Justice and the Eternal Perspective (1500)

One of the most important things needed when discussing the issue of Justice is the issue of eternal perspective. History is filled with examples of people who have tried to establish justice void of any eternal perspective. The majority of justice movements on the earth today are driven by some way, shape, or form to establish some semblance of an utopia. It is easy to look at Justice through the lens of immediate needs and immediate concerns and get pigeonholed into a sort of myopia. It is the poor now, the environment now, social issues now, the race issue now, and most recently many have tried to address the issue of religion now. It takes no hard work to see that the world is riddled with injustice and that something needs to be done and change needs to happen. Our hope as Christians is to properly address the problem, have an understanding of what God has done and is going to do concerning it, and do all we can to point to it.
Many leaders in the body of Christ have made great compromises especially concerning the person of Christ when dealing with the issues of injustice that plague our world. Often the focus becomes issues aside from the problem being sin. Justice becomes what is done in the immediate as opposed to taking into consideration the eternal reality in which we as humans live in. The issue of eternal judgment is often diverted to the external needs and the problem of sin is replaced by external social reform. Alongside of that, the vision of God’s coming kingdom, which includes his judging of the nations and sin, is exchanged for an urgency for a humanistic attempt for societal harmony. God’s power and wisdom is easily exchanged for the might of man and God often takes a backseat in many dialogues and organizations.
However on the flipside, many in the body of Christ have flat out ignored the issue of justice because of poor misconceptions of eternity. The phrase “The be too heavenly minded, is to be of no earthly good,” came into being because the view of eternity was one of detached escapism in which God was pretty much detached from the affairs of men. True eternal perspective sees God’s heart to do things such as delivering people from captivity, taking the poor out of the ashes and bringing them into his courts, doing away with oppression, causing wars to cease, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, healing the environment, and removing sin and Satan off of the earth. As Christians one of our biggest witnesses is to point to that day by testifying to the Just One in word and deed. Our goal is not to get wrapped up in ideals and in issues but to point to Christ and reveal the justice he brings and call people to receive the liberation he gives.

Advertisement