When “Justice” Becomes Our God (Olivia)

Psalm 16:4 – The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied; I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood, nor will I take their names upon my lips.

I have witnessed so many examples of when the pursuit of justice morphs from a righteous act into nothing less than a modern golden calf.  One of two people fall into this deception.  Person A is just a regular Joe that learned, in Sunday School, that he should strive to be more like Jesus.  He reads that Jesus was a doer of acts of justice, so, thinking that he is able to become like Jesus with his own, carnal strength, he tries to act justly without the direction of the Father. The ironic thing about person A is that he fails to realize that the only thing Jesus ever did was listen to the Father’s direction – fail.  Person B, on the other hand, is under the false notion that acting in justice is some sort of chore that will get him into heaven.

I am going to address them both in the form of a letter to each:

Dear Person A,
There is something you need to know, and if I were to never tell you, I would be doing you a huge disservice, so here goes: justice is the Lord’s. You went to Sunday School, so you should know by now that He’s got the whole freakin world in His hands (check out Ps. 24:1).  Not surprisingly, that includes those that are in need of justice.  Is 30:18 says that “the LORD is a God of justice.”  Trying to take over God’s job is like saying that you are the creator of the universe. See my point? Because, if not, then you’ve got bigger issues to settle first before reading on.
What I am trying to get at is this: when man was created, he was just that, the creation, not the creator. Man began inferior to God because that is the definition of the relationship between a creator and his creation.  Then, when man fell, he really, actually fell.  What I mean is that he got even lower than he was before, just like falling as a result of gravity. Because of this, our human nature and God don’t really get along very well. Romans 8: 7-8 says it best when it says that “the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God”.
When we try to bring about justice using our carnal strength, we are competing with God, and, let’s face it, that is pointless.  When we commit to doing an act of justice, it should be because He has called us to do so.  If we try to do justly because we believe that we can be like Jesus without the help of Jesus, then we become our own god, and injustice is the only true result.
Love,
Olivia

Dear Person B,
“If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9).  That’s pretty much the extent of my letter. Yep, talk to you later! I’m just kidding.  But really – it is through a legitimate confession of the heart that we enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  Jesus is not looking for people who feel obligated to love Him, and He is especially not looking for people who feel obligated to act lovingly towards Him without any affection at all.  He wants His kingdom to be overflowing with the ones that actually loved Him freely and without obligation.
Here’s a story for you: there once was a Man that devoted His everything to the girl He loved.  She didn’t love Him back, but she really enjoyed the thought of being married to Him – He was rich, handsome, and could give her everything she could ever want, so she pretended to love Him. She did everything she could think of to keep herself busy, but she never thought to spend time really getting to know Him. Who knows, maybe she would have fallen in love with Him.  But the two never got married.  The man was devastated.  How could this one that He invested so much in just walk away from Him?  Well, the man ended up marrying a beautiful young bride that shared a mutual love with Him.  When the woman saw the two together, her heart broke for Him because she saw Him for what he could have been to her.
The Man in this story could not have cared less about all the busy work that His first love did for Him, He just wanted to et to know her. Eventually she would have grown to love Him so much that doing busy work for Him would have become her joy, but she neglected to realize that there was only one thing He required of her. 
This generation has forgotten that there is only one thing required of us to be saved – an honest heart confession.  The rest will come with time, but without the first, we have nothing.  If chores got us into heaven, I think this generation would be pretty screwed.  Thankfully they don’t though.  He just wants relationship then the work will come bubbling forth because our desires will become one with Jesus’ desires.  The more we listen and get to know Him, the more justice we can do and will want to do.
Love,
Olivia