! Let’s move on. It gets better.
Point #2 : Here is the deal – God is coming back to mary His bride (aka. you and me), so it must be in His justice to keep the vows that He will make to us on His wedding day (the “Day of the Gladness of His Heart” SOS 3:11). But if God really does not operate in our timeline, then He must be holding those vows as truth now too. So I looked up wedding vows and this one is the third one that I found:
I take you to be my partner in life and my one true love. I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before. I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together. I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live.
Sounds sappy right? Now imagine Jesus saying that to you. Woah. You are His one true love. All of the sudden, we see eternal partnership with the God-man; more love as the days of eternity increase from the God-man; respect, unity, and faithfulness from the God-man. He never promises us all happy times in this lifetime, but He does promise to always see us through the hard ones. He promises to face our obstacles with us; us working in tandem with Him. He is giving us His helping hand, His unconditionally loving heart, and His perfect love from the day we receive Him until … . And get this: His justice is perfect, which means that the keeping of this vow is perfect and cannot be broken. God has said this to you, and God has said this to me. Dude, I don’t know about you, but I want some of that!
Alright, the end!
Peace.
